HARPER SIMON Releases New LP Division Street

[Gina Schulman]

Harper Simon Releases New LP Division Street

Sophomore Album Out March 26th, 2013

Free Download, "Bonnie Brae" Available TODAY from Harper's Facebook

[cid:image001.jpg at 01CDD39A.46478910]

Los Angeles, CA-December 6th, 2012-- We're excited to announce the return of Harper Simon, who has announced the follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut with new album Division Street, produced by Tom Rothrock (Elliott Smith, Beck) via Tulsi Records / [PIAS] America, out March 26th, 2013.

Harper's self-titled album saw the relative newcomer recording in Nashville with legendary producer Bob Johnston (Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen). The album was a critical success, with Rolling Stone calling it "a gorgeous collection of vintage-sounding country-folk tunes," and American Songwriter called Harper "a real star in the making." In the US, Harper performed on Late Night TV shows such as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel Live. With Division Street, Harper dives into new musical territory accompanied by new stories.

"I see the character in the song 'Division Street' as being at a moment where life can go a couple different ways," says Simon of the title track from the new record. "I think these songs tend to be like a snapshot of a character at a pivotal moment. They could go this way or that way on the metaphorical Division Street: up or down, negative or positive, to the light or to self-destruction.

"Or they're looking back at a moment they didn't recognize as pivotal," he says, "because we rarely do."

Division Street is a departure for Simon: it features a sound that's much more driven by electric guitars than his alt country-flavored debut. "The mission was to make the kind of Rock 'n' Roll record I would want to listen to myself," he says. "Which sounds simple but is, in fact, incredibly difficult."

Simon co-produced Division Street with Tom Rothrock, who produced three albums for Elliott Smith (Either/Or, XO and Figure 8) and Beck's first album Mellow Gold, among others. As the team worked, the album's sound grew rougher around the edges. "I felt challenged and inspired by the idea of making a modern psychedelic folk-rock album, a Tom Rothrock production like XO, but then the Velvet Underground and the Stones kept entering in," says Simon. "Elliott Smith was very influenced by the Beatles but my guitar playing is more influenced by Keith Richards. And I kept wanting to emphasize more lo-fi elements."

Division Street was recorded with a small coterie of guest musicians-including Pete Thomas from Elvis Costello's Attractions on drums, Nikolai Fraiture from the Strokes on bass, vocals by Inara George, Feist's musical director Brian LeBarton playing synths, as well as Nate Walcott from Bright Eyes and Wilco's Mikael Jorgensen. "I'm very lucky," says Simon. "Everybody that we asked to come and guest on the record showed up."

The first taste of the album is available to hear now in the shape of "Bonnie Brae," as a free download and available from Harper Simon's Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Harper-Simon/110852223604> or via Soundcloud HERE<https://soundcloud.com/pias/harper-simon-bonnie-brae/s-uJnb4>.

 See you on Division Street.

For more on Harper Simon, contact:

PRESS HERE
Gina Schulman// gina at pressherepublicity.com<https://mail.pressherepublicity.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=889a255b0cb046acb9a8ecb7eb190ef0&URL=mailto%3aSchulman%2f%2fgina%40pressherepublicity.com>
or
Stephanie Williams//Stephanie at pressherepublicity.com<https://mail.pressherepublicity.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=889a255b0cb046acb9a8ecb7eb190ef0&URL=mailto%3aStephanie%40pressherepublicity.com>
323-556-9752




Gina Schulman
PRESS HERE (Los Angeles)
8105 West Third St., Los Angeles, CA 90048
P: (323) 556-9752
gina at pressherepublicity.com<mailto:gina at pressherepublicity.com>

PRESS HERE (New York)
138 W. 25th St., 9th Floor, New York, NY 10001
P: (212) 246-2640

 www.twitter.com/presshere<http://www.twitter.com/presshere>
Click to view website:
[Description: Description: cid:image001.jpg at 01CD6F46.9F2B47A0]<http://www.presshere.com/>



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.pressherepublicity.com/pipermail/phmr/attachments/20121206/03439d82/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 20151 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://lists.pressherepublicity.com/pipermail/phmr/attachments/20121206/03439d82/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1747 bytes
Desc: image002.jpg
URL: <http://lists.pressherepublicity.com/pipermail/phmr/attachments/20121206/03439d82/attachment-0003.jpg>