For Immediate Release October 8, 2014

ASPHALT ORCHESTRA PLAYS PIXIES: SURFER ROSA, AVANT-GARDE MARCHING BAND’S REIMAGINING OF THE SEMINAL ALT-ROCK , OUT NOVEMBER 18 ON CANTALOUPE MUSIC

New Arrangements That Pixies Liked So Much, They Wanted Asphalt Orchestra to Open for Them

It isn’t an overstatement to say that New York City’s Asphalt Orchestra has pioneered a style of music. In the band, “12 top-notch brass and percussion players” (The New York Times) of rock, jazz, classical and more come together to form a musically omnivorous marching band, performing material written for them by the likes of David Byrne & Annie Clark (St. Vincent) and Yoko Ono and creating unexpected new arrangements of Bjork, Frank Zappa and various others. They take on another groundbreaking band—and manage to make one of the world’s most familiar sound new—with Asphalt Orchestra Plays Pixies: Surfer Rosa, a complete reimagining of the original. Following acclaimed live performances of the material, including two shows where Asphalt Orchestra opened for Pixies themselves, Cantaloupe Music releases the album November 18.

The boisterous Asphalt Orchestra, which The New York Times has called “quirky, funky, inventive and idiomatic,” turns out to be a perfect band to explore the rich melodies and driving rhythms of these classic songs while remaining true to the punkish attitude of the original album. Screaming electric guitars transform into brass exhortations, a chorus of saxophones blares searing lyrics, and a lone piccolo shrieks feedback while a percussion section thrashes and grooves. The opening song, “,” is appropriately rambunctious. The radio hit “Gigantic” gets an off-kilter, otherworldly arrangement.

Asphalt Orchestra debuted their Surfer Rosa at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival in July of 2013. Pixies were so taken with the project that they invited the band to join them on tour for two dates in early 2014, including a performance at the famed Capitol Theater just north of Manhattan. Fans expressed their glee by singing along with Asphalt’s version of “Bone Machine.”

Asphalt Orchestra is an inventive and unconventional New York band that unleashes music from concert halls, rock clubs and jazz basements and takes it to the streets and beyond. Their debut performances stretched 10 packed nights at Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival in New York, over the summers of 2009 and 2010. They have since performed around the world at prestigious venues including New York’s Alice Tully Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, London’s Barbican Centre, and at the TED Women conference in Washington DC.

For more information, please contact Blake Zidell, Ron Gaskill or Matt Gross at Blake Zidell & Associates, 718.643.9052, [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected].

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