San Diego's The Black Heart Procession have been described as beautifully bleak and brooding indie rock with a dark side. Lyrically touching on the melancholy side of human nature. The five-piece band is appropriately named given its themes of isolation, depression, and heartache.

The core members of Pall Jenkins and Tobias Nathaniel (Three Mile Pilot) also collaborate on-stage and in the studio with various musicians whose instruments include guitar, piano, percussion, and even a saw! Members have included Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse, the Magic Magicians), Jimmy LaValle (The Album Leaf), and violinist Matt Resovich (The Album Leaf).

The Black Hearts Procession reminds one of driving at night across the West. Like a wide-open landscape, this is music that is simotaneously desolate and lush. Knowing that while sadness pulls you down, discontent pushes you forward. So the procession never stops. Here a song's 6/8 beat will pull you into a moody seductive waltz and next, the violin and piano evolke the house band of a lonesome cabaret with the lights turned low. Then the strings stop their mournful crying and shift into a propulsive thrum, and now we've got the pedal to the metal and we're heading straight down the open road into a cinematic twilight.

Merced favorites El Olio Wolof open...just days before their new album is released!

Thursday, Jan. 10
THE BLACK HEART PROCESSION
El Olio Wolof
@ The Cellar Door
$10 / 21+ / 9:30pm

Location: The Cellar Door, 101 W. Main St., Visalia
Starts: 2008 Jan 10 - 9:30pm
Ends: 2008 Jan 10 - 9:30pm
Website: http://www.soundnvisionmag.com