NEW NEWS!
April 3

A Letter from Zach

It's with great regret that I have to tell all of you that Beirut is canceling their summer European shows. My reasons for doing this are many, a lot of them personal, but I still feel I need to provide something of an explanation.

The past two years have been a mindblowing experience. From the first indications that people were putting songs from Gulag up on their blogs to our incredible tour of Australia and New Zealand that we just completed, everything that has happened has been beyond anything I'd ever hoped could happen with the music I wrote and recorded in my bedroom. Once things started happening, I decided I wanted to do everything as big as possible. So, I set about putting together a large band, and giving that band a huge sound, and making the most spectacular records we possibly could.

I know this can sound like an artist shithead kind of comment, but going through all that really does have its low points along with the highs. The responsibilities of gathering people around your vision, working with great people like those who work directly for the band and those at the label, wanting to insure that every show is as good as humanly possible so that every single person in the audience sees that we put in a real effort, all of that leads to a lot of issues in terms of doing right by people who have done you right.

It's come time to change some things, reinvent some others, and come back at some point with a fresh perspective and batch of songs.

Please accept my apologies. I promise we'll be back, in some form.

-Zach

December 12
Happy holidays everyone!
In celebration Beirut is offering a dvd of all the the songs from the new album The Flying Club Cup, filmed live by the good folks at la Blogothèque, the genius behind The Take Away Shows. Click here to buy the dvd (perfect gift for that Beirut fan in your life).

In other news Beirut will be touring Australia and New Zealand this spring, check out the dates in the shows section.

September 19
The good people over at newbury comics have The Flying Club Cup available for pre-order at their website here (early birds get an autographed copy too)

September 12
good things are happening over at flyingclubcup.com go check it out!

August 30
Beirut's new record, The Flying Club Cup, will be available in stores October 9th.  The record features the whole live band, as well as some notable contributions from Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy and Heather Trost of A Hawk And A Hacksaw. It is very much inspired by the music and culture of France, especially the emotional pull of a musician like Jacques Brel (whom you should really check out if you haven't heard him). We have a few fun surprises in store for the lead up to the album release, so keep vigilant on the internets.

At present, the band is busy rehearsing in Brooklyn for their upcoming shows.  In September and October, they will be playing in the US and Canada at some very special venues.  They are performing at nice theaters and will be debuting the new songs from The Flying Club Cup at these shows.  Expect those, in addition to the "hits."  After that, in November, the band will be headed to Europe for a few weeks of shows.  Check out the tour section for all upcoming dates.

In the meantime, give a watch to the show Zach played with his heroes, The Kocani Orkestar, in Paris last July, courtesy of our good friends at La Blogotheque:

http://www.blogotheque.net/article.php3?id_article=3353

April 16
The band is hard at work in the studio, working on the next album, and what's more Zach learned how to tie his own shoelaces! we're very proud of you Zach!

Meanwhile, we' re Pleased to announce a Tour this summer, most of the dates are on the shows page, and the rest will be announced in the next couple of weeks..


March 3
Yes, it's been 2007 for two months already and we have some shows
to announce.

First off, Beirut is playing two shows at SXSW in Austin:

Wednesday, March 14th at Emo's Main Stage at 10:30pm
w/Blonde Redhead, Mountain Goats, Emma Pollack and Wolf & Cub

(NOTE: Beirut is listed as playing at 10pm, but because of our need soundcheck properly
it's more like we'll be going on at 10:30) .

Friday, March 16th at Austin City Limits for KEXP simulcast at 7pm -
This will be open to the public, but might be kind of tough to get
into, because it only holds 300 people.

Then, the band is performing twice in New York. Even better, the
genius that is Final Fantasy will be on the bill both nights:

Sunday, May 6th at Bowery Ballroom

Monday, May 7th at Bowery Ballroom

You can get tickets for those here

After these shows, Beirut will be travelling north to the friendly,
almost French, environs of Canada to record with Owen of Final Fantasy for his new album.

Beirut's new EP, Lon Gisland, is now availabe in North America (those of you outside of North America get it when you buy Gulag Orkestar).

You can get it on CD from Ba Da Bing here: here
edition Chouette 12" version here

We'll have many more exciting announcements soon, including some shows in Europe to announce and a new perfume line. We just made one of those up