St. Vincent

Concert information

During the 19th edition of the Route du Rock festival in Saint Malo, France, we crossed paths with Annie Clark aka St Vincent. She had her guitar and was happy to do a little acoustic session with us!

Thank you so much, St Vincent, for playing along and doing 2 tracks "Actor Out Of Work" and "The Strangers". A real chill out relaxing moment to break up the festival madness!

Artist

St. Vincent is the moniker of singer-multi-instrumentalist-composer, Annie Clark. She has had the pleasure of opening for such acclaimed and diverse acts as Television, Jose Gonzalez, and Sufjan Stevens. She is an inventive and versatile guitarist and has also performed with avant-garde composer, Glenn Branca. Annie Clark plays guitar in the Polyphonic Spree and in Sufjan Stevens' touring band, but it's the Dallasite's solo stuff we're speaking of here. St. Vincent writes cinematic pop epics that feel at times like Paris in the '20s before all the fun ended.

Or, conversely, an orchestra of pure modernity, a new American music, informed by jazz, gospel blues, Southern folk music, and classical composition but-in the end-an animal original unto itself.

She's been compared to everyone from Bjork to Kate Bush to Jeff Buckley, and her beautiful voice melds perfectly with her intricate guitar work. This new album features David Bowie's longtime pianist Mike Garson on three songs, and drummer Brian Teasley from Man or Astroman. more>>>

Label

4AD Records

vo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, employees of the Beggars Banquet record store and label, founded Axis Records in late 1979 as a property of Beggars Banquet that was run by the two. After the first four Axis singles in early 1980, the name was changed to 4AD when it became apparent that the name Axis was already being used by another music company. The solution to this problem came from a promotional flyer that they had printed up to call attention to the new releases. The flyer's designer had added some typography which played on both the new year and the idea of progress:
1980 FORWARD
1980 FWD
1984 AD
4AD
Quickly scrambling for a new name, Ivo glanced at the flyer and suggested "4AD." Peter Kent agreed, and, with that split-second decision, 4AD was born.
An initial idea for the label was that it would be a "testing ground" for Beggars Banquet; successful acts would graduate up to Beggars Banquet after a year at 4AD. The only band to follow this path would be Bauhaus, who were signed to Beggars Banquet in late 1980 right before Ivo and Peter purchased the label outright.
The two were the sole owners for about a year. Kent sold his share to Watts-Russell at the end of 1981, and started a new Beggars Banquet subsidiary, Situation Two Records. Watts-Russell would maintain ownership of the label, and act as its president, until the late 1990s.
Watts-Russell invited the graphic designer Vaughan Oliver to create sleeve art for the label, and as a result, 4AD quickly acquired a visually distinctive identity. Its artists, like Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance, developed substantial cult followings in the mid-1980s, but 4AD continued to evolve, and, after signing Throwing Muses and Pixies, the label increasingly concentrated on underground American rock music. In 1983, 4AD had a minor hit in America with the Modern English single "I Melt With You". In 1987, 4AD had a UK number one hit with the collaged "Pump up the Volume" by M|A|R|R|S.
In the 1990s, 4AD established an office in Los Angeles and enjoyed success with bands such as The Breeders, Red House Painters, Unrest, and His Name Is Alive. In 1999, Watts-Russell sold his share in 4AD back to the Beggars Group (as it had by then become), but the label continued to release music and add new artists to its roster.
Although fans will greatly debate the exact year the "classic 4AD" period ends, a popular theory places the end with the release of the final Cocteau Twins 4AD album in 1990. Still, 1991 saw the final Throwing Muses album with Tanya Donelly (The Real Ramona, CAD 1002), the final This Mortal Coil album (Blood, DAD 1005), His Name Is Alive's Home Is in Your Head (CAD 1013), and the Pixies' Trompe le Monde (CAD 1014), all of which are generally considered to be "classic 4AD."
Even in 1992, new signings like Belly and Red House Painters produced records which are also considered amongst the classic era of 4AD. However, the label's deal with Warner Bros. Records in the United States in 1992 would start the beginning of a truly new phase in 4AD history. By 1995, whatever remnants of the "classic era" that were left were dying out, as evidenced by the final 4AD release for Red House Painters (Ocean Beach, CAD 5005), and the last albums and break-ups of Belly and The Wolfgang Press. New signings that year included American underground acts Kendra Smith, Tarnation, Air Miami and The Amps.
In 2008, the Beggars Group recognised that 4AD was its most prestigious and successful label, and re-aligned itself so that several labels (including Beggars Banquet itself) were folded up on to the 4AD label. Bands like Stereolab and The National were signed to 4AD as a part of this merger.

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Venue

Route du Rock

Un des rendez-vous indie-rock de l'été. La Route du Rock est un festival organisé depuis 1991. Il se déroule en Bretagne au Fort Saint-Père à Chateauneuf d'Ile-en-Vilaine ainsi que sur la plage du Sillon et au Palais du Grand Large à Saint-Malo, durant la semaine du 15 août. à€ partir de 2006, La Route du Rock connaît deux éditions par an avec une Collection d'Hiver en février et une Collection d'été en août.

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Promoter