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Ohbijou, a Toronto based indie soft-pop band, is the newest addition to the line-up of Last Gang Records. To celebrate their new partnership, LGR will release the seven piece orchestra’s sophomore album, BEACONS - available digitally June 2nd and physically June 16th! It is also being released today in the UK/EU on Bella Union, home to Fleet Foxes, Midlake, Andrew Bird, and The Acorn.

The band will be celebrating the release – Beacons – with a very special CD Release Party at The Opera House on June 25! There will be a full Canadian tour this fall.

Ohbijou began with Casey Mecija in her bedroom at her family home in Brantford, Ontario. Enlisting the help of her younger sister, Jenny and friends Heather Kirby and Anissa Hart, Mecija’s tender compositions, bound with youthful frailty and unnerving beauty found their place in Toronto. An encounter with James Bunton and Ryan Carley (members of the Social Arts Club, a music cooperative based out of Guelph), led to further collaboration and Andrew Kinoshita soon added his talents… thus the conception of Ohbijou’s orchestration.

Furnished with mandolin, violin, piano, banjo, cello and an impressive array of other instruments, Ohbijou began to appear on stages around Toronto and in June 2005, they released their Zips and Zings EP – announcing the arrival of a band that would deeply alter the landscape of independent music. In 2006, they would release their first full-length album, Swift Feet for Troubling Times that garnered high praise from critics and led to multiple cross-country tours and sold out performances. The band has shared the stage with artists such as Bright Eyes, Sarah Harmer, Great Lake Swimmers, Joanne Newsom and Final Fantasy, as well summer festivals such as Virgin, Osheaga and Hillside.

In 2008, they were selected to partake in the first ever ‘indie residency’ at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta. There they arranged and recorded some of the songs that appear on the highly anticipated Beacons. Casey pens songs wrought with the romantic afflictions of big city life. She sutures the intimate details of her personal relations to the macrocosmic relations of her city; her lyrics eulogize the streets and neighborhood and are dressed with intricate melodies and vocal harmonies arranged by her band mates. The songs reveal a striking musicality and virtuosity.

Ohbijou will be busy with summer festivals and tour dates in Europe so come out and join the Ohbijou experience at The Opera House on June 25th!

TOUR DATES:
June 25 – The Opera House – Beacons CD Release Party – Toronto, ON
July 25 & 26 – Hillside Festival – Guelph, ON
August 1-3 – Sappyfest – Sackville, NB
August 8 – Wolfe Island Music Festival – 1000 Islands, ON
September 11 – End Of The Road Festival - Larmer Tree Gardens, UK

*Fall tour dates coming soon!

http://www.ohbijou.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ohbijou
http://www.lastgangrecords.com/