Pretty Lights Introduces Full Live Band with New Video, Premiering Today
Fall Tour, Featuring Expanded Pretty Lights Line-Up, Kicks Off October 10
Band Debuted at Pretty Lights’ Sold-Out Two-Night Stand at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Captured in New “Give Your Love Away” Video
Pretty Lights will kick off a North American tour on October 10 in Kansas City, MO ~ and, for the first time ever, the analog electronica producer and electro soul hip-hop pioneer, Derek Vincent Smith, will be bringing a full live band on tour along with him. Joining Smith on the fall tour will be drummer extraordinaire, Adam Deitch (Break Science), keyboardist Brian Coogan (New Orleans All-Star), keyboardist Borahm Lee (Break Science), Scott Flynn (John Brown’s Body) on trombone and Eric Bloom (Lettuce) on trumpet. Deitch and Coogan both played extensively on Pretty Lights’ latest album, A Color Map of the Sun, released in July.
“My dream has come true. I will be hitting the road for my 2013 fall tour with a FULL, AWESOME LIVE BAND! We will be fusing new, hot production with the live band’s gritty old school hip-hop soul break styles in a way that production and a live band have never been heard together before,” said Derek Vincent Smith. “The musicians that have come together for this manifestation of Pretty Lights are brilliant and so insanely talented. My world has grown from computers and live production to a full analog sound sculpting, band dubbing, bass playing, looping, synth and sample playing modular command center. It is so much fun. The Pretty Lights show has evolved, drastically. Red Rocks in August was the first live band show and we’ve been rehearsing ever since. Without a doubt, I am more excited than I have ever been to take the PL show on the road.”
The video for the new song “Give Your Love Away” was filmed during Pretty Lights’ summer 2013 two-night stand at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO. Premiering today HERE, it gives fans a first look at the new touring line-up. Smith used recordings from the rehearsals leading up to Red Rocks to sample and produce the track. The shows marked the fourth consecutive year that Pretty Lights has sold out the legendary venue, which has a capacity of nearly 10,000.
Derek working on his album at Studio G in Brooklyn ~ Photo by Krystle Blackburn
In addition to the fall headline shows, Pretty Lights will also partner with Bassnectar for two special BassLights shows at Klipsch Amphitheater at Bayfront Park in Miami, FL (October 18-19) and perform at Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas (October 26), Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit in Asheville, NC (October 27) and the Hard Day of the Dead Festival in Los Angeles (November 3). See below for itinerary.
Pretty Lights recently made its national television debut on “Conan,” performing “Around the Block” with Talib Kweli. The clip can be viewed here. “Around the Block,” the first single from A Color Map of the Sun, was named one of “10 Songs Public Radio Can’t Stop Playing” by NPR Music and also topped USA Today’s Playlist.
To produce A Color Map of the Sun, Smith spent a year composing and recording music and vocals that emulated genres and time periods that spanned the last century, then pressed it to vinyl (over 50 full LPs). He used that vinyl along with a massive custom built analog modular synth to create A Color Map of the Sun. The second disc of the double-CD set, entitled Live Studio Sessions From A Color Map of the Sun, contains 13 tracks of his favorite recordings, pulled straight off the one of a kind pieces of vinyl.
“Sonically as well as verbally, [the songs] contemplate how the present reconfigures the past,” said The New York Times. Entertainment Weekly called A Color Map of the Sun “…a warm, funky riff on 21st-century cyber-soul” and put it on “The Must List,” VIBE hailed it as “a masterpiece” and Rolling Stone praised it as a “uniquely crafted, groove-centric head trip.”
A Color Map of the Sun was the first Pretty Lights album to be released physically and digitally simultaneously. As always, the album is available in its entirety for download at no cost via prettylightsmusic.com. The new album is also available as a double-disc CD, on vinyl and via iTunes, Beatport, Amazon and all other digital outlets. Since its conception in 2006, Pretty Lights has distributed more than 18 million album downloads at no cost to the fans.
Pretty Lights – Fall 2013 Tour Dates
10/10 – Kansas City, MO @ The Midland by AMC
10/11 – St. Louis, MO @ Chaifetz Arena
10/12 – Nashville, TN @ ILLUMINATION @ Greer Stadium
10/16 – Auburn, AL @ Auburn Covered Arena
10/18 – Miami, FL @ Klipsch Amphitheater at Bayfront Park
BassLights Show – Pretty Lights & Bassnectar
10/19 – Miami, FL @ Klipsch Amphitheater at Bayfront Park
BassLights Show – Pretty Lights & Bassnectar
10/22 – Columbia, SC @ Township Auditorium
10/24 – Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
10/25 – Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
10/26 – Las Vegas, NV @ Life is Beautiful Festival
10/27 – Asheville, NC @ Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit
10/29 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
10/31 – Albany, NY @ Times Union Arena
11/1 – Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center
11/2 – Wallingford, CT @ Oakdale Theatre
11/3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hard Day of the Dead
11/6 – Columbus, OH @ LC Pavilion
11/7 – Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple
11/8 – Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
11/9 – Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
11/13 – Louisville, KY @ Palace Theatre
11/14 – Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom
11/15 – Lincoln, NE @ Pershing Center
11/16 – St. Paul, MN @ Myth
11/17 – Fargo, ND @ Concert Hall at The Venue
11/20 – Missoula, MT @ Adams Center
11/21 – Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory
11/22 – Seattle, WA @ ShoWare Center
11/23 – Portland, OR @ Memorial Coliseum
11/27 – Reno, NV @ Silver State Pavilion
11/29 – San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
11/30 – San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
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