WATCH:
MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS
PERFORMANCE AND INTERVIEW UP NOW ON
YAHOO
NEW ALBUM
'EXISTENTIAL BEAST'
OUT FRIDAY, JUNE 16 VIA INVISIBLE HANDS MUSIC
(HERE)
Miranda Lee Richards, photo credit: Graham John Bell
"San Francisco native Richards is renowned for the uncanny authenticity of her throwback sound. But on Existential Beast, her fourth LP, this second-gen bohemian ingeniously employs recreations of baroque folk and psychedelia to bring context to the songs that intimate striking parallels between the political upheavals of 1968 and 2017. The intricate 'Golden Gate', with its radical tonal and tempo shifts, comes off like Love's Forever Changes with Judy Collins signing lead, while the blistering 'On The Outside Of Heaven' charges along like a modern-day 'All Along The Watchtower'. 'Another World' a lavishly orchestrated 12-minute outpouring contrasting the American dream with post-election reality, provides a mind-bending climax."
--Bud Scoppa, UNCUT (8/10 album review, August 2017)
As she gears up for the release of her fourth studio album EXISTENTIAL BEAST out this Friday, June 16 via Invisible Hands Music, singer-songwriter-musician MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS stopped by YAHOO studios in Playa Vista, CA for a special acoustic performance and interview. Watch as MIRANDA performs three songs off her new album including "Ashes And Seeds," "Lucid I Would Dream," and "On The Outside of Heaven" followed by an intimate interview about her history and the making of the new album with YAHOO Music Editor Lyndsey Parker (HERE).
"Ashes And Seeds"
"Lucid I Would Dream"
"On The Outside Of Heaven"
Beautifully constructed with her signature 1970's-influenced, country-tinged psychedelia, EXISTENTIAL BEAST was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Rick Parker (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Dandy Warhols). Listen and share MIRANDA'sfirst single "Lucid I Would Dream" on YAHOO (HERE) and YouTube (HERE).
The new album follows a busy year for MIRANDA which included the release Echoes of the Dreamtime (LP, 2016), U.S. and European tours and creating songs for the new Vicelandseries "Jungletown." EXISTENTIAL BEAST is a political album, examining the current issues of our time, with the intent of tackling tough and taboo subjects in a poetic and heartfelt manner. The title is also a mash-up of terms, referencing the existential crisis that has risen. MIRANDA says of EXISTENTIAL BEAST, "We are working within those animal urges of fear, competition, survival and sexuality which are deep-seeded and manifesting in varying ways. Like it or not, these tendencies have been revealed, within our leaders, our countries and ourselves; it is indeed a pivotal and transformational moment in time and there is much work to be done."
Early critical reviews are pouring in for EXISTENTIAL BEAST:
"Country music heard through psychedelic headphones..."
--Danny McCloskey, THE ALTERNATE ROOT (3/31/17)
"On her fourth album, Existential Beast, Richards enchants with a distinctive blend ofspacey, harmony-laden pop ('Back to the Source') and
intimate folk balladry ('Autumn Sun'). But she also trips out amid the swirling psychedelic guitars and jazzy dynamic shifts of the hard-rocking epic 'Golden Gate.'"
--James Moreland, LA WEEKLY (5/23/17)
"Take one listen to chamber-folk singer-songwriter Miranda Lee Richards's wistful, winsome fourth solo album, Existential Beast, and some of her influences are evident: classic English folk troubadours like Nike Drake, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, andprotest singerShirley Collins; cosmicpsych collective the Brian Jonestown Massacre, with whom Richards has performed off and on since the late '90s; Buffalo Springfield and other '60s California country-rockers; and dreamy alterna-poppers Mazzy Star."
--Lyndsey Parker, YAHOO! (6/13/17)
"Richards brings her substantive, poetic lyrics together with a psychedelic, folk-tinged country sound (reminiscent of Los Angeles-based, early 1970s band Spirit) to deliver a powerful look at today's post-election political climate....think of Richards' latest as a fairy tale for adults. 'Ashes And Seeds' serves as a thoughtful reminder that history is constantly repeating and that conflict is essential to positive change. The smooth sounds of pedal steel highlight Richards' laid back, fluid vocals 'Lucid I Would Dream' evokes the dream-like state with the effective use of strings and Mellotron while lyrically imagining that with clarity, fears would diminish. Existential Beast closes, as it begins, with hope in the ethereal, string-laden and aptly- titled 'Another World'. It is epic in length (over 12 minutes) and in breadth with its uplifting call to contribute to solutions. There is much to discover in the beauty of the vocals, the poetry in the lyrics and the uniqueness of the production found in Existential Beast."
