Private Eleanor blog

We had a nice couple of shows this past weekend. Thanks to those who made it out. In Baltimore we opened for Au Revoir Simone and Oh No! Oh My!, both of whom were quite good. It happened to be Drew's final show with us, after 3 and a half years in the band. (I didn't say anything about that onstage, because I'm sure he would have turned bright red for the rest of the set had I pointed it out. But now you know.) It was a fine send-off, I think. We sounded pretty good.

Then we headed up to Brooklyn, as a keyboard-less quartet, for our first New York show in a long while. We played a quieter, stripped-down set at Pete's, and it felt great. The other bands (Boy Genius and Breakup Breakdown) were great too, and incredibly nice as well. Meeting cool people when we go out of town always reminds me why we do this in the first place... and sometimes I really need the reminder.

We scored some good record purchases up in New York too. Tommy was beside himself over a hard-to-find Dntel record he found, while Marian's eagle eye netted us some fine CDs by Tiny Vipers and Josh Ritter from an otherwise-crap-filled dollar-bin.   

Baltimoreans, don't forget Hampdenfest on Saturday! Get there early for us! 

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Sunday's show at Galaxy Hut comes recommended by both the Washington Post's "Nightlife Agenda" and dcist.com's "Weekend Picks"...

The Post calls us "twee" and says "you can picture them all wearing very nice, retro sweaters." (Ha!)

dcist says we mix "the sounds of pretty mid-1990s slowcore like Red House Painters or Bedhead with an occasional hint of twang -- like if These United States were to sit down after a long night and quietly sing you some lullabies."

We're not really all that quiet live, as my eardrums post-show can always attest... But don't let that stop you. If you're in the DC area, come say hi. (That's this Sunday, 8/26.)

In other news, details for Hampdenfest have been announced, and it seems we are kicking off the whole thing at the ungodly hour of 11am. Yes, it's early, but the earlier you arrive, the more Hampdenfest fun you shall have... And c'mon, admit it, you can't pass up an excuse to start drinking before noon.

We'll be on the "Hampden Idol Stage" at 36th & Roland. The whole day is an embarrassment of local-music riches, so don't miss it.

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First of all, thanks to everyone in Baltimore who came out to see us last Saturday! The Metro is a great space, huh?

Unfortunately, we were not able to play the NYC show we had scheduled for the following night, due to some major vehicle issues on the way up on Sunday... (I'm just glad we broke down while still in Maryland instead of on the NJ turnpike somewhere!) Sorry to any New Yorkers who were planning to come see us that night! We're working on another NYC show in September and maybe another later on in the fall as well. Check privateeleanor.com for the updates.

As for Baltimore: We just added a last-minute show next Friday the 27th, at Theatre Project. This is a cool one-off gig at a really nice theater where you'll probably never get the chance to see us again... And our friends the Payola Reserve are sharing the bill with us!

We've also added a couple more local shows for the fall, including an opening slot for Au Revoir Simone and Oh No! Oh My! at Ottobar, and a slot at Hampdenfest. Check the Schedule. 

Oh, and lastly, we're on the CD sampler that comes with subscribers' copies of the new Magnet magazine (the one with Spoon on the cover!).  It's a song that you can readily download from our website, so there's no real need for you to track one down just for us, but still... pretty cool.

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Just wanted to share a photo from our recent Black Cat show. Thanks to Matt for taking it! (And thanks to all of you who came out to the show!)

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Happy June, everyone. Summer arrived quickly here in Maryland... For those of us who live without central air-conditioning, this is not entirely a good thing, but we're excited anyway. And what better way to kick off the season than with our first show at one of our very favorite clubs, the Black Cat in DC? We couldn't be happier about finally playing the Cat, especially when it's with our friends Kitty Hawk, and Lovehandles. If you're in the area, please come out and support us! The show is this Wednesday (the 6th) at 9pm.

After this show, we'll be taking a little vacation before getting back into playing shows again in July. I know our shows have been pretty few and far between for about a year now. But we're finally going to fix that starting in July and August, even getting back on the road a little bit. If there's anywhere you think we should play, please tell us!

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Friday May 18th at 10pm! The Golden West is at 1105 W 36th St in Hampden. Monarch and Small Sur are two of our favorite bands. Monarch will have their lovely new album to sell, and Small Sur will be doing lots of new songs in a stripped-down duo format... And we'll play too. Our last full-band show until July! 

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A few photos from the Walters Art Museum show last weekend. If you have more, let us know!

1. interior shot of the auditorium at sound check. (yes, more people showed up later.)
2. close-up of the films projected behind us.
3. full-band shot from the balcony.

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Thank you to everyone who came out last weekend for our show at the Walters! We had a great time. What a beautiful space... Getting to play on that stage, and seeing so many of those seats full, was quite an experience. Thank you! (And thanks to Mike from The Beechfields for making us sound good.)

We got a few good pictures that I will try to post here soon. If any of you in the audience took photos that you'd be willing to share, email them to privateeleanor at gmail dot com.

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Tomorrow (Friday April 13) will be our first Baltimore show since last year... We've been so focused for the past 6 to 8 months on getting our new record made and released that we've been hardly playing any shows. Honestly, it's been kind of nice to get a break from worrying about the live-performance aspect of being in a band, but it's exciting to get back into it too. We had a fun warmup show in DC last weekend -- a little shaky on a few of the songs we hadn't done in a while, but we got the hang of it.

We're particularly excited for tomorrow because this is such an amazing venue: The Graham Auditorium at the Walters Art Museum. Possibly the most beautiful room we've ever played in! We're going to be projecting film behind us on their giant screen as well. The best part is that it's a totally free show. Please come out and welcome us back!

The show is at 6:30 and will be over before 8 -- so you'll have plenty of time (and cash) left for your Friday night plans. Here's a handy page with directions and parking info. 

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