Nineteen Thirteen, as its name suggests, is a band out of time. The duo of Violent Femmes founding member Victor DeLorenzo and cellist Janet Schiff has been slowly creeping its way through the Milwaukee music scene since 2010, trading in dark, instrumental chamber rock highlighted by DeLorenzo’s distinctive drumming and Schiff’s haunting cello. (The band takes its name from the year in which that cello was crafted.) Now, ahead of a new album entitled Music For Time Travel (due May 13), Nineteen Thirteen has released a mournful, all-too-brief song (less than two minutes!), “The Reason Why.”
A release show for Music For Time Travel is set for May 13 at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend. Closer to home, Nineteen Thirteen will open for The Avett Brothers June 10 at the BMO Harris Pavilion, and provide musical accompaniment for Gallery Night and Day July 22 at the (still haunted as fuck) Pfister Hotel.