--Harriet Watkins, THE DAILY COUNTRY (5/1/17)
"Musically the album draws from several '70s sources--Laurel Canyon country-rock royalty ('Ashes And Seeds'), Joe Boyd's Witchseason productions for Island Records ('Autumn Sun', 'Oh Raven'), through to the spoken word sections of David Axelrod's Earth Rot (the end section of 'Lucid I Dream'). Subtle use of echo throughout the album adds to the continuity of sound and aids its woozy intoxicating power. The album'stour de force is saved till the end. Clocking in at 12 minutes, 'Another World' is the most overtly political song, calling out those in power and offering a vision of how things could be. Clever stuff."
--Duncan Fletcher, SHINDIG! MAGAZINE
(four-out-of-four star album review, U.K., MAY 2017)
Born in San Francisco after the summer of love and before the dawn of disco, MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS grew up in an artistic and bohemian environment that has informed her adult life and work. After graduating from San Francisco School Of The Arts, she began to pursue a musical career. She met Kirk Hammett from Metallica who taught her to playMazzy Star songs on guitar. Her early demos reached Anton Newcombe and she joined his band, the Brian Jonestown Massacre. MIRANDA then signed to Virgin Recordsand released her debut album The Herethereafter, a mix of folk, psychedelia, countryand indie pop and found fans worldwide. The critically acclaimed follow-up album Light Of X--the title of which comes from a dream about harnessing beams of light to travel in time--followed in 2009 via Nettwerk Records. In 2016, MIRANDA unveiled Echoes Of The Dreamtime on Invisible Hands Music, which received rave reviews across in the U.K. and U.S., as well as national airplay with MOJO giving the album 4 stars and hailing the first single, "The sublime 'First Light Of Winter' is the moment it all comes together, Richards transcending her influences and, no longer constrained, arriving at psychedelia's higher plane" (1/2016).EXISTENTIAL BEAST is yet another confident and inspiring piece of work from MIRANDA.
Look for MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS--known for her enchanting live shows--to perform the new album in venues across the U.S. and U.K. throughout the year (current tour dates listed below).
| DATE | CITY | VENUE | |
| 6/17 | Bergen, Norway | BergenFest (w/Ellie Goulding) | |
| 6/23 | London, U.K. | Thousand Island (acoustic trio) | |
| 6/25 | Northampton, U.K. | The Lamplighter (acoustic trio) | |
| 6/28 | Birmingham, U.K. | Ort Café (acoustic trio) | |
| 6/30 | Sheffield, U.K. | Regather (acoustic trio) | |
| 7/15 | San Francisco, CA | Brick & Mortar (Full band) | |
| 7/16 | Sacramento, CA | Blue Lamp (Full band) | |
| 7/18 | Seattle, WA | Sunset Tavern (Full band) | |
| 7/19 | Portland, OR | Doug Fir (Full band) | |
| 7/23 | Santa Cruz, CA | The Crepe Place (Full band) | |
| 8/19 | Brecon, U.K. | Green Man Festival (Full band w/Gospelbeach) | |
| 8/21 | Brighton, U.K. | Prince Albert (Full band w/Gospelbeach) | |
| 8/23 | London, U.K. | Moth Club (Full band w/Gospelbeach) | |
| 8/25 | Glasgow, U.K. | Mono (Full band w/Gospelbeach) | |
| 8/26 | York, U.K. | The Crescent (Full band w/Gospelbeach) | |
| 8/27 | Manchester, U.K. | The Castle (Full band w/Gospelbeach) | |
| 8/29 | Oslo, Norway | Café Mono (Full band w/Gospelbeach) | |
| 8/31 | Malmö, Sweden | Folk A Rock (Full band w/Gospelbeach) | |
| 9/1 | Göteborg, Sweden | Pustervik (Full band w/Gospelbeach) | |
| 9/2 | Stockholm, Sweden | Sthlm Americana at Mosebacke & Södra Teatern | |
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