My latest favorite addition to the music library? Without a doubt, Fleet Foxes. They're getting greatwrite-ups and deservedly so. I know I can't stop listening to them.
Their EP, Sun Giant, is five songs full of gorgeous harmonies and lush melodies that leave you craving more. Thankfully, they've got a full-length album coming out June 3rd. Currently they're on tour in Europe and will be coming back to the States in late June, hitting the Twin Cities on July 20th (according to their MySpace page).
For my friends reading this in San Fran, Denver, Chicago, Boston & New York, here are your dates:
Since moving up here I have been meaning to drop by Electric Fetus and today I finally did just that. I went in not only to just check things out but also to see if they had a CD that I'm having a hard time tracking down.
While walking around, I happened to see a collection of CDs along the wall that resembled something similar to a list I would put together full of my favorite albums and artists in the past year or so. Within this collection, a title card behind one of the discs read: Tyler Ramsey (Plays with Band of Horses). Being a fan of BOH, I decided that if he's good enough for them, who was I to not give him a shot!?
I'm glad I did. I've pretty much been playing it non-stop since popping it in to rip it to iTunes. If you get a chance, jump to his MySpace or Last.fm and give him a listen. Definitely love to know what you think too, if you care to leave a comment.
Last night The Jealous Girlfriends, Grand Archives and Most Serene Republic played The Entry. It was one of the very few times I have ever seen all three bands on one bill. I have to say I enjoyed all of them, but by far the highlight of the evening for me, as it appeared to be for many others as well, was the Grand Archives performance in the second slot.
Being a fan of Mat Brooke's two priorbands, I had been looking forward to a full-length album since first reading about them in Pitchfork last year. Then when looking through the show listings for various venues in town back in January and seeing that they were coming to town, I was a bit excited.
While all of the band members harmonize on vocals in addition to playing their instruments, it was primarily Mat and Ron Lewis (formerly of Ghost Stories, Joggers and Mines) leading the charge on vocals with Mat taking the lead most often. The same was true for their interactions with the crowd which were humorous, self-deprecating and genuine.
The band played through their songs at a good pace, having fun being on stage and truly enjoying playing their music for others to hear. It was my first time at The Entry and I fell fortunate to have been able to see them there. At the end of their set, everyone in the audience was asking for a couple more songs, but being in the second slot and out of time, the guys were unable to oblige. We'll just have to wait for another time, and likely a larger venue, to hear more of them in person.
Since getting The Grand Archives back in early February, it has been on heavy rotation. Now after seeing their live show, it will only continue to be so. (As a matter of fact, it's playing right now in a mix with Band of Horses, S and Carissa's Wierd in my iTunes.) If you don't have The Grand Archives yet, take a listen to one of the below places where it's streaming and if you're into it, support these guys by purchasing it at your favorite music store or site. They're very deserving of it in my opinion.
Nine Inch Nails presents Ghosts I - IV, a brand new 36 track
instrumental collection available right now. Almost two hours of new
music composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last fall,
Ghosts I - IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.
Trent Reznor explains, "I've been considering and wanting to make this
kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made
sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of
working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations
and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I'm
very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to
you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of
Ghosts."
What's most interesting to me is the approach Trent took to selling this. You can download the first nine songs for free, or pay $5 for download only of all 36 songs plus extras, $10 for download plus two CDs and extras, $75 for a deluxe edition or $300 for a limited edition ultra-deluxe edition. For the downloads on the paid versions, you have the option to choose high-quality MP3s, FLAC lossless or Apple lossless files - all of which are DRM-free. (On the free download, you only get the high-quality MP3, DRM-free version.)
At first glance, they're not doing too bad so far. If my math is correct, they've collected $750,000 alone from the $300 version that has sold out. Personally, I opted for the $5 version. Along with the 36 tracks, I got a 40-page PDF booklet along with some digital goodies - wallpapers, banners for putting it on blogs, MySpace, etc. and a few .jpgs.
One of the coolest things they did in my opinion, is that when I loaded it to my iTunes, each song came with a different image for the album art. I think Trent is doing some very intriguing things in exploring all the ways in which he can interact with the fans of NIN and get his art in front of more people. Definitely one of the artists to keep an eye on in the digital space.
One of my co-workers tipped me off to Justin Vernon's new band/role, Bon Iver, on Thursday. She saw him play at Electric Fetus on Wednesday night. DOH! Why couldn't I have found out about this before! And why and I just finding out about him now! Oh well. At least I know of him now and will be all over his new album, For Emma, Forever Ago, when it is relaunched on Tuesday. (Unless when I swing by Electric Fetus in a bit, they have it.)
