OVERCOATS ANNOUNCE NORTH AMERICAN FALL TOUR VOTED NPR FAVORITE NEW ARTISTS OF 2017
DEBUT RECORD YOUNG OUT NOW ON ARTS AND CRAFTS
“The chills they give me; the fact that I can’t look away when they perform; their complex and irresistible harmonies; the vulnerability to their words and the dance-y beats they put behind them.” – Bob Boilen
Since the release of their groundbreaking record YOUNG, Overcoats have taken 2017 by storm receiving critical acclaim and being hailed as one of the breakthrough acts of the year. The duo came in at number 3 on the NPR Favorite New Artist poll with one listener describing them as “Totally rad ladies with smart lyrics, sweet vocals, and powerful, sometimes-gritty backing music that’s kind of dark but very danceable.” They also stopped by the NPR offices and delivered this breathtaking Tiny Desk performance.
Billboard also included YOUNG in their top albums of the year so far writing “supported by infectious electronic beats that can both amp up intensity and diminish for more tender moments — that help their painfully relatable (though often minimal) lyrics hit home.”
Overcoats is the project of best friends Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell. YOUNGcaptures a sound rich in minimalism and melody: songs of connection and tension, on the depths of love and challenges of family. Overcoats’ music draws strength from vulnerability, finding light through darkness, and the catharsis of simple, honest songwriting.
After selling out venues around the country in the spring, Overcoats are bringing their captivating live show to audiences around North America. Check out the full run of shows below and don’t miss out on seeing what is one of the most exciting and dynamic new bands to emerge this year.
Watch Overcoats Perform On World Cafe
Press Acclaim for YOUNG:
“Overcoats harmonize constantly and consonantly in the style of old-line country brother acts, from the Stanley Brothers to the Everly Brothers.” – New York Times
“…one of the best albums of 2017 …” – NPR
“YOUNG might be one of the coziest albums you’ll hear all year – but it still packs enough oomph to ignite a late-night dance party…” – Entertainment Weekly
“The pair consistently brings together tight vocal harmonies with upbeat electronic tracks for a fresh take on folk…” – NYLON
“…Overcoats transforms these moments of vulnerability into a celebration of finding…strength, bit by bit.” – Noisey
“With electronic production as their backdrop, Overcoats shine with their vocal harmonies and timeless songwriting, creating an intriguing blend of modern and classic styles.” – Pigeons & Planes
Tour Dates
9/8/17 – Camp Lenox, MA @ Welcome Campers
9/9/17 – Elizabethtown, NY @ Otis Mountain Get Down
9/10/17 – Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place*
9/12/17 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison*
9/13/17 – Ann Arbor, MI @ The Blind Pig*
9/14/17 – Cincinnati, OH @ Madison Live*
9/15/17 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Brewery +
9/16/17 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway*
9/17/17 – Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews*
9/19/17 – Kansas City, MO @ The Record Bar*
9/20/17 – Conway, AR @ Hendrix College
9/21/17 – Dallas, TX @ Three Links*
9/22/17 – Austin, TX @ Antone’s*
9/23/17 – Houston, TX @ Secret Group*
9/25/17 – Tallahassee, FL @ Club Downunder*
9/27/17 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl*
9/28/17 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement*
9/29/17 – Asheville, NC @ New Belgium Liquid Center*
10/19/17 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
10/20/17 – Arden, DE @ Arden Gild Hall
10/21/17 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern Cafe and Music Hall
10/22/17 – Charleston, WV @ Mountain Stage at the Culture Center Theater
11/3/17 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
11/10/17 – Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel
11/11/17 – Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter
11/12/17 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
11/14/17 – Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe
11/16/17 – Grinnell, IA @ Grinnell College
11/17/17 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
11/18/17 – Oberlin, OH @ Oberlin College
12/7/17 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
12/8/17 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
12/9/17 – San Francisco CA @ The Independent
* w/ Yoke Lore supporting
+ w/ San Fermin
More on YOUNG….
On their first single “Hold Me Close,” Hana and JJ’s melodies are purity in unison, providing two distinct but entwined perspectives on the complexity of love. In their words, the song is about finding solace in the present when the future and past seem impossible to understand. It’s about loneliness and disillusionment that we can feel in relationships, and how we must persevere anyway in hopes of finding the beauty in love.Elion and Mitchell were drawn to each other when they first met in 2011, finding connection in their diverse love of music and an immediate closeness that verges on sisterhood. Their meeting was transformative emotionally as well as creatively. Both halves of Overcoats describe the first time hearing each other sing as an epiphany: the harmony of their voices leading to personal, individual discovery. This bond forms the foundation of Overcoats, and it fills the ecosystem of YOUNG with its stunning sound and sentiment. Album opener Father unfurls in clouds of three-dimensional sound: a cathedral of echo over waves of delay and the din of incidental noise. There is a rare resonance in Overcoats evident from these opening tones: between their separate (but inseparable) voices, flawlessly intuitive performance, and sublime musical production. Their harmonies slide from brassy to silken with elegant ease, floating over muted rhythms wrapped in lush swells of synthesizers.
YOUNG was written by Overcoats and co-produced by Nicolas Vernhes (Daughter, The War On Drugs, Dirty Projectors, Cass McCombs) and experimental R&B artist Autre Ne Veut, with additional production from Myles Avery and mixing by Ben Baptie (Lapsley, Lianne La Havas, Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson). Their palette is stealth and simple electronics, with traces of folk, pop, and bluegrass embedded within. Like a spectrum from Sylvan Esso to Simon & Garfunkel, Overcoats creates music deeply rooted in emotion, and guided by the search for its innate expression through voice and electronics. Songs that began as bedroom creations flourished into rich but restrained productions, with careful craft illuminating the nuance of Overcoats’ unique songwriting.
On YOUNG, Overcoats creates music of mutual empowerment, at once synthetic andorganic, wistful and uplifting, triumphant and subdued. The Fog is a bay of lonesome, oscillating synth chords: its boundaries defined by the reflection of echoic finger snaps. Elion and Mitchell find clarity through a lovers’haze, their stoic verses liberated by resounding chorus: Freedom is when I’m without you / When the fog lifts I’m the only one I see. Leave The Light On layers looped and transposed vocals over thumping two-step 808 and punctuations of club-ready brass. Showing the true breadth of influence, songs like Little Memory and Smaller Than My Mother are laced with gospel and jazz, strands woven in with Vernhes’ and Autre Ne Veut’s natural touch. YOUNG has a clear, vertical ambience that lets the topical vibration of the music shine through. This is the arrival of a magical collaboration: a rare unification of two hearts under one imagination. Elion and Mitchell are bound by absolute belief in one another, and the confidence that every creation is compelled by shared purpose. Like its arc of transformation, from Father to album closer Mother, Overcoats captures the notion that we are the intersections of our parents’ greatest fantasies and biggest follies. YOUNG is a startlingly wise portrayal of these complexities: of love, on inspiration, and the legacy of family.
Order YOUNG HERE
Young Tracklisting
01 Father
02 Smaller Than My Mother
03 23
04 Leave The Light On
05 Hold Me Close
06 The Fog
07 Walk On
08 Little Memory
09 Siren
10 Nighttime Hunger
11 Kai’s Song
12 Mother
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