The Bundles - The Bundles

The Bundles boasts a line-up of Kimya Dawson, Jeffrey Lewis, Jack Lewis, Anders Griffen and Karl Blau, a formidable group of artists who have achieved great singular success. Their debut album The Bundles [KLP214] is a delightful fusion of everything they have done on their own. Mix the tragic-comic folk narratives of Jeffrey Lewis, with Kimya Dawson’s friendly calls for bravery, with the daffy, multi-instrumentations of Karl Blau, Jack Lewis and Anders Griffen and the result is an album that is able to be both snarky and tender, and vulnerable and confident - all at the same time. The Bundles started as a project of two mutual friends wanting to collaborate. Jeffrey Lewis and Kimya Dawson were fans of each other in the growing anti-folk music scene of New York City in the late 90s, and when her band Moldy Peaches landed on Rough Trade, Jeffrey soon followed. In February of 2001, Dawson visited Jeffrey who was living at the time in Austin, Texas. During this visit they wrote and recorded five songs with Lewis on guitar and Dawson on keyboards. In 2002, Kimya had started her solo career and while touring Germany with the Jeffrey Lewis Band, those same five songs were expanded into full band songs with the addition of Jeffrey's brother/bandmate Jack Lewis on bass and Griffen on drums. Years passed, during which Jeffrey and Jack released five acclaimed records on Rough Trade, and Kimya toured constantly with six solo albums, and received an invitation to the Grammy's for the Juno movie soundtrack. Despite the heavy creative schedules of all involved, The Bundles continued to be resurrected in unlikely times and places wherever in the world the members happened to cross paths. Eventually in 2009 the four congregated to make some full-band Bundles recordings at the Dub Narcotic Studios in Olympia, Washington. With additional contributions from troubadour Karl Blau – who originally only signed on to record them – they honed their old songs and crafted some new ones, too. So on one hand, their debut album took just a few days to write and record, on the other hand it took eight years! One must not wait as long to hear from them again, though, as The Bundles plan on playing shows as early as Spring 2010. "Beyond her vocals - sweet and dry like ginger ale - [Kimya] Dawson's biggest feat is her ability to write effortlessly powerful songs that kill you with kindness." - Bust Magazine / "Jeffrey Lewis is the Big Apple’s best-kept secret. NYC’s never exactly lacked eccentric singer-songwriters, but all, from Lou Reed up to Adam Green, would struggle to out-boho Jeffrey Lewis." - NME Magazine

Track listing : 1. A Common Chorus 2. Pirates Declare War 3. Klutter 4. Shamrock Glamrock 5. Over The Moon 6. Ishalicious 7. In The Beginning 8. Desert Bundles 9. Metal Mouth 10. Be Yourself

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