Results tagged “hamiltonleithauser”

It’s been several years since the The Walkmen were considered to be just one of dozens of New York City bands riding the wave of interest generated, in part, by The Strokes. The band, led by gruff-voiced, charismatic frontman Hamilton Leithauser, has long-since proven that it’s much more interesting and dynamic than the garden variety garage revivalists they were initially lumped in with. With the reverb cranked to 10, they’ve maintained the same five-man lineup since their inception in 2000, have continually refined their songwriting, and pushed their sound in new directions—most recently with last year’s widely-praised and arguably best Walkmen album to date, You & Me. In addition to their Friday afternoon slot at ACL, they're headlining an official kickoff show on Thursday, October 1st at Emo's with Blitzen Trapper and Wye Oak. We caught up with Leithauser via email earlier this week to discuss the album they’re currently recording, their experiences playing to festival crowds, and in the process learned about the most miserable touring experience the band’s endured, which happened on a Texas highway en route to ACL 2005.

"At the end of touring on a record, you're just so sick of all your songs, and you don't have any prospects for new ones, so it feels like you're in limbo. Even though that's when all your success comes, for us it's like ... old news, and we just wanted to move on and get started on something else..."

New York City indie rockers The Walkmen made it big with 2004's Bows and Arrows, an aggressive, exuberant, and borderline-theatrical production that ended up on tons of year-end "best of" lists. Over the past two years, the guys have gone through some big changes: the Harlem building housing their personal recording studio, dubbed Marcata (where B&A was born), was bought out by Columbia University, in the school's ever-accelerating expansion north of Morningside Heights. After...