Parasol Records Showcase featuring...

• Parasol Records Showcase featuring...
• The Tractor Kings
• Beaujolais
• New Ruins

• Wednesday 12/17/2008 9:00 PM
• 18+
• $0.00 ($7.00 Door)

The Tractor Kings are a rare and intriguing blend of alt-country and neo-psychedelia, mixing influences ranging from Gram Parsons and Bob Dylan to Chris Knox and Galaxie 500. The duo of singer/songwriter/guitarist Jacob Fleischli and drummer Rebecca Rury formed in Champaign-Urbana, IL, in 1999 and released their first album, Sunday Night, on the local imprint Mud Records in 2001.

"I know a bit of French, but not nearly as much as Iíd like. I deeply admire Françoise Hardy, Brian Wilson, and all types of vintage cinema. Finally, I read "The Groucho Letters" at least once a year."

-- J.A. Ziemba (Beaujolais)

Elzie Sexton and J. Caleb Means of New Ruins grew up in rural Southern Illinois, and have been playing music together for more than a decade. After a youth spent playing in punk rock bands, they went their separate ways to attend colleges and universities around the Midwest; J. Caleb north to film school, while Elzie went South to study fine arts. In 2004, they formed New Ruins as a long-distance recording project, trading tracks in the mail. During weekends and breaks from their studies the band recorded and self-released a couple EPs and a full-length "collection", mixed and matched from songs created with plenty of first class postage. In August of 2005, Elzie and J. Caleb moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, to work on the live representation. After a year of playing shows as a duo, the band ran across likeminded souls and have welcomed aboard the rhythm section of bassist Paul Chastain (Velvet Crush, Matthew Sweet, Unbunny) and percussion stylist Roy Ewing (Braid, Very Secretary, Unbunny), the tag-team duo who man the mailorder department at Parasol. SOLD OUT