Kurt Vile brings The Violators to Proud Larry’s, Monday Feb 29

Singer, songwriter, and former The War on Drugs front man Kurt Vile will play Proud Larry’s on Monday, February 29, in support of his fall 2015 release b’lieve i’m goin down.

The follow up to 2013’s Wakin on a Pretty Daze received praise across the board. Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon even lent her words for a bio in the press release promoting his most recent release.

“Kurt does his own myth-making; a boy/man with an old soul voice in the age of digital everything becoming something else, which is why this focused, brilliantly clear and seemingly candid record is a breath of fresh air,” said Gordon.

His friendship with Gordon spawned from her simply showing up at one of his shows.

“She appeared at my merch table and I ran over there straight away,” said Vile.

Vile went into recording B’lieve I’m goin down wanting do “some kind of heavy folk, spaced-out blues record,” but ended up creating a rather minimal work.

“Every time I added things, it just didn’t sound honest to me,” said Vile.

In the process of stripping down his work, he managed to create something representative of his sound but in a new light.

“Everybody naturally evolves,” said Vile. “You have different influences and different things happen in your life…I think I just try to keep it as close to my real life, in a Neil Young sort of way, as possible.

This record featured more use of the banjo than past releases. Vile cites this is as an unintended transition in his music. The time spent writing songs before going in to record, he seemed to be naturally drawn to grabbing his banjo as the songwriting tool of choice. Leading him back to the classic stripped down, folky Vile sound we have grown accustomed to.

“Every time since Smoke Rings for My Halo, I was trying to capture some sort of ethereal, Appalachian jams,” said Vile. “These two times down the shore in Ocean City where I vacation sometimes, I had my banjo and I wrote that outlaw tune…I knew I wanted to capture it on this record.”

When performing “in front of hundreds of fans, Vile remains at least partially lost in his own world,” said a consequence of sound review of a show this past October. “But he never makes you question whether there’s somewhere else he’d rather be than in this universe of his own creation.”

Running through songs with ease, transitioning from playing guitar on the more pop-driven “Dust Bunnies” to plucking a banjo for the western-reminiscent “I’m an Outlaw,” Vile repeatedly proves to his audience that he is loving what he’s doing.

“Obviously, once you get signed, you get exposed to the public, and you sort grow,” said Vile. “You grow in a different way. This is all I ever wanted to do.”

Tickets are still available online and can be purchased at the door for $20. The show is expected to begin by 9 pm with opening act Spacin’.