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On a cold day last month, Chelsea Wolfe came to Grand Street Bakery to warm up and serenade us with her beautiful, raw voice. She gently plucked her guitar and sang “Boyfriend,” taken from album Unknown Rooms: A Collection Of Acoustic Songs, along with some vocal and violin accompaniment.
L.A.-based singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe has just premiered a new video for “Flatlands,” a popular track from her critically acclaimed acoustic album Unknown Rooms on (Sargent House). Released as a part of the Converse X Decibel Magazine collaboration and directed by Charlene Bagcal, the video is unapologetically melodramatic, in perfect keeping with Wolfe’s goth-tinged, high-priestess-of-bleakville aesthetic. Above, you’ll find some exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from the shoot, which took place on a farm in Northern California—and don’t forget to watch the video, below! (All still Photos by Charlene Bagcal as well) – GO HERE To see more pictures. 
Somewhere in between recording last year’s somber acoustic fever dream Unknown Rooms and her as-yet-untitled foray into electronics scheduled for later this year, Chelsea Wolfe scraped together the Prayer for the Unborn EP for Southern Records’ Latitudes imprint. While nominally a set of Rudimentary Peni covers, the offerings here aren’t so much folksy reworkings of British death rock as they are wholly new creations germinated from RP’s stunted seed.
The songs’ base elements are radically transformed, such that Wolfe’s take on a track like “Echo” is rendered unrecognizable from the original. Its brash, gloomy abrasion gives way to something infinitely more sinister and seductive, something akin to the stark, punk-ravaged Americana of Nick Cave’s early Bad Seeds output. The song’s pendulous, percussion-less rhythm could soundtrack a small-town hanging. Similarly, “Dissolution/Rehearsal for Mortality,” with its hypnotically cycling guitar figure and resolute avoidance of catharsis bears a striking resemblance to the Blixa Bargeld- and Anita Lane-penned “Stranger Than Kindness.” The more clamorous offerings are every bit as satisfying as well, with Wolfe indulging her black metal leanings on the title track and playing more straight-faced goth rock on the “Black on Gold/Sickening for Something” medley.
At barely more than 10 minutes, A Prayer for the Unborn is a brisk but surprisingly meaty set. In that brief expanse of time, Wolfe distills many of the most enticing features of Apokalypsis while sinking her roots still deeper into folk’s blood-drenched soil. The early chatter about the electronic textures of her forthcoming album suggests the possibility that this EP will serve as an epitaph to this phase of Wolfe’s career. If so, there are worse things to have written on your tombstone.
01. A Handful of Dust
02. Echo
03. Black on Gold/Sickening for Something
04. Dissolution/ Rehearsal for Mortality
05. Prayer for the Unborn
Check out the new Chelsea Wolfe video for Flatlands from her album “Unknown Rooms” below, made as part of the Converse / Decibel Magazine series. Also check out the February Issue of Decibel Magazine with Chelsea on the back cover! We want to give a big thanks to Charlene Bagcal for taking the photo above and for directing the video and of course much love to all the crew that worked on it!
Don’t miss Chelsea Wolfe out now on her headline Acoustic tour
See all show details HERE
CHELSEA WOLFE
1/25 Philadelphia, PA – Side Chapel First Unitarian Church ! early SOLD OUT
1/25 Philadelphia, PA – Side Chapel First Unitarian Church ! late SOLD OUT
1/26 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg ! & w/ Starred
1/28 Washington, DC – The Rock & Roll Hotel w/ Starred
1/29 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
1/30 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
1/31 Baton Rouge, LA – Spanish Moon
2/01 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s w/ Sarah Jaffe
2/02 Austin, TX – Central Presbytrian Church
2/03 Dallas, TX – House of Blues – Cambridge Room
2/05 Phoenix, AZ – The Crescent Ballroom w/ Sarah Jaffe
2/06 San Diego, CA – The Loft At UCSD w/ Sarah Jaffe
2/08 – Los Angeles, CA – First Unitarian Church w/ Deradoorian & Sarah Jaffe
! = w/ King Dude
…I’d seen Chelsea Wolfe walking around the club beforehand. She was wearing a black (what I believe to be) monkey fur coat. It was enormous making her hard to miss. She stuck out like some rare bird on exhibit at a millionaire’s party at the beginning of the industrial revolution. When I looked at her, her eyes and head turned down in the fashion of someone who spent a childhood being tormented by far less special creatures.
On stage she arranged some items, most of which were obscured by the greasy black hair of a goth in front of me, but I think I saw the skull of an Ibex. A waifish male uncovered a keyboard from under a heavy black sheet; a miniscule violinist prepared herself. The crowd murmured its drunken excitement.
Before that night I don’t think I ever heard a woman properly sing.
She looked like a witch in a Hammer horror film and sang like an angel. Her voice cut through the air and into the soul of every person there. It was colder than the night and bit twice as hard.
Her manner is effortless, that voice needs no provocation. I find myself wishing Chelsea and I were friends so that when I was feeling the world was just a great big ball of shit I could call her up and have her sing to me and remind me something’s out there are beautiful.
If I had to complain, the set just wasn’t long enough.
When it came out last year, “Flatlands” saw the notoriously macabre Chelsea Wolfe literally bowing down before the altar of less is more, lyrically expressing her desire for the simpler things in life (a stretch of landscape, the feeling of being held tight by another person) against a barren backdrop of acoustic guitar and swollen strings. It was one of the most affecting songs from the LA songwriters’ Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs, and it spoke to her ability to be really creepy with little more than her voice and her words. With his palette of wonky synths and terse rhythmics, Lust For Youth blunts a good deal of that lyrical impact, but Wolfe’s melody reveals itself to be surprisingly dance-floor appropriate. Grab a copy of Unknown Rooms via Sargent House, and check out Lust For Youth’s recent Growing Seeds LP on Sacred Bones.
Stream: Chelsea Wolfe, “Flatlands (Lust For Youth Remix)”
Stream: Chelsea Wolfe, “Flatlands” Original Track
For the fourth night of Tomorrow Never Knows 2013, Schubas hosted an evening of acoustic and jam-rock heaviness with first openers Sabers, followed by King Dude, The Amazing, and headliner Chelsea Wolfe…
…As midnight approached, headliner Chelsea Wolfe and bandmates Ben Chisholm (synth) and Andrea Calderon (violin) launched into their acoustic performance. Wolfe apologized early in her set, saying she was sick and that her voice “has a mind of its own.” Despite her apology and use of a throat spray between songs, Wolfe was spot-on with excellent clarity. The trio performed stripped down versions of tracks from The Grime and The Glow and Apokalypsis, as well as numbers from her latest, Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs. Their headlining set was intimate and incredibly captivating. Wolfe returned to the stage alone for an encore, and played a cover of Sibylle Baier’s “The End.”
SEE FULL STORY, VIDEOS & PHOTOS AT BVCHICAGO
Chelsea Wolfe performing at Great American Music Hall on January 11, 2013
Better than: Hearing a Kate Bush song in the local florist.
King Dude, the incongruously named vessel for gloomy Seattle troubadour T.J. Cowgill, and Los Angeles-based gothic chanteuse Chelsea Wolfe began their acoustic tour of the United States Friday night with an understated but extremely emotive performance at Great American Music Hall. For the draw of these artists, there isn’t a better-suited venue in San Francisco. The GAMH’s ornate columns and balconies seemed like an extension of the stage design as soft light in several shades of blue and red slowly swept the room throughout the night…
…Chelsea Wolfe appeared particularly ghostly. Her pale face was framed by straight, raven-black hair gently swaying above a faded red dress. She was flanked on either side by a violinist and keyboardist, and all the mic stands onstage were entwined with white roses. The contrast between Wolfe’s red dress, her band’s black garments, and the white roses created an especially noteworthy aesthetic pleasure. While other stage set-ups fail to impart any emotion with heavy-handed and garish props, Wolfe’s few colors and subtle decorations matched her performance wonderfully.
Not surprisingly, Wolfe’s set drew heavily from her recent acoustic album Unknown Rooms. Without the experimentation of some other records, this material showcases Wolfe’s tender and dejected ballads. Her somber vocals landed high up in the house mix, confirming the staggering presence of her voice. With remarkable similarity to even the slightest subtleties of her recording, Wolfe demonstrated impressive vocal abilities. For certain songs, Wolfe harmonized impressively with her violinist.
When Wolfe set her guitar down, she crossed her arms and swayed through an instrumental intro with her head down. Bending her fingers, clutching the mic, covering her mouth, Wolfe seemed to barely contain herself. With her eyes closed and her face contorted, she erupted into a particularly spirited performance. But in between songs, Wolfe was soft-spoken and humble with the audience, even going so far as to thank the crowd for its patience and for not yelling over the relatively quiet show. It was indeed impressive to see so many attendees standing and gazing intently in between songs without much chatter.
Towards the end of Wolfe’s set, Cowgill joined her for two songs. Droning keyboards swelled into a bleak ambiance and the pairing of Wolfe’s coos with Cowgill’s deep rumbling reached a cathartic pinnacle during the ballad’s climax. Afterwards, Wolfe performed a single song alone at the keyboard. The chilling narrative of the song’s deceased subject over staccato keys was a change of pace for the set. The following two tracks also showcased Wolfe’s versatility, as she looped a series of vocal melodies live then sang lead over the bed of vocals generated moments before. This looping technique was also used to create a stunning ethereal effect on the final song. Wolfe created a chorus of high notes that plaintively emanated as Wolfe bowed and said goodnight — the single most artificial moment of the entire set.
Cowgill and Wolfe have certainly received attention for their respective emphasis on the occult and macabre. But the transparency evident in their acoustic performances Friday night illustrated that the value of their songs extends far beyond their arguably sensational subject matter.
See Full review by Sam Lefebvre
All photos by Amelia Sechman
