On April 6th Ben Kweller released his highly anticipated second studio album, On My Way, on ATO Records. Preceding the record’s release, Kweller will hit the road and co-headline with fellow indie rockers Death Cab For Cutie, beginning March 24th in Omaha, NE. The forty-three-date tour includes three nights at NYC’s Irving Plaza and Seattle’s Showbox Theater, as well as two nights in Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, and one at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles.

One of the main differences between On My Way and Kweller’s first album, Sha Sha, is the distinctly live feel of the new record. Produced by Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ryan Adams), the motto put forward from the beginning of the session was “performance first.” With that in mind, Kweller and his bandmates recorded with all instruments together in one room and minimal separation between amplifiers and drums. The band played mostly without headphones to ensure that each member could hear and react to the whole sound being produced in the room, instead of focusing on what each individual had in his headphones. These underused yet effective techniques ultimately gave the vocal and instrumental delivery a more impromptu feel.

The result is a brilliantly raw, live-sounding album that is akin to a mid-sixties rock recording. The ultra catchy album opener, “I Need You

Back,” begins with a call-and-response riff between guitar whiz Mike Stroud in the left channel and Kweller in the right. The hard panning of the two guitars is a theme throughout the record and enhances the natural duality between Kweller and Stroud.

However, it’s Kweller’s musical virtuosity that really shines through on this album. There is the Zombiesesque piano of “Hospital Bed,” the garage assault of “The Rules,” the glittery pop in “My Apartment,” the murderer-turned-lover depicted in the anti-folkish title track, “On My Way,” the fluttering vocal lines of “Different But The Same,” the down-home optimism of “Living Life,” the passionate “Believer” and the fight-the-power feeling in the anarchic “Ann Disaster.” Personal and universal, Kweller’s lyrics continue to draw us in. With On My Way, Kweller proves that he has progressed musically in every aspect. Yet, in the end, he’s managed to keep the songwriting sensibility and diversity for which he is known and loved.

Check out the BK E-Card, which has some very cool graphics, links and video with back stories for a whole slew of new BK songs. Click Here

http://benkweller.media.chime.com