Chelsea Wolfe – Bandwidth

Chelsea Wolfe: Tiny Desk Concert

Lars Gotrich — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 09:00:00 +0000

On last year’s Abyss, Chelsea Wolfe explicitly rendered the metallic tendencies that have always existed just below the surface of her music. Wolfe’s soulful howl found its bite in gigantic riffs and devastating volume that suited some of her most significant songwriting yet. But at the Tiny Desk, Wolfe took her songs back to their primal form with just her voice, a muffled electric guitar and a loop pedal.

Removed from thunderous distortion, the ghostly “Maw” becomes a nightmare in broad daylight, as Wolfe details “shattered teeth under a dripping tongue” just waiting “in this silence while you’re sleeping.” “Crazy Love,” a love song that’s dangerous in its desperation, sounds no less chilling. But it’s “Iron Moon,” inspired by the poetry of a Chinese factory worker who took his own life, that’s the most stripped of its metal. Wolfe’s guitar sounds muddy and dank as she sings, “My heart is an empty tomb / My heart is an empty room,” recalling the lonesome wail of Kitty Wells shot through the darkness.

Abyss is available now. (iTunes) (Amazon)

Set List

“Maw”
“Crazy Love”
“Iron Moon”

Credits

Producers: Bob Boilen, Morgan Walker, Niki Walker; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Videographers: Morgan Walker, Ariel Zambelich; Production Assistant: Rachel Horn; Photo: Ariel Zambelich/NPR.

For more Tiny Desk concerts, subscribe to our podcast.

First Listen: Chelsea Wolfe, ‘Abyss’

Lars Gotrich — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 23:00:00 +0000

A serene figure is suspended in what seems like nothingness, and evaporates into a dream world that creeps far too close to reality. The black space looks worn and decayed, as if clawed by nails. Henrick Uldalen’s oil painting adorns the front cover of Chelsea Wolfe‘s fifth album, Abyss, with a visual all-too apropos for the Los Angeles-based musician who has dealt with sleep paralysis most of her life. “There were times that I would wake up literally thinking someone was in the room, and I’d grab my knife,” Wolfe recently told LA Weekly. “It was dangerous.” On Abyss, Wolfe confronts those nightmares with her heaviest and most personal album yet, fully summoning the metallic spirits that previously lurked deep in her work.

The opening trifecta of “Carrion Flowers,” “Iron Moon” and “Dragged Out” is gorgeously devastating, each a unique, soulful approach to doom metal. “Carrion Flowers” shares a spirit with I Shall Die Here, last year’s collaboration between extreme metal duo The Body and dark-electronics wizard The Haxan Cloak, but turns the damaged beats into heaving industrial R&B. Inspired by the poetry of a Chinese factory worker who took his own life, “Iron Moon” is a deft exercise in loud-soft dynamics, as a swirling guitar drops to a whisper, with Wolfe wailing the hefty chorus like a Gothic diva. And “Dragged Out” lives up to the title — its predilection for sludge slides forebodingly toward the bells that ornament its buzzing chorus.

For metalheads who have been following Wolfe’s teasing approach to the genre, these are welcome peals, especially since Russian Circle’s Mike Sullivan and True Widow‘s D.H. Phillips contribute throughout. Wolfe has always explored other routes to heaviness, and you can hear those approaches in the growth of her longtime collaborators. Ezra Buchla’s viola cuts across the industrial lullaby “Grey Days” with folkloric grace, binding a song that battles against the addictions that can hold one back (“like the morphine / you take it all away / pretend it’s OK”). Ben Chisholm gives the dense production of “After the Fall” an unexpected turn; its keyboards twinkling menacingly, bending notes to breaking points, unsettling throughout (imagine Stereolab as the Twin Peaks house band), and just when we think we’ve returned to the doomy chorus, we briefly, perversely detour into a terrifying techno funhouse. The scrapes and drones of Dylan Fujioka’s cymbals elevate the desperate love song “Survive,” before the kick and tom drums thunder its climax and the world seems to collapse in a “dream of endless landscapes / Morphing, in love.”

