4 posts tagged “sufjan stevens”
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07/20/09
De Affaire Festival Nijmegen
Discography
08/01/09 All Points Fest Jersey City, NJ 08/05/09 Cape Cinema Dennis, MA 08/06/09 Pearl Street North Hampton, MA 08/07/09 La Sala Rossa Montreal, PQ 08/08/09 Horseshoe Tavern Toronto, ON 08/09/09 Rokbar Hamilton, ON 09/29/09 Murat Theatre Indianapolis, IN 09/30/09 Blue Note Columbia, MO 10/03/09 Tipitina’s New Orleans, LA 10/05/09 WorkPlay Birmingham, AL 10/07/09 Cat’s Cradle Carrboro, NC 10/08/09 Cat’s Cradle Carrboro, NC 10/09/09 Orange Peel Asheville, NC 10/10/09 Ryman Auditorium Nashville,TN 10/12/09 Music Farm Charleston, SC 10/13/09 Bijou Theatre Knoxville, TN 10/14/09 Bogart’s Cincinnati, OH 10/17/09 Pabst Theater Milwaukee, WI 10/18/09 State Theatre Kalamazoo, MI 10/19/09 Southern Theatre Columbus,OH 10/21/09 Ashbury Hall Buffalo, NY 10/24/09 South Portland Highschool, ME 10/25/09 Electric Factory Phila, PA 10/26/09 Higher Ground Ballroom, VT 10/27/09 Lupo’s Providence, RI 10/28/09 9:30 Club Washington DC
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I spent the better part of Sunday listening to Actor, released in May on the "shoegazing" label, 4AD Records. What can I say about this album? There's enough weird sounds and instruments on the record that will appeal to the typical Pitchfork music fans. If you like Xiu Xiu, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, you'll feel at home with St Vincent.
What I think Actor tries to do is to create a theatric dramatic story as an album, starting with "The Strangers" and ending with... "The Sequel". She even admitted to trying to lend her music to film or television.I did high school plays. It's something that I absolutely love, but I'm absolutely abominable at. But being good or not didn't hinder my enjoyment of it. I loved everything about it, from the staging to the lights to the underpinnings.
- Annie Clark
There's also a variety of instruments (which I'm assuming Clark plays most of them), and I couldn't tell what they are all - since I don't have the liner notes. It's safe to let you know that there's screeching violins at some point.
When I like Clark, it's with her colorful, often witty lyrics: "You're a liar and that's the truth" ("Actor Out of Work"), "I'm a wife in watercolors, I can wash away ("Save Me From What I Want"), "These kids are foaming at the mouth psychotropic capricorns" ("The Neighbors"), and "I can't see the future, but I know its got big plans for me " ("Laughing With A Mouth of Blood").
The single, "Actor Out of Work", is a great introduction to St Vincent's music. It's poppy and the lyrics are fun. It points out all the faults of this "supplemental" actor, yet there's something about him that you love.
If you like a little orchestrated music, you should check out Actor by St Vincent. Actor is available at the usual locations, including Amazon and iTunes.
* Update 7/20/09 7:42pm: As noted in the comments, she was a member.
07/20/2009 06:28:44 ♥ vu (
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♥ ilovestvincent.com ♥ myspace.com/stvincent ♥ twitter.com/st_vincent
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Continuing with the Christmas Songs series, here are a few free (downloadable) options.
Ryan sent this in, and I thought I'd pass this on. It's a free Christmas album from www.soundsfamilyre.com called A Familyre Christmas (Vol. 1).
They're putting on one song a day or something because currently there's only 11 songs available for download (but they promise two more).
See links for more information, here are an excerpt from the article:
We are very excited to share with you some of our favorite Christmas music performed by the Sounds Familyre Famile: new interpretations of traditional Christmas carols as well as original songs! A new song each day for thirteen days. Baker’s dozen. So make sure to come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the day after that…
The track listing so far (eleven down, two to go!) is as follows:
1: ‘Christmas Eve Nite’ - Danielson
2: ‘For There Is Born A Child’ - Lenny Smith
3: ‘Plant A Little Fir Tree’ - Half-handed Cloud
4: ‘Dayspring From On High’ - Soul-Junk
5: ‘Pat-A-Pan’ - Leopulde
6: ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ - Dan Zimmerman
7: ‘Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming’ - The Singing Mechanic
8: ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ - Sufjan Stevens*
9: ‘What Child Is This’ - Rachel
10: ‘I Wonder As I Wander’ - Woven Hand
11. ‘Christmas Is A Holiday’ - Ben + Vesper
There's a few songs off this free compilation that I like, but we'll go with this mysterious Rachel woman :) Looking at her blog, she seems to be very crafty.
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Next up is Rafael Brom, a Catholic recording artist with over 8 albums under his belt.
The only songs I've listened from him are the free "The Christmas Songs" album, which is available on his website www.rafaelbrom.com. They were released in 1994 on Cassette, but they digitized it (and it doesn't sound that bad considering it's from a Cassette).
The big thing that struck me about these recording is that Brom doesn't sound American (he's currently living in League City, Texas, according to his myspace). I found out that he's actually Czechoslovakian.
Moving on, The Knife gave this MP3 song away called "Christmas Reindeer" last year. I don't think it's available on www.theknife.net anymore (but I'm sure you're resourceful enough to find a copy somewhere.)
The actual song is actually called "Reindeer", appearing on their self-titled debut album in 2001. I guess they just wanted to be a little festive and renamed the song.