The story behind Bon Iver's new album is quite possibly one of the most interesting back stories to an album I've heard in quite some time. The story goes:
It wasn't planned. The goal was to hibernate.
Justin Vernon moved to a remote cabin in
the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin at the onset of winter. Tailing from the swirling breakup of
his long time band, he escaped to the property and surrounded himself with simple work, quiet, and space.
He lived there alone for three months, filling his days with wood splitting and other chores around
the land. This special time slowly began feeding a bold, uninhibited new musical focus.
This slowly evolved into days filled with twelve-hour recording blocks, breaking only for trips
on the tractor into the pines to saw and haul firewood, or for frozen sunrises high up a deer
stand. All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and
guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into
the form of song. The end result is, For Emma, Forever Ago, a nine-song album comprised of what's
been dubbed a striking debut by critics and fans alike.
Bon Iver (pronounced: bohn eevair; French for "good winter" and spelled wrong on purpose) is a
greeting, a celebration and a sentiment. It is a new statement of an artist moving on and
establishing the groundwork for a lasting career. For Emma, Forever Ago is the debut of this
lineage of songs. As a whole, the record is entirely cohesive throughout and remains centered
around a particular aesthetic, prompted by the time and place for which it was recorded. Vernon
seems to have tested his boundaries to the utmost, and in doing so has managed to break free
form any pre-cursing or finished forms.
For Emma's tracks consist of thick layers draped in lush choral walls, with rarely more
than an ancient acoustic guitar or the occasional bass drum providing structure. Vernon sings
the majority of the record in falsetto, which painfully expresses the meanings behind its overt,
yet strangely entangled words. This newfound vocal path acts as each song's main character and
source of melody.
Despite its complexity, the record was created entirely by Vernon with nothing more than a few
microphones and some aged recording equipment. This homemade aspect shows itself in sections
as creaks and accidentals are exposed in the folds of the songs, but is hidden well by the
highly impressive and almost orchestral sound that Vernon managed to produce by his lonesome,
within the creaky skeleton of his father's cabin.
For Emma, Forever Ago comes out on Tuesday (2/19), but you can pre-order it from his label (Jagjaguwar) or Amazon.com now. According to the note on the Jagjaguwar page, their pre-order comes with an offset-printed poster.
Grand Archives (Live)
Last night The Jealous Girlfriends, Grand Archives and Most Serene Republic played The Entry. It was one of the very few times I have ever seen all three bands on one bill. I have to say I enjoyed all of them, but by far the highlight of the evening for me, as it appeared to be for many others as well, was the Grand Archives performance in the second slot.
Being a fan of Mat Brooke's two prior bands, I had been looking forward to a full-length album since first reading about them in Pitchfork last year. Then when looking through the show listings for various venues in town back in January and seeing that they were coming to town, I was a bit excited.
While all of the band members harmonize on vocals in addition to playing their instruments, it was primarily Mat and Ron Lewis (formerly of Ghost Stories, Joggers and Mines) leading the charge on vocals with Mat taking the lead most often. The same was true for their interactions with the crowd which were humorous, self-deprecating and genuine.
The band played through their songs at a good pace, having fun being on stage and truly enjoying playing their music for others to hear. It was my first time at The Entry and I fell fortunate to have been able to see them there. At the end of their set, everyone in the audience was asking for a couple more songs, but being in the second slot and out of time, the guys were unable to oblige. We'll just have to wait for another time, and likely a larger venue, to hear more of them in person.
Since getting The Grand Archives back in early February, it has been on heavy rotation. Now after seeing their live show, it will only continue to be so. (As a matter of fact, it's playing right now in a mix with Band of Horses, S and Carissa's Wierd in my iTunes.) If you don't have The Grand Archives yet, take a listen to one of the below places where it's streaming and if you're into it, support these guys by purchasing it at your favorite music store or site. They're very deserving of it in my opinion.
Related note 1: My photo set from last night.
Related note 2: Video of Most Serene Republic singing (Oh) God here.
Related note 3: A great review and Flickr photo set of the CD launch party for Grand Archives at The Triple Door in Seattle, which included opening performances by Mat's former Carissa's Wierd bandmates, Jenn Ghetto (S) and Sera Cahoone.
Related note 4: An article from the Seattle Times when the band was first getting noticed that's a good read.
Grandarchives.com | MySpace | Last.fm | iTunes | Amazon
08 March 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)