When last we officially shilled for Sam Beam and his revolving pack of pals that make up the indie-folk pillow fort Iron and Wine, they were sicking The Shepherd’s Dog on us (TMT Review), a relatively rollicking and oh-so-sweetly fucked-up departure from Beam’s earlier solo bedroom folk. Beam’s trademark mouth-full-of-marshmallows was still on full display, but those ‘mallows were nicely toasted by Brian Deck’s earthy, dense, and impeccable studio productions. Then, after making all of the post-album rounds, a couple of years went by, and we all just kind of assumed that Beam had returned to his day job of Bee Husbandry or Light House Keeping or something. There were a few shows and an old rarities collection, but for the most part, our folk hero was nowhere to be found.
But now, hold everything. Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah, and he looks an awful lot like Sam Beam. That’s right, as Pitchfork reports, he and his cohorts are back with a new album titled Kiss Each Other Clean, which is due in early 2011, presumably for Sub Pop?
Beam is currently in Europe finishing up a few full-band gigs, after which he will return to the US to play a few acoustic shows around the Midwest (where else?). And odds are probably pretty good that he’ll be showing off a few new tunes at these gigs! Finally we can stop wearing out the Nick Drake and suffering through Conor Oberst’s awkward attempt at cool folk. Whew. Thanks, Sam.
Tourdates:
09.10.10 - Mainz, Germany - 3Sat Festival
09.11.10 - Dorset, England - End of the Road Festival
09.12.10 - Leeds, England - Howard Assembly Room
09.14.10 - London, England - Union Chapel
09.15.10 - Düsseldorf, Germany - Zakk
09.16.10 - Zürich, Switzerland - El Lokal
09.17.10 - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg - Kulturfabrik
09.18.10 - Groningen, Netherlands - Take Root Festival
10.12.10 - Iowa City, IA - IMU Main Lounge
10.13.10 - Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater
10.14.10 - Columbus, OH - Ohio State University
• Iron and Wine: http://www.ironandwine.com
• Sub Pop: http://www.subpop.com
