HOWE GELB

Legendary Giant Sand founder Howe Gelb - whose newest band incarnation has got so large that he's named it Giant Giant Sand - is coming to Village Underground.

In our intimate confines he'll be delivering a stripped down solo performance of his new album, Tuscon. Howe assembled a ten strong group of collaborators (or cast if you will) for the album which is due to be released on June 11th, 2012 on Fire Records.

The idea was to make a country rock opera, a vision that has followed Howe for decades. Taking place in the town of Tucson, the story revolves around a "semi grizzled man with overt boyish naïveté" who sets off to escape the trappings of hometown life and embarks on a life-changing road trip; eschewing all his worldly goods and leaving behind his girlfriend, encountering jail at the Mexican border, finding new love at a train station saloon, all while 'the end of the world' provides the landscape game changer.

The album is a dusty work of art, conjuring images of the all knowing desert and a confused river inside the cacti-strewn sound scape.

And Gelb is coming to London to tell his Tuscon tale man-to-man.

Be one of the first to hear Tuscon before it goes Giant Giant.

Howe will be supported by the excellent Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards, whose solo project following Absentee quickly grew into him "fooling some of London's most talented players to join".

And the support line-up is completed with Ned Collette whose forthcoming album is a mix of experimental pop songwriting, musique concrete and dark folky soundscapes. His current solo shows are performed with voice, nylon string guitar and samples. Howe Gelb