Heartbreak and darkness are the threads that run through Wolfe’s diverse-yet-distinctive discography. They’re never far behind her. If anything, Abyss chases them, with a tenderness that understands the beauty to be captured therein.

KEXP Presents: Chelsea Wolfe

Jim Beckmann — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 11:22:23 +0000

With all the sunlight in Los Angeles, it’s easy to overlook the beauty in the darkness there. Yet Chelsea Wolfe doesn’t. The SoCal singer-songwriter has carved a unique place in the musical landscape with her epic “drone-metal-art-folk” style. On her recent third album, Pain Is Beauty, she takes a decidedly more electronic approach to her haunting sound, further highlighting her timeless singing, powerful arrangements and seductively mysterious aesthetic. For her recent acoustic tour, she stripped it all down, focusing on guitar and her ethereal voice, with accompaniment by co-producer and keyboardist Ben Chisholm and violinist Andrea Calderon. The result is more than words can describe. Embrace the dark in this gorgeous, swooning, candlelit KEXP studio session.

Of Note: Channels, Chelsea Wolfe, And Other D.C. Shows To Hit

Ally Schweitzer and Catherine P. Lewis — Thu, 29 May 2014 20:19:41 +0000

Every Thursday, Bandwidth contributors tell you what D.C. shows are worth your time over the next week.

Channels, Soccer Team, Bells≥
Friday, May 30 at Rock & Roll Hotel, $12

Baltimore rock band Channels features J. Robbins (from Jawbox and Burning Airlines) alongside bassist Janet Morgan and drummer Darren Zentek of Kerosene 454. Their recorded output in their 10-year career has been relatively minimal (one album and one EP), and their live shows seem even more rare, so this is an excellent chance to check out these almost-locals. They’ll be joined by D.C. rockers Soccer Team and Brooklyn instrumental band Bells≥. (Catherine P. Lewis)

Foul Swoops, Nic Fits, Anchor 3, and Luke Reddick
Friday, May 30 at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church, $5 to $10

St. Stephen’s doesn’t host benefit shows as often as it used to, but it’s back at it this weekend with an all-local lineup that will benefit UNICEF’s work to help Syrian children. The show features Arlington rockers Foul Swoops, D.C. punkers Nic Fits, D.C. indie-pop band Anchor 3, and Alexandria’s Luke Reddick (of Dudes). (CPL)

Eels and Chelsea Wolfe
Saturday, May 31 at Lincoln Theatre, $35

This is Chelsea Wolfe’s “acoustic with strings” tour leg, which I hope means the gothic-folk/rock artist plans to perform a whole set of gorgeous tunes like this special version of one of her best songs to date, “Flatlands.” Wolfe’s last album, the synth-infused Pain Is Beauty, had plenty of memorable moments (especially the thunderous “We Hit A Wall“), but I always return to the seething, lower-key Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs. Here’s hoping Saturday’s show (with headliner Eels) coaxes out more of that understated beauty. (Ally Schweitzer)

Outputmessage, Paperhaus, and The Effects
Saturday, May 31 at 945 Florida Ave. NW, free

A solid lineup of local performers, free admission, and dogs? I can’t think of many reasons to miss this show, co-presented by DCist.com, which takes place Saturday in the parking lot that formally hosted District Flea. Electronic wizard Outputmessage and indie-rock mainstays Paperhaus top the bill, but new band The Effects is worth an ear, too, featuring members of Medications, Buildings, and Deleted Scenes. The dogs come courtesy of Metro Mutts, which hosts a “Canines and Cocktails” happy hour before the show. (AS)

Priests, The Shondes, and Pinkwash
Monday, June 2 at Black Cat Backstage, $10

Local punk band Priests isn’t one for social media, but it’s all over the press, both locally (on Bandwidth and in the pages of Washington City Paper and the Washington Post) and nationally. The group finally drops its debut EP Tuesday—a step up from its previous cassette releases—but its DIY ethos still rages on. Opening group The Shondes joined this lineup after being booted from the Washington Jewish Music Festival because of their support of Palestine. (CPL)

These and other show listings can be found on ShowListDC.