Neko Case and Destroyer

After leaving home age 15, Case became the drummer in a number of America’s Northwest's punk bands including the Del Logs and the Propanes. In 1994 the musician moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to attend the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, whilst continuing to play drums. Having graduated in 1998, Case was forced with a lack of visa to return to the U.S. and contributed lyrics to The New Pornographers debut album “Mass Romantic” – which became a surprise success. Coupled with her work with The New Pornographers, Case has worked with other Canadian acts The Sadies and Carolyn Mark, and has become a prominent female figure in Canadian music.

Neko Case released her country-inspired debut album “The Virginian” in 1997. The album features both original material as well as covers of artists including Ernest Tubb, Loretta Lyn and Queen. The musician’s sophomore album “Furnace Room Lullaby” was issued on Bloodshot Records in 2000 and earned considerable acclaim for its original and dark compositions. Case has subsequently released the EP “Canadian Amp” in 2001, after relocating to Chicago, Illinois, U.S., followed by the 2002 full-length “Blacklisted”. The album earned even stronger reviews than its predecessor and subsequently landed the singer-songwriter an opening slot for Nick Cave.

In between recording and touring with The New Pornographers on an irregular basis, Case released the live album “The Tigers Have Spoken” in 2004, and the full-length “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” in 2006. The latter proved to be Case’s most accessible album to date and peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard 200. After a live album recorded at Austin City Limits entitled “Live from Austin, TX” and contributions to the New Pornographers album “Challengers”, Case returned to the studio at her home in Vermont, and released the album “Middle Cyclone” in March 2009. The album was followed up by “The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You” in 2013, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album in 2014.

Destroyer’s Dan Bejer made his mark upon Vancouver’s music scene in 1996 with Destroyers’ debut album “We’ll Build Them a Golden Bridge”. Comprised of 16 lo-fi recorded songs featuring un-tuned guitars, seductive melodies and handfuls of static, the folk record set the scene for future Destroyer releases and drew vocal comparisons with David Bowie. Having been requested to contribute a song to a local cassette compilation, Bejer produced a possible 20 tracks, 16 of which made it on to the cassette “Ideas for Songs” in 1997.

By this point the singer and musician’s appeal was going from strength to strength and he subsequently headed to the studio for his next release, the minimalist “City of Daughters”. Released in 1998, the record highlights Bejer’s precocious lyrics and pop melodies, and features a rhythm section for the first time. The full-length “Thief” followed in 2000 marking the band’s expansion into a quartet, and first attempt at the climatic and grandiose sound witnessed on later releases. Conceivably the last in the series preceded by “City of Daughters” and “Thief”, Destoyer’s third full-length “Streethawk: A Seduction” arrived in 2001 earning widespread critical acclaim upon release. With dense, largely indecipherable lyrics the album revels in the unknown and paved the way for the 2002 rock album “This Night”.

His most experimental to date, 2004’s “Your Blues” used MIDI instrumentation for almost the entire album, in a sound described as “European Blues”. In January 2005 the group collaborated with touring partners Frog Eyes to release the six-track EP “Notorious Lightning & Other Works”, featuring new and existing songs. A year later the guitar made a prominent return on the 2006 album “Destroyer’s Bubies”, which echoes the climatic nature of the “Streethawk” LP. The full-length “Trouble in Dreams” arrived in March 2008, followed by the EP “Bay of Pigs” in 2009, the LP “Together” in 2010, and “Kaputt” in 2011.