I'LL BEAT ON MY DRUM UNTIL I'M DEAD

It's no secret that Beirut's incredible new record The Flying Cup Club has leaked a month early on the Internet (out October 9th on BadaBing Records, but you can download it now via iTunes). I've had it on constant rotation on my iPod since. There's something incredibly familiar about Beirut's music, new and old. His first record Gulag Orkestar sounded like something that would have been played at family get together's by my grandfather, an album deeply rooted in traditional eastern European music, lush with accordions and gypsy-like instrumentation.

The Flying Cup Club although still sounding quite familiar takes its cues from a different time and place. It's grounded in early 1900's Paris, in an interview with Pitchfork, Beirut front man Zach Condon explained that the title of the album is derived from a hot air balloon festival that use to take place in Paris. The album sounds like a mish-mash of french and eastern European cultures, new instruments are introduced into the Beirut sound but Zach's beautiful songwriting stays intact. It freaks me out that he's only 23 and makes me wonder what's to come from him. Highlight tracks: Nantes, A Call To Arms and the perfect marriage of two of my favourite bands occurs on Cliquot, where Owen Pallett (aka Final Fantasy) takes the lead and sings.

Zach and his gang of merry show men/women are taking to the road this month. Tour dates as follows:

9-23 Princeton, NJ - Terrace F Club
09-24 New York, NY - Society for Ethical Culture (Wordless Music Series)
09-26 New York, NY - Delacorte Theater
09-30 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
10-02 Toronto, Ontario - Danforth Music Hall
10-04 Chicago, IL - Portage Theater
10-08 San Francisco, CA - Herbst Theater
10-09 San Francisco, CA - Herbst Theater
10-10 Los Angeles, CA - Avalon

Colleen is the support on all shows.

La Blogotheque has an takeaway show featuring Beirut performing two songs from The Flying Cup Club on the streets of Paris here. It boggles my mind how strong Zach's voice is live.

Read Stereogum's Premature Evaluation of The Flying Cup Club here.


Watch Beirut perform an impromptu cover of Grizzly Bear's Knife on the streets of Paris above (via Pitchfork/Stereogum/La Blogotheque).