The evocative and beautifully mournful song, a companion to the recently premiered “When I Write my Master’s Thesis,” is titled “Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San.” It is set in a tuberculosis sanatorium which existed in the small town of Ninette, Manitoba from 1915 to 1973. The lilting and moving lyrics are sung as a letter written by a fictional Icelandic immigrant patient residing in the San, to his brother back home in Riverton, Manitoba, sometime in the 1940s.

To hear the incredible new song “Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San,” go to: www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2012/01/john_k_samson.html

Provincial will be released this January 24th via Epitaph-Anti Records. The record contains newly recorded versions of songs from Samson’s previous two acclaimed EPs, “City Route 85” and “Provincial Road 222,” alongside a collection of beautifully evocative new tracks. They are hymns for the departed and rockers for the living, songs about dying villages, Icelandic longing, snowplows, broken glass, satellites, hockey skates, and staff room romances. In creating these sonic portraits, Samson talked to relatives, friends and strangers. The resulting album contains 12 fierce, tuneful, vivid stories united by a deep sense of place.

John K. Samson & The Provincial Band Tour Dates:

3/7 Kingston, ON at The Grad Club
3/8 Ottawa, ON at Mavericks Bar
3/9 Montreal, QC at La Sala Rossa
3/10 Boston, MA at Brighton Music Hall
3/11 Philadelphia, PA at Union Transfer
3/13 Washington DC at Black Cat
3/15 New York, NY at Bowery Ballroom
3/16 Pittsburgh, PA at Club Cafe
3/17 Buffalo, NY at Mohawk
3/18 Hamilton, ON at The Casbah
3/20 London, ON at The Aeolian Hall
3/21 Guelph, ON at E-Bar
3/22 Toronto, ON at Great Hall
3/27 Winnipeg, MB at West End Cultural Centre
3/28 Regina, SK at The Exchange
3/29 Edmonton, AB at The Royal Alberta Museum Theater
3/31 Vancouver, BC at The Biltmore
4/1  Seattle,WA at Tractor Tavern
4/2 Portland, OR at Doug Fir
4/5 San Diego, CA at The Casbah
4/6 Los Angeles, CA at The Troubadour
4/7 San Francisco, CA at Bottom of the Hill
4/8 Santa Cruz, CA at The Atrium
4/11 Bellingham, WA at The Shakedown
4/13 Calgary, AB at The Palomino
4/14 Saskatoon, SK at Amigos Cantina

Written and recorded last winter in an efficiency apartment in Helsinki, Finland during its short solstice days, Era Extraña was ice sculpted from arpeggiated synth-scapes and scribbled journal entries made during his stint there alone in constant solitude. “It’s the closest you can get to feeling like you’re at the edge of the earth,” he says. “And there were moments where I lost sight of what I was really there to do.”

The sample-happy stylings of his previous efforts have been traded in for acid-stained commodore 64 jams (See ‘Polish Girl, ‘Future Sick’) and bit-pulped guitar sludge ballads (see ‘Hex Girlfriend’, ‘The Blindside Kiss’).  All throughout, the undulating moods of the record are guided by a haunted three-part instrumental titled Heart: Attack, Heart: Decay, and Heart: Release.  Once completed, the layers were then thawed and reassembled by Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, MGMT), who mixed the album and did additional production with Palomo at his upstate Tarbox Studios.  The album sessions there were briefly taken on a scenic detour by a drop-in four-song EP collaboration with The Flaming Lips which was released earlier this year.

The album’s Spanish title plays with the loose-hinges of the word extraña, which not only directly translates into ’strange’, but also means to ‘command the act of longing’. These themes of feeling an eerie absence in new strange times are explored throughout the album as a whole in his teenage ethos peppered lyrical musings in an end-days obsessed climate. Many of this is inspired by an ongoing love affair with the notion of what cyberpunk means in a year like 2011. The feeling can best be described in a recent interview where he noted, “We’re now living in the era mysticized by a lot of future-geared 70s and 80s cinema, but it’s definitely not quite how they imagined it.”

