WED MAR 21
@ THE SUMMIT
2210 SUMMIT
COLUMBUS, OH

JENNIFER O'CONNOR
Born in a small town in Connecticut, singer/songwriter Jennifer O'Connor (who moved with her family to Florida right before she started high school) was always interested in music. However, she didn't take her first stab at songwriting until 1996, after she had finished college in Atlanta and joined a local band named Violet. The budding musician moved to New York City three years later and decided to pursue a solo career, pitching her weary vocals atop a synthesis of confessional folk-pop and indie rock songcraft. Her self-titled debut was issued in 2002, garnering favorable comparisons to works by Liz Phair and Mazzy Star. Three years later, The Color and the Light was released by the New York-based Red Panda label, and after a move to Matador Records, O'Connor issued Over the Mountain, Across the Valley and Back to the Stars in 2006. She stayed with the label for 2008's Here with Me, which was recorded in 12 days alongside guest players from the Hold Steady and Ben Folds Five. Her new Album "I Want What You Want" will be out March 6, 2011 on Kiam Records.

TIM FOLJAHN
Tim Foljahn is a Midland, Michigan-born singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. After playing in the Kalamazoo hardcore scene in the late 1980’s (in noise bands such as the Spastic Rhythm Tarts with Midland pal, Steve Shelley) he relocated to Hoboken, New Jersey (via stints in Chicago, New Orleans, and Albuquerque) and formed Two Dollar Guitar in 1992. With Shelley on drums and a revolving cast of band and tour mates, including Dave Motamed, Janet Wygal, Tim Prudhomme, Keith Nealy, Luc Suer, Christina Rosenvinge, Jeremy Wilms, Smokey Hormel and Come’s Chris Brokaw, the group released six albums on Shelley’s Smells Like Records label. The debut album, Let Me Bring You Down (1994), a heavy collection of dark brooding ballads, established Foljahn as a twisted classicist in the vein of Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and Lee Hazlewood. This mood was pushed further in 1996’s follow-up release, Burned and Buried, recorded at Easley Studios in Memphis. 1998 brought two experimental studies: the instrumental Train Songs, an improvisational meditation on Americana and travel, and the solo Hotel Opera, an intimate collection of lo-fi bedroom recordings released under the moniker La Lengua Asesina. 1999’s fan favorite, Weak Beats and Lame-ass Rhymes, was a moody pop flirtation, with echoes of Brigitte Fontaine and Areski, Astrud Gilberto, and Buffalo Springfield. The final Two Dollar Guitar album, The Wear and Tear of Fear: A Lover’s Discourse (2006), a solo, mostly acoustic affair, was mixed by Television’s Fred Smith, and marked Foljahn’s return to dark troubadour terrain.
During the Two Dollar Guitar run, Foljahn also collaborated and toured extensively with Jad Phair, Half Japanese and Mosquito; with Cat Power; Thurston Moore (Male Slut); Spanish chanteuse, Christina Rosenvinge; and, most notably, with Townes Van Zandt, abandoning a Geffen Records project upon his death. (Foljahn appears in the 2004 Townes documentary, Be Here To Love Me.) From 2006-2008, he gigged with Pussy Galore’s Bob Bert and Mark C (Live Skull) in the art-psych band Int’l Shades, as well as playing bass and recording in projects with Smells Like Records artist, John Wolfington; Megan Reilly, Jennifer O’Connor, and ex-Int’l Shades band mate, Alexa Wilding (as a producer, Foljahn is currently finishing up Wilding’s full-length debut, Coral Dust). 2011 will see the eventual release of Foljahn’s latest incarnation, a solo effort, Songs for an Age of Extinction, as well as a book of collected lyrics and other writings.

SAINTSENECA
We’re folk band (at least as an idiom) hailing from Columbus, Ohio. Childhood and chance brought us together. We like to perform where it echos and there is a good floor to stomp on. Last, the debut full-length from Saintseneca, is a culmination of their cultivated and tangled garland of friendship and musical ardor. Prepped by lifelong friendships rooted in the same small Appalachian town, two successful EPs and four years of anywhere-and-everywhere-we-can-stomp touring, this record is a long time coming for the Columbus band. The band’s first studio release features subtle and purposeful experimentation, building a fullness of sound previously elusive. It is at times raucous, tender and anthemic. Intricacies aside, Last makes sure to highlight Saintseneca’s singular folk sound of laconic singalongs, speed-strummed mountain dulcimers and tambourine-filled trash cans.

EARLY SHOW
DOORS AT 8
SHOW AT 9.
18+
$8 ($10 for under 21)