Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

THE NATIONAL with YO LA TENGO & WYE OAK to play the Academy of Music Two Nights, September 7-8

JUNE 10, 2011

Tickets on Sale Today @ 10am!


Presented in Association with Larry Magid Entertainment


The Brooklyn-based indie supergroup The National with Yo La Tengo and Wye Oak will perform in Philadelphia at the Academy of Music, Wed.-Thurs. September 7 -8, 2011.   The National has released some of the most critically-lauded albums of the past decade – from their eponymous 2001 debut to their fifth album, High Violet, which cracked the top five in both America and the U.K., adding to the band’s already considerable fan base. Hoboken natives Yo La Tengo and Baltimore-based duo Wye Oak perform indie rock as openers to the show.


Tickets go on sale today at 10am at $39.50 and will be available at KimmelCenter.org, 215-893-1999, and the Kimmel Center Box Office located at Broad & Spruce streets and open daily from 10am – 6pm.


Formed during the post-punk revival of the late 1990s, The National takes its inspiration from country-rock, Americana, indie rock and Britpop.  In 2007 they opened for Arcade Fire and made a guest appearance on the Late Show with David letterman. The Barack Obama campaign turned their song “Fake Empire” into an unstated anthem for his presidential run, using it in the soundtrack to the promotional video Signs Of Hope And Change, and as background music during his victory rally in Chicago’s Grant Park. 


“We always agonize over what we’re doing,” says Aaron trying to summarize his thoughts about this music. “It’s not hi-fi and orchestral but at the same time it’s not garage rock, even though ideas from both of those worlds are important elements of what we do. Somehow we create our own little world, and it works, even though sometimes it shouldn’t. The process can be difficult, but eventually something beautiful and cohesive will emerge. Making something heartfelt is our only concern.”


Yo La Tengo was formed in 1984 and in 1993 moved to label Matador. The group has performed a three-night stint as the backing band for Ray Davies on his 2000 US tour, and in 2002 released a soundtrack to the undersea documentaries of Jean Painleve. Matador released a compilation album named Popular Songs, and says that Yo La Tengo, “understand that the dichotomy has never been love & hate—this life is about love & fear. And fear makes you run and hide, sit on your ass, do nothing but be consumed by it. To restate the obvious, Yo La Tengo are not afraid. They walk bravely forward, into the unknown, hand in hand.”


Wye Oak, the Baltimore-based indie rock duo comprised of Jenn Wasner (guitar, vocals) and Andy Stack (drums, vocals), took their name from a symbolic 460-year-old tree in their home state of Maryland. In 2006 they recorded their first album gypsy style, bouncing around various basements and apartments and eventually landed a record deal with indie label Merge. After two albums with Merge they self-produced their own album Civilian and began producing the finest work of their career and have firmly placed themselves near the top of the indie rock pile.

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Kimmel Center, Inc., a charitable, not-for-profit organization, owns, manages, supports and maintains The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater, Innovation Studio and the Merck Arts Education Center.  Kimmel Center, Inc. also manages the Academy of Music, owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and the University of the Arts’ Merriam Theater. Our mission is to operate a world-class performing arts center that engages and serves a broad audience from throughout the Greater Philadelphia region.

 

The 2011/2012 season is sponsored by Citi. For additional information, visit kimmelcenter.org.

 

 

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