(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Upstate New York roots-rockers the Felice Brothers, who have drawn widespread acclaim and comparisons to the Band and Wilco, will usher in the New Year at Club Helsinki on Saturday, December 31, 2011. The Robots will warm up the crowd.

The group’s newest and fourth LP, Celebration, Florida, is an exhilarating amalgamation of frightening horn sections, unexpected 808s, ambient synth lines, schoolyard taunts, booming, primitive drum beats, heavy bass lines, piano, violin, accordion, ringing guitars, rave beats, and sinister acid jazz that captivates and mystifies.

Recorded in the gymnasium and theater of Beacon, N.Y.,’s old high school, the band explores a multitude of sounds and instrumentation throughout the album. It’s inspired, imaginative, passionate, and rollicking. Most importantly, it’s as steadfastly authentic as ever, expanding upon the dark, woozy undercurrent of ramshackle barroom blues, vaudevillian atmospherics, and surreal storytelling of their previous albums, the majority of which was recorded in a converted chicken coop in upstate New York near their hometown of Palenville.

Esquire, Filter, the New York Times, NPR, Spin, and more have praised the Felice Brothers. Under The Radar wrote in a review of Yonder Is The Clock that The Felice Brothers find “inspiration and freedom rather than constraints in the traditions of folk music.” Celebration, Florida revels in this inventive, outlaw spirit; it’s the sound of a band that knows its roots and knows where it’s growing. It’s a group that just might expand the definition of Americana music along the way.

Celebration, Florida casts scenes of dreamy characters and stories interwoven like a block of prime time TV. Among the tales: a young woman who sets off to find a secret paradise; a teenager who enters a boxing gym in Catskill, N.Y.; a late night host recounting his rise to fame to his honeybee while traveling in a private jet; shady degenerates who get lost in a mystery concerning a Honda Civic; a young girl who crimps her hair and spies her dead father driving down the road; a Wall Street scandal hits a little too close to home; and even a trip through space to find long forgotten Hollywood parties and hopefully make it back there in time to walk down the red carpet.

The Felice Brothers are Ian Felice, James Felice, Christmas, Greg Farley, and David Turbeville.

Club Helsinki Hudson
405 Columbia Street
Hudson, N.Y.