(Halifax, NS) – Two-time JUNO Award winner and Polaris Music Prize Shortlisted artist Dan Mangan + Blacksmith recently announced the Jan. 13 release of their new studio album Club Meds and they will perform at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax on Wednesday, Feb. 18. Special guests are Hayden and Astral Swans.

Prior to announcing the new album, Dan Mangan + Blacksmith debuted “Vessel,” the lead single from their upcoming album and a part of the soundtrack for Simon Pegg’s indie film Hector And The Search For Happiness. Today, the Vancouver band premieres the captivating Ben Clarkson-directed animated video for “Vessel” courtesy of NPR and MUCH.

Of the video, director Ben Clarkson says: “It is complicated to open a conversation about the way we depict our history and our identity. Stories are powerful, and the way histories are told often reinforce the power of the powerful. How we tell the story, how our oral, written and visual traditions transmit interpretations of the past affects our behaviour, our ontology, here in the present. I would love to discuss how there are different histories. I believe that the quiet stability that many of us enjoy is a phantasm. I believe we have a great deal of work to do in order to live with one another in a way that agrees with our values (or the values we’d like to have). History is not finished and we must take ownership of it, or others will do it for us.”

WATCH “VESSEL” here.

Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 day of show (including tax and CIF) and go on sale this Friday, Oct. 24 at 12 noon. Tickets will be available at the Dalhousie Arts Centre box office (902) 494-3820 and online at www.sonicconcerts.com.

Additional fees may apply. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.