BAND OF HORSES (US)
Wednesday
In the spring of 2006 we saw Band of Horses at a small record store in the outskirts of Austin during the music event SXSW. When our head of booking came back to Oslo, he was the first European to book the band on this side of the Atlantic – and in that way, the Øya audience was the first in Europe to see Band of Horses live. Since then, the band has contacted us on several occasions, wanting to play the Medieval Park again. Such requests are of course hard to refuse.
Band of Horses has released the two strong albums ‘Everything All the Time’ (2006) and ‘Cease to Begin’ (2007). This year you can acquire their third album, which brims with soft and super-catchy quality rock. Band of Horses was warmly welcomed when they played the Medieval Park a few months after the release of their first album. Pictures from that gig can still be viewed at the band’s MySpace page. Since then, Band of Horses has gained an increasingly larger audience here in Norway, and we’re very happy that they’ve accepted our invitation to return to the Øya Festival. In a few months you can buy their third album, which – like the two previous ones – will be released on SubPop. Material from the new album will probably be presented alongside audience faves like “The Funeral”, “Is There a Ghost”, “Ode to Lrc” and “The Great Salt Lake”.
Band of Horses was formed (under the name Horses) in 2004 by Ben Bridwell and Mat Brooke. The latter quit prior to their first visit to Europe and left it to Bridwell to keep the band going. Today, Brooke heads Grand Archives, while Bridwell has made the name Band of Horses bigger and bigger. The band sticks to their sound, which might be faintly remindful of names like Neil Young, Flaming Lips, My Morning Jacket and Brian Wilson. We know that a lot of people are really looking forward to seeing Band of Horses again, both here at Øya HQ and out among the music-interested audience. This is likely to become one of the biggest festival highlights of the summer.