Era Extraña is slated for a September 13th release on Palomo’s own Static Tongues imprint in conjunction with Mom + Pop Music in North America, Transgressive Records in the United Kingdom and Europe, Pop Frenzy/Inertia in Australia and Big Nothing Records in Japan.

NEON INDIAN
9/15 Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church

9/16 Washington DC – Rock n Roll Hotel

9/17 Carrboro, NC – Local 506

9/19 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade

9/20 Birmingham, AL – Bottletree *

9/21 New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks *

9/22 Houston, TX – Fitzgeralds *

9/23 Austin, TX – The Mohawk

9/24 Dallas, TX – Granada Theater

9/26 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress

9/27 San Diego, CA – Belly Up Tavern *

9/30 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour *

10/1 San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop * ^

10/3 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge *

10/4 Vancouver, BC – Venue *

10/5 Seattle, WA – Crocodile Cafe *

10/7 Boise, ID – Reef * ^

10/8 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge * ^

10/10 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater *

10/12 Kansas City, MO – The Record Bar * ^

10/13 Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry * ^

10/14 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall * ^

10/15 Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop * ^

10/16 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick * ^

10/18 Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace * ^

10/19 Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa

10/20 Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall ^

10/21 New York, NY – Webster Hall ^

* = w/ Com Truise

^ = w/ Purity Ring

The song holds extra meaning for the entire band, as the bridge of the song was written with the long-distance assistance of Christopher “Notes” Olsen in California, who passed away in May 2010 and unfortunately was never able to hear the finished song. Bolmer states, “I am thankful to have Notes on this record, and this song is very special to us. This bridge is also the intro we used for our first shows with the new line-up, as well as for the first two tours we did together.”

Also streaming on Chiodos.net is the recently released song, “Those Who Slay Together, Stay Together”. Illuminaudio will be released on October 5th and is now available for pre-order on MerchNow.com.

Chiodos will head out on the “Congregation of the Damned” tour this fall with Atreyu, blessthefall, Architects (UK), and Endless Hallway. On September 18th, Chiodos will head down to Forth Worth, TX to headline Firefest. We Came As Romans, Of Mice & Men, In Fear And Faith, Greeley Estates, Confide, A Bullet For A Pretty Boy, Four Letter Lie, and more will also be performing at the festival.  All upcoming tour dates can be seen below.

Firefest
Sep 18  Fort Worth, TX @ Ridglea Theater

w/Atreyu, blessthefall, Architects (UK), and Endless Hallway
Oct 20  Anaheim, CA @ House Of Blues
Oct 21  San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom
Oct 22  Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
Oct 23  Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory
Oct 25  Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
Oct 26  Spokane, WA @ The Knitting Factory
Oct 27  Calgary, AB, CAN @ MacEwan Hall
Oct 28  Edmonton, AB CAN @ Edmonton Events Centre
Oct 29  Saskatoon, SK, CAN @ The Odeon (Canada)
Oct 30  Winnipeg, MB, CAN @ Garrick Center
Nov 02  Toronto, ONT, CAN @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
Nov 03  Montreal, QC, CAN @ Metropolis
Nov 04  Hartford, CT @ Webster Theatre
Nov 05  Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock
Nov 06  Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
Nov 08  Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
Nov 09  Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Small’s
Nov 10  Baltimore, MD @ Sonar
Nov 12  Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House Of Blues
Nov 13  Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
Nov 14  Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution
Nov 15  Tampa, FL @ The Ritz Ybor
Nov 17  Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
Nov 18  Chicago, IL @ House Of Blues
Nov 19  Minneapolis, MN @ Cabooze
Nov 20  Kansas City, MO @ Beaumont Club
Nov 21  Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre
Nov 23  San Antonio, TX @ Backstage Live
Nov 24  Dallas, TX @ Palladium Ballroom
Nov 26  Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
Nov 27  Los Angeles, CA @ House Of Blues