Home > Bands > Vandaveer
Vandaveer
Icon-facebook Icon-myspace Icon-youtube Icon-web
Follow Band

Vandaveer

Hometown: Washington, DC
Tags: indie, folk, folk rock

VANDAVEER is the alt-folk song-singing/record making/globetrotting project penned and put forth by DC-by-way-of-Kentucky tunesmith Mark Charles Heidinger. Vandaveer’s debut album, Grace & Speed, a mostly live, stripped down affair, swiftly entered this great big dusty world in the spring of 2007. The press responded heartily, with The Washington Post saying Vandaveer “revives the earnestness of the pre-psychedelic 60’s,” and XM Cafe calling him “this generation’s Nick Drake.” Touring continually on both sides of the Atlantic ever since, Vandaveer has played 250+ shows, sharing stages with a host of humbling artists including Bon Iver, Vetiver, Alela Diane, Alejandro Escovedo, Vashti Bunyan, Bill Callahan, Fleet Foxes, and the like. In addition to said Vandaveering, Mark Charles has been known to fraternize and conspire with other music-making hooligans, primarily as a bassist for fellow DCers These United States. Vandaveer’s sophomore effort, Divide & Conquer, touches upon similar themes found in its elder sibling, winding timeworn themes of love & death, malice & goodwill, sin & perseverance into (mostly) four-minute vignettes. To see D&C through, Vandaveer enlisted the able assistance of longtime collaborator and producer Duane Lundy, brothers-in-arms/These United States bandmates Robby Cosenza and Justin Craig, and most notably, his fair sister Rose Guerin, supplying the loveliest harmonies this side of Eden. A decidedly more produced venture, D&C offers up a flourishing chamber folk companion to its bedroomy lo-fi folk/pop predecessor. Released in France in April 2009 on AlterK/Discograph, Divide & Conquer was hailed by Rolling Stone as “jarring new folk”. The US release of Divide & Conquer is August 25th, 2009, on Supply And Demand Music. Listen at Last.fm

Followers See all

  • jrstreeter
  • TheOwlMag
  • EOTB
  • Muzzle of Bees
  • kristian.caballero
  • GrahamF
  • Cover Lay Down
Upcoming Events Rss
Past Events

Suggest better video/songs


Comments

You must Login to post comments.

  • TheOwlMag

    TheOwlMag on Vandaveer

    4 months ago

    Artist: Vandaveer Album: Grace & Speed Label: Gypsy Eyes Records Genre: Folk/Freak Folk, Singer/Songwriter Rating: Buy it >>

    Folk gets a makeover by solo artist Vandaveer, a.k.a. Mark Charles Heidinger. Blending dark pop, troubadour rock, and catchy folk, Heidinger carves himself a niche not frequently traveled but to which listeners find themselves addicted. The former Apparitions songwriter and hand-clapper dotes on the mellow and robust, harmonizing with his own vocals that beg you to just sing along (especially in the title track). With the vocal timbre of a more rustic Dave Matthews, the comforting and lilting nature of Heidinger’s voice sweeps greatly on quiet selections as it does on bustling songs.

    Taking cues from Tom Waits as well as early solo McCartney, Vandaveer concocts his own blend of folk and pop. The dark, brooding nature of some of the songs such as “The Streets Is Full of Creeps” lies alongside the jaunty plucking of guitar and minor chords. He tells the stories of miscreants and ne’er-do-wells just as well as he croons about life lessons. The result of this mash-up of dark numbers is a coherent, pleasant album with no skippable songs.

    - Review submitted by Sarah Moore.

    more at theowlmag.com

  • TheOwlMag

    TheOwlMag on Vandaveer

    4 months ago

    Vandaveer Dig Down Deep [Supply & Demand Music]

    Vandaveer is an alt-folk outfit based out of Washington D.C. The band was originated in 2007 by genius Mark Charles Heidinger, who soon found other members to add to his Americana project, including vocal-gem, Rose Guerin. Released on Supply & Demand Music, Dig Down Deep is a symphonic mixture of harmonic texture and fey tales.

    Most notable is Guerin’s harmonies on “Dig Down Deep” and “The Great Gray”- her vocals are as milky soft as (if not better than) Joy Williams (aka, one half of the Civil Wars). “Gray” itself is a sulky homage to breaking on through to the other side.

    Listen closely and you’ll hear hints of Stevie Nicks as well as DMB, on “Concerning Past & Future Conquests.” “Beat, Beat My Heart” is a poet’s lullaby: “I wanna love with this crooked heart… for we were chambers, pumped full of danger, but I’ll wager my fate for a glimpse of technicolor love.”

    Longing for some good fiction to go with your music? Listen to “Spite” for a brooding man with a cursed affair, “The Waking Hour” for wounded dreams, and “As A Matter of Fact” for loose cannons and the “prettiest poisons” (as well a sweet parlor-esque piano riff).

    Concerning Past & Future Conquests by Vandaveer

    more at theowlmag.com

    • Featured Venue

    • Featured