Live Nation presents
Spencer Krug
with Emory Duncan
Upstairs
Date and room
Past show
- Show
- Room
- Swedish American HallUpstairs, 2174 Market St, San Francisco
Spencer Krug
Other
After fifteen years of writing and performing with projects like Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Moonface, Swan Lake, and Frog eyes, this prolific artist has decided to release and tour the music he makes under his own name - Spencer Krug. First gaining attention in the mid 2000s as co-leader of Montreal's rock’n’roll Wolf Parade, then soon after as the voice and mind behind the chaotic Sunset Rubdown, Krug eventually used the now defunct Moonface as an outlet for his more experimental and sporadic solo material. And while he still plays with both Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown, there remains in him a need to express something less rock-oriented, something more quiet and introverted. So, returning to his first and favorite instrument, the piano, Krug has ventured back into his own fantastic world of pseudo-classical balladeering; poetic lyricism laced with twisted pop sensibility and jazz mimicry. Using this template, he now releases solo work on his own label, Pronounced Kroog, and tours a variety of new and old material as Spencer Krug.
Emory Duncan Support
Other
Originally from Houston, Texas, Emory Duncan doesn’t like to sand down the edges. Blending pastoral Americana with weathered indie folk, his songs feel lived-in and personal like somebody’s shot of whiskey over everybody’s cup of tea.
Raised around his father’s classic country records and his mother’s classic rock, Duncan picked up the guitar while still young and has played almost entirely by ear ever since. That instinctive approach carries into his songwriting, where unexpected arrangements, imperfect moments and whatever simply “sounds right” are often more important than following the rules.
After five years in Los Angeles, Duncan moved with his wife to the Santa Cruz Mountains, where they now live in a log cabin beneath the redwoods. When he isn’t writing, he works at a nearby winery and spends much of his time backpacking, snowboarding, and climbing.
Songwriting is a daily practice. He collects overheard phrases, fragments of ideas and passing thoughts, trusting that occasionally one will open the door to something deeper. His songs live somewhere between uncertainty and possibility, using writing as a way to understand feelings that often aren’t clear until they find their way onto the page.
Semicircles and Half Written Songs
Emory Duncan’s second EP, Semicircles and Half Written Songs, was recorded inside his home in the Santa Cruz Mountains over the course of roughly a week with producer Jamie Mefford. Rather than heading into a traditional studio, they turned Duncan’s cabin into one, recording together in the same space where many of the songs had taken shape.
The result is a record rooted in regret, love, self-reflection and the patterns people struggle to escape. Across songs including “The Fine Print,” “Semicircles,” “Halifax”, “Two Hearts,” and “Spring Eternal", Duncan wrestles with identity, forgiveness, emotional distance and the choices that determine who we become.
