Chain & The Gang (Ian Svenonius) and Hive Dwellers (Calvin Johnson) Return to NY w/ Mahjongg

Ian Svenonius & Calvin Johnson tour with their respective new bands CHAIN AND THE GANG and THE HIVE DWELLERS. Come see their return performance in Brooklyn Sunday April 26th @ Market Hotel w/ Mahjongg and Noah Britton. Tour includes stints with fellow K recording artists Mahjongg and Wallpaper; Chain and the Gang debut album Down With Liberty … Up With Chains is out now on K Records.

For Svenonius, this is another step in a life spent trying to do as little as possible. He’s been seen on stage as a lecturer promoting his essays in the book The Psychic Soviet, as a singer in the groups Make Up, Weird War, and Nation of Ulysses, and also as interviewer of interesting people on the Vice TV internet chat show “Soft Focus.” Svenonius calls his new band Chain and the Gang. The songs they have created on Down With Liberty … Up With Chains[KLP203] are sing-alongs; a call and response in the tradition of gospel tunes, work favorites and the girl groups andvocal aggregates that once dotted the corners of the Mid-Atlantic United States. Down With Liberty … Up With Chains! was picked as Album of the Month by Vice Magazine for April 2009.

Chain and The Gang is backed up by Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me,City Center), Brett Lyman (Bad Thoughts, His Name is Alive), Brian Weber (Dub Narcotic Sound System) and Sarah Pedal. The Hive Dwellers is Calvin Johnson’s new project (he will play live with the same back-up band); Johnson has been recording new songs and will see a release later in the year, or early next. The live show will showcase their respective iconic idiosyncrasies as completely individual frontmen, whose presence alters the sound of a band.