Letters to Cleo — News

After two years, Boston's Alt. Rock pioneers Letters to Cleo will be headed back out on the road this fall for a short run of intimate shows on the east and west coast including their annual pair of homecoming shows at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. The band will be doing two nights at the Paradise with both single and two-day tickets available. The idea for the annual homecoming shows started in 2016 when the band was on the road supporting their first release in 17 years, their Back to Nebraska EP. The band was on stage at the Paradise playing to an enthusiastic and elated hometown crowd when their manager suggested “same time next year?,” and now this year will be their fourth annual set of homecoming shows. In addition to the two Boston shows the tour starts out in Southern California with stops in New York City and Hamden, Connecticut. "I’m so excited for Cleo to be back playing shows after 2 years,” says Michael Eisenstein. “We’re playing some of our favorite venues and resuming our tradition of ending the tour with homecoming shows at The Paradise in Boston the weekend before Thanksgiving. We can’t wait!"

Letters to Cleo formed in 1990 in Boston, lead by guitarist Greg Mckenna and singer Kay Hanley. The band came onto the national spotlight with the release of their first hit single "Here & Now,” released by Giant Records (a subsidiary of Warner Brothers Records). The song reached No. 10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Singles chart. The band’s music could be heard on many of the top TV shows and films throughout the 1990’s, including the cult classic 10 Things I Hate About You, where the band contributed 4 songs to the soundtrack and were featured in the film. The band played their last show in 2000 and each of the members went on to have successful careers working in different areas of music from the production, writing, performance, musical directing etc.

In addition to Back to Nebraska, Letters to Cleo released a Christmas EP in 2019 called Ok Christmas, in addition to releasing their first three albums Aurora Gory Alice, Wholesale Meats and Fish and Go! On vinyl for the very first time through a limited edition pressing. Copies of all three albums along with the vinyl version of Back to Nebraska are available on LettersToCleo.net

TOUR DATES

November 11 The Parish at House of Blues Anaheim, CA+
November 12 Troubadour West Hollywood, CA +
November 16 Bowery Ballroom New York, NY ^
November 17 Space Ballroom Hamden, CT **
November 19 Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA **
November 20 Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA **

+ Supported by Dear Elise
** w/ Charly Bliss
^ w/ Tracy Bonham

LETTERS TO CLEO ANNOUNCE THEIR OK CHRISTMAS EP OUT NOVEMBER 15TH

Letters to Cleo are ushering in fall leading into the Holiday season with the announcement of their Holiday EP Ok Christmas out November 15th and available for vinyl pre-order HERE.

Ok Christmas includes three covers of Holiday classics and cult favorites made famous by the Kinks ("Father Christmas"), Elvis ("If I Get Home On Christmas Day") and the Dogmatics (“X Mas Time - Sure Don’t Feel Like It”) and one original, “Miss You This Christmas.” The band made a unanimous decision to take a subtle yet powerful stand against gun violence with this EP release changing the “machine gun” lyrics in "Father Christmas” to “Can you meltdown all the machine guns / so kids are safe on the streets." “The lyric change in Father Christmas was initially brought up by Greg, after the mass shooting in El Paso,” says Kay Hanley. “ I decided to turn to Twitter to ask the Kinks if they had any suggestions, which encouraged fans to chime in with ideas of their own. One twitter follower, Eric Reiberg (@Eric_time) came up with the idea that I ultimately used to construct the new lyric.”

“Song selection for Ok Christmas was an interesting experience,” says Michael Eisenstein. “We knew we were going to try to write an original, but we wanted to agree on 3-4 covers as well. Before we even decided to make a Holiday EP, our manager Michael Creamer suggested we do a single of The Dogmatics’ ‘X-mas Time.’ He was more or less like, ‘it mentions Filene’s Basement and Kenmore Square, you gotta do it!’ It’s a gift to our Boston fans. The Kinks “Father Christmas” which has been covered many times but remains largely unknown was on all of our lists from thes start. Greg found Elvis Presley’s “If I Get Home On Christmas Day” and no one was too crazy about it as first. Then he made an acoustic demo of his arrangement idea and we all got it. Stacy laid down the drum track in one take. “

The band reunited in 2016 to put out new music for the first time in 17 years, an EP called Back to Nebraska that was met with wildly positive reviews from fans and media alike. Since then the band has been touring regularly every fall right before Thanksgiving, ending the tour in their home town of Boston. In addition to Back to Nebraska, new music came last fall when Letters to Cleo released their first three albums Aurora Gory Alice, Wholesale Meats and Fish and Go! on vinyl for the very first time through a limited edition pressing. Copies of all three albums along with the vinyl version of Back to Nebraska are available on LettersToCleo.net

Letters to Cleo will be playing songs from the EP on the road this fall closing the year with their annual homecoming shows in Boston at the Paradise Rock Club.

TOUR DATES

11/16 The Hi Hat - Los Angeles, CA

11/19 Union Stage - Washington, DC **

11/ 21 The Met - Pawtucket, RI **

11/22 Paradise Rock Club - Boston, MA **

11/23 Paradise Rock Club - Boston, MA **

** Supported by Speedy Oritz

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LETTERS TO CLEO ANNOUNCE FALL TOUR + ANNUAL HOMECOMING SHOWS

LETTS TO CLEO ANNOUNCE THEIR 'OK CHRISTMAS' EP OUT NOV. 15