Yeasayer's Anand Wilder Gets Members of Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors, Man Man for 'Break Line' Musical

BY Gregory AdamsPublished May 28, 2014

Way back in 2009, we reported that Yeasayer guitarist Anand Wilder was working on a musical with composer Maxwell Kardon. Now, years later, the pair are finally ready to deliver their Break Line, which arrives on July 15 through Secretly Canadian in North America and a day earlier overseas via Mute.

  A press release explains that the pair started work on the set back in 2004, two years before Yeasayer's formation, and have been piecing together the project ever since, often in between Wilder's Yeasayer commitments. The musical is said to be a "classic story of betrayal, pride and lost love," with a plot centering on "a labour conflict in a Western Pennsylvania coal town that (Wilder and Kardon's) fathers had learned about from an old folk song taught in Quaker schools in the 1950s."

The project was reportedly influenced by the likes of Gram Parsons, '70s period Kinks and the Byrds, and found Wilder and Kardon roping in a bunch of musician friends to bring the piece to fruition. In addition to Wilder, vocalists on Break Like include Yeasayer's Chris Keating, Dirty Projectors' Haley Dekle, Man Man's Ryan Kattner, Quinn Walker and Suckers' Austin Fisher. The backup band is likewise guest-heavy, composed of other members of Yeasayer, Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, Kishi Bashi and more.

To help tease the set, Wilder and Kardon have unveiled Break Line's "Wedding Day," which unfolds via a series of playground field recordings, bird sounds and backwards-masked tones before forging ahead as a paisley-print tapestry of flute toots, guitar strums and triangle taps.

Break Line:

1. Coal Into Diamonds

2. Wedding Day

3. Opportunity

4. Hold You Tight

5. They're Stealing Our Coal

6. 4th Of July

7. Better To Die

8. It Doesn't Seem Right

9. Fathers and Brothers

10. I'm To Blame

11. Hang Your Head High

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