Photo By Whitney Lee
Mutual Benefit has a show at Brillobox Tuesday, May 6th. Read the the press release below.
Jordan Lee has spent the last few years moving from Ohio to Austin to Boston, and most recently Brooklyn, running the wonderful Kassette Klub label, touring with friends’ groups, and leading an amorphous project called Mutual Benefit, a oneman-band or a sprawling collective, depending on where he is and who is around that day. After self-releasing two limited cassettes and playing scores of house shows, Lee completed his debut album, Love’s Crushing Diamond, a record of lush,watery, pop songs, pieced together over the past several years and inspired by the kinetic energy, goodbyes, and blurred landscapes of life on the road. The songs are heartfelt and powerful with Lee’s fragile and beautiful voice as the centerpiece, and the recordings are an instantly engaging blend of high and low fidelity, mixing lush studio productions, featuring keys, guitar, violin and banjo, with clattering homemade percussion and found sounds. While the album is certainly Lee’s brainchild, the recordings are very much a collaborative effort featuring contributions by friends and others met along the way. Love’s Crushing Diamond was initially going to be a cassette-only self-release. Then some friends offered to start a label and press a limited edition 250 LP run. However, as the the Bandcamp posting of the album received growing recognition, Other Music Recording Co. offered to take the reigns for the proper release this record deserves. Not a moment too soon, as Love’s Crushing Diamond became the first-ever Bandcamp release to be named “Best New Music” by Pitchfork, and Mutual Benefit earned a “Band to Watch” feature on Stereogum. Love’s Crushing Diamond will be available on CD on December 3rd (January 13th in the UK/Europe); and on LP on January 7th. The album is available digitally now. The first pressing of the CD and LP come with a free download code for Mutual Benefit’s “Cowboy’s Prayer” EP.
MUTUAL BENEFIT TOUR DATES:
Sat. April 12 – Purchase, NY @ The Stood at SUNY Purchase
Mon. May 5 – Hamden, CT @ The Outer Space
Tue. May 6 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Brillobox
Thu. May 8 – Nashville, TN @ Exit In
Fri. May 9 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade Music Park (Shaky Knees Festival)
Sat. May 10 – Savannah, GA @ Ampersand
Mon. May 12 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery
Thu. June 19 – Toronto, ON @ NXNE
Fri. July 18-Sun. July 20 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
