Delicate Steve

Like a hydro-electric Mothra rising from the ashes of an African village burned to the ground by post-rock minotaurs, the music of Delicate Steve will literally make you the happiest person who has never lived. read more…

Like a hydro-electric Mothra rising from the ashes of an African village burned to the ground by post-rock minotaurs, the music of Delicate Steve will literally make you the happiest person who has never lived. Discovered firsthand by Luaka Bop A & R man Wills Glasspiegel in the parking lot of a Newton, N.J., strip mall, Delicate Steve was signed to the label before anyone at Luaka Bop heard even a moment of their music — all he needed to experience was a random conversation about what they hoped to achieve as a musical five-piece.

“They were just sitting around in lawn chairs, dressed like 19th century criminals, casually saying the most remarkable things,” recalls Glasspiegel. “It was wild. It was obtuse. One fellow would say, ‘Oh, I like Led Zeppelin III, but it skews a little dumptruck.’ Then another would say, ‘The problem with those early Prince albums is that he spent too much time shopping.’ I really had no idea what they were talking about, but it all somehow made sense. ‘We’ll be a different kind of group,” they said. ‘We will introduce people to themselves. We’ll inoculate them from discourse.’ I was immediately intrigued. I asked them if they wanted to have dinner, so we walked to a Chinese restaurant that was right up the road. I suggested we all get different dishes and share everything family style. They agreed. But then they ordered five identical entrees! So we sat there and ate a mountain of General Tso’s chicken for three straight hours, talking about music and literature and box kites and dystopias. Twenty-four later, they were signed to Luaka and inside a studio.”

Those studio sessions led to Wondervisions, the indescribable 12-track instrumental debut that reconstructs influences as diverse as Yes, Vampire Weekend, The Fall, Ravi Shankur, 10 cc, The Orbital, Jann Hammer, the first half of OK Computer, the second act of The Wizard of Oz, and the final pages of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom. Originally conceived as a radio-friendly concept album about the early life of D.B. Cooper, de facto Delicate Steve leader Steve Marion decided to tear away the lyrics and move everything in a more experimental direction. “We don’t need the middlebrow to dig our music,” says the soft-spoken Marion. “We write for the fringes — the very, very rich and the very, very poor. That’s the audience we relate to, and that’s who these songs are about.”

Press

“Sun-kissed, acid-drenched, at times dissonant and at times blissfully melodic, Wondervisions brings to mind an even more out there Animal Collective or an instrumental incarnation of MGMT’s Congratulations recorded with the same old gear as Slanted And Enchanted.” — Au Magazine (UK)

Flush with six-string personality, Wondervisions shifts smoothly from Pavement’s psychedelic cowlicks (“Welcome-Begin”) to Dirty Projectors’ zigzagging Afro-riffs (“Butterfly”) to the synth and acoustic slide guitar of heartbreaking march “Don’t Get Stuck (Proud Elephants).” — Spin Magazine

A true child of his labelmeister, David Byrne, “Delicate” Steve Marion translates the felicities of West African guitar pop into an inventive instrumental hodgepodge. Nothing overly heavy or insipid to ponder here, unless you’ve got a problem with unalloyed joy. — Village Voice

News

• Delicate Steve on Noisey Jan 20, 2012

Tour Dates

Date	Venue	Location	With	Tickets
Sat 3/3/2012	Mass MoCa	North Adams, Massachusetts
Thu 3/8/2012	Glasslands Gallery	Brooklyn, New York	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Fri 3/9/2012	Strange Matter	Richmond, Virginia	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Sat 3/10/2012	Savannah Stopover Festival	Savannah, Georgia
Sun 3/11/2012	Bottletree	Birmingham, Alabama	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Mon 3/12/2012	Spanish Moon	Baton Rouge, Louisiana	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Sat 3/17/2012	Mohawk (Inside Stage)	Austin, Texas	Panache SXSW Showcase w/ White Fence, Mikal Cronin, Vockah Redu & more!
Sun 3/18/2012	Rubbergloves	Denton, Texas	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Mon 3/19/2012	Replay Lounge	Lawrence, Kansas	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Thu 3/22/2012	Treefort Festival	Boise, Idaho	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Sat 3/24/2012	Hi-Dive	Denver, Colorado	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Sun 3/25/2012	Slowdown	Omaha, Nebraska	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Mon 3/26/2012	Madplanet	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Tue 3/27/2012	The Center Stage	Muncie, Indiana
Wed 3/28/2012	TBA	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
Thu 3/29/2012	Stage on Herr	Harrisburg, Pennsylvania