Americans have an undeniable and insatiable appetite for voyeurism. Readily feeding them hearty portions is front-man Ezra Furman, who makes no qualms about peddling the deeply personal to the public and draws no drapes between himself and an audience thanks to his pulsating, confessional songwriting style. Through his eponymous Chicago-based quartet, Ezra Furman & the Harpoons, Furman employs the same open-chest honesty that drew ire for Ginsberg's Howl and spawned speculation of Cohen's Chelsea Hotel as he pines for his Wild Rosemarie and recounts bouts of transience during the making of the band's upcoming third studio LP, Mysterious Power.

With lyrics featuring the fittingly dualistic motif of blood – representing both the humor d'amour and the stomach-turning stains of tragedy – Furman's music madly swings between wide-eyed sentimentality and brutally truthful accounts of life's grotesqueries. Forging ahead with Furman's brazenly rust-tinged croons, the band solders rollicking rockabilly rhythm and love-struck doo-wop sensibility with punk-rock ferocity and immediacy. In a musical alloy as unlikely as it is engaging, Furman finds release for bleeding-heart sensitivity and bloody-knuckled brawls of conscience as he "declares open warfare on jadedness, cynicism and irony." (Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune)

Ezra Furman & The Harpoons are putting forth their tautest album to date with Mysterious Power, as produced by Doug Boehm (French Kicks, Starsailor). There is an impressive range of styles and sounds in this newest set of songs, but there is also a palpable cohesiveness that can in part be attributed to the full incorporation of guitarist Andrew Langer. A veteran of the Chicago-area outfit The Redwalls, Langer was used only in guest spots on the band's second album; however, his being woven into the fabric of Mysterious Power, along with the eruptive energy of Adam Abrutyn's drumbeats and the volatile McCartney-wails of Job Mukkada's harmonies, lends a complementary sonic counterweight to Furman's lyrics that drives the music forward.

Daniel Knox Hideout Residency

Feb 5: Disaster
Feb 12: Evryman For Himself
Feb 19: Chasescene
Feb 26: Daniel Knox & John Atwood, music for projection

In the winter of 2007, Daniel Knox released his debut album Disaster, the first in a conceived trilogy that includes Evryman For Himself and the yet-to-be-recorded Chasescene. Over the course of this residency, he will perform each album in it's entirety, one per night. The fourth night will be an exhibition of his current collaborative work with photographer John Atwood.

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Daniel Knox is a songwriter and composer living and working in Chicago. He has scored for theater (Annie Baker’s The Aliens at The Pushkin Theater in Moscow, dir. Adrian Giurgea; Mary-Arrchie Theater Co's The Glass Menagerie) and film (The Pink Hotel, dir. Chris Hefner) and has performed throughout the US, the UK, and Ireland with artists such as Jarvis Cocker, David Lynch, the Handsome Family, Rasputina, Swans, Jessye Norman, and Rufus Wainwright.

Knox created Black & Whites, a long-form song-cycle set to projection, in collaboration with photographer John Atwood while in residence last winter at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center. The continuously developing piece has been performed at the 92YTribeca, the Kentucky Museum of Art + Craft, and the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage

I perform live, comedically. Part of me lives up there on that stage, under those lights, in front of the people.