Today, Big Thief share two new songs, ‘Little Things’ and ‘Sparrow’.
‘Little Things’ was recorded with Shawn Everett at Five Star Studios in Topanga, CA (October 2020). ‘Sparrow’ was recorded with Sam Evian at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskills (July / August 2020). Both songs were produced by Big Thief’s drummer James Krivchenia. This is the first new material from the band since 2019’s critically-acclaimed Two Hands (with last year’s ‘Love in Mine’ being a Two Hands outtake).
+ Stream ‘Little Things’ / ‘Sparrow’ on all platforms here +
It can be said with confidence that no one has heard Big Thief as they sound on ‘Little Things’. Perhaps one of the band’s most propulsive songs yet, ‘Little Things’ is a story built upon a very literal sense of uncertainty. “It’s in this sort of evolving free time signature where the beat is always changing,” explains Krivchenia, “so Max [Oleartchik, bassist] and I were just flowing with it and guessing where the downbeats were – which gives the groove a really cool light feeling.” The uncertainty of the rhythms lay fertile ground for Adrianne Lenker’s lyrics, as she opines to a nameless lover “maybe I’m a little obsessed / Maybe you do use me” and “One step behind you / Following you down / I was inside of you / Where are you now / Where are you?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF0dXT-v-vY
On ‘Sparrow’, we find Big Thief at their most contemplative, poetic, and metaphorical. A sense of foreboding envelops this song-without-a-chorus (Lenker: “Kept wanting to put in a chorus and the song kept spitting it out.”), which maintains a repetitious, hymnal, almost dirge-like melodic pattern. Lenker’s biblically-tinged story of Paradise lost sprawls while the song’s intensity grows. This recording is the band’s first take of ‘Sparrow’. “We all just scattered about the room without headphones, focused and in the music – you could feel that something special was happening,” explains Krivchenia. “It was a funny instrumentation that had a really cool natural arrangement chemistry – Max on piano, Buck [Meek, guitarist/vocalist] providing this dark ambience, me on floor tom and snare and Adrianne in the middle of it with the acoustic and singing.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBc-yGE7IkU
The band are about to embark on their US tour, including stops at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago and The Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City. They will also return to Europe for live shows in early 2022. Tickets are available, and many of the shows are close to selling out. Purchase tickets here.
September 2021
7th – Headliners Music Hall, Louisville KY, US *
8th – HI-FI, Indianapolis IN, US [SOLD OUT] *
10th – Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago IL, US
11th – The Pageant, St. Louis MO, US *
12th – Liberty Hall, Lawrence KS, US *
14th – Granada Theater, Dallas TX, US ^
15th – ACL Live at the Moody Theater, Austin TX, US ^
17th – White Oak Music Hall Downstairs, Houston TX, US ^
18th – Civic Theatre, New Orleans LA, US ^
20th – Ryman Auditorium, Nashville TN, US *
21st – The Eastern, Atlanta GA, US *
22nd – North Caroline Museum of Art, Raleigh NC, US +
24th – The National, Richmond VA, US #
25th – The Governors Ball Music Festival, Queens NY, US
27th – Asbury Hall, Buffalo NY, US
28th – Higher Ground, South Burlington VT, US [SOLD OUT] #
30th – Pines Theatre, Northampton MA, US [SOLD OUT] %
October
1st – Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, US [SOLD OUT] *
2nd – Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, US [SOLD OUT] *
January 2022
31st – Aeronef, Lille, France
February
1st – La Cigale, Paris, France
4th – Rock School Barbey, Bordeaux, France
5th – Sala Apolo, Barcelona, Spain
7th – Le Transbordeur, Lyon, France
8th – La Laiterie, Strasbourg, France
9th – Kaufleuten, Zurich, Switzerland
10th – Muffathalle, Munich, Germany
12th – MeetFactory, Prague, Czech Republic
13th – Huxleys, Berlin, Germany
15th – VEGA, Copenhagen, Denmark
16th – Fabrik, Hamburg, Germany
18th – Live Music Hall, Cologne, Germany
19th – Cirque Royal, Brussels, Belgium
21st – Ronda, Utrecht, The Netherlands
22nd – De Oosterpoort, Groningen, The Netherlands
24th – Manchester Academy 1, Manchester, UK
25th – Barrowland, Glasgow, UK
26th – National Stadium, Dublin, Ireland
27th – O2 Academy Bristol, Bristol, UK
March
2nd – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, UK
3rd – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, UK
4th – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, UK
June
9th – Primavera Sound 2022, Barcelona, Spain
*with Mind Maintenance
^with Jimmy Stallings
#with Natural Information Society
+with Molly Sarlé
%with Alex G