Moriarty Announce May Tour

• 6th Apr 2009

With a growing word-of-mouth buzz this side of La Manche, Franco-American pop roots quintet Moriarty return to the UK in May for some more live shows in support of a single release, Private Lily, out on Naïve Records on 18th May 2009. More dates/Festivals are expected to be announced shortly.

After selling over 100,000 copies of their debut album ‘Gee Whiz But This Is A Lonesome Town’ last year in their native France, Moriarty began building a fan base in the UK with a support slot with Son Of Dave, and their own headline show at Madame Jo Jos in December 2008. Four London shows and a support slot with Jane Birkin followed this February, before the band departed to the United States, where they have been tipped for big things this year by the likes of Time Out NY and iTunes.

Their new single, ‘Private Lily’, is taken from their debut album and tells the real-life story of Arthur Moriarty’s cousin Lily, who signed up for the army after attending a forces fair. The accompanying video developed cult status in France on release, and picked up hundreds of thousands of views. The b-side for the single is a cover of Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy The Silence’ which is a popular live favourite for the band.

Sharing a name with Jack Kerouac’s lead character in ‘On The Road’, Moriarty is made up of the four brothers Moriarty (Arthur, Zim, Thomas and Charles) backing Rosemary, the daughter of an Ohio folk musician with a taste for the operatic. Dressing like Prohibition outlaws, their beguiling theatrical performance falls somewhere between a stark contemporary folk-blues set to 1930 jazz nights, stopping off at the Russian Taiga on the way. They're not even managed by a music firm, but by a company with a background treading the boards. With xylophone, thumb piano, spoons, tambourine, scotch-tape trumpet, double-bass, acoustic guitar, music box, suitcase drum, harmonicas, kazoo, drilling machines and Jew's harp making up some of the instrumentation on offer, Rosemary’s sweet lead vocals hold it all together, presiding over proceedings like Billie Holiday fronting Calexico.

LIVE DATES:

Sunday 10 May 2009 Glasgow, ABC2 (supporting The Do)

Monday 11 May 2009 Manchester, The Deaf Institute (supporting The Do)

Tuesday 12 May 2009 Leeds, Brudenell Social Club (supporting The Do)

Wednesday 13 May 2009 London, KCLSU (supporting The Do)