Ween drummer Claude Coleman Jr. is taking his band amandla on the road, starting February 1 with the Mike Dillon Band. amandla’s latest release is LAUGHING HEARTS, and features the soul/funk/rock fusion amandla has become know for on past recordings and during live shows. Listen to LAUGHING HEARTS here. The vinyl version of LAUGHING HEARTS will be available on March 9.
amandla is the brainchild of Coleman, who expands his drummer role with Ween to that of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, playing all the instruments on amandla’s recordings. Coleman notes, “I’ve been playing guitar and writing songs as long as I have been a drummer. It has always been a companion instrument for me. Songs are hyper-expressive and mulit-dimensional, and I express that with joy playing these instruments.”
LAUGHING HEARTS was created during a period of nomadic living, with Coleman jumping from friend’s couches to his car and back again. After a series of personal and professional heartaches, Coleman found himself barely existing, and his only agenda was to record the songs “in whatever way I could, by any means necessary. The rest I assumed would be sorted by the Universe, my dividend for my Love to life and the world around me despite the wretchedness of failure and heartbreak.”
LAUGHING HEARTS is the third amandla release on Coleman’s imprint Marshall Hotel Records and follows The Full Catastrophe, a record bridging the pop sounds of Squeeze, jazz rock and folk psychedelia, and reviewed as a “minor masterpiece.” Written in and around NY and NJ, as well as during incessant touring with Ween, Catastrophe took over the span of four years, prolonged by the event of a near-fatal car accident that Coleman took over one year to rehabilitate and relearn skills in order to continue. His miraculous story of dedicated work and recovery has been featured in The New York Times and on NPR.
2.1 // Lafayette, LA // Wurst Beergarten
2.2 // Houston, TX // Last Concert Café
2.3 // Austin, TX // The Mohawk
2. 5 // Norman, OK // The Deli
2.6 // Tulsa, OK // Frasier Hall
2.7 // St. Joseph, MO // Café Acoustic
2.8 // Kansas City, MO // The Brick
2.9 // Denver, CO // Quixotes
2.10 // Telluride, CO // The Liberty
2.12 // Victor, ID // The Knotty Pine
2.15 // Portland, OR // Good Foot
2.16 // Eugene, OR // Whirled Peas
2.17 // Seattle, WA // The Royal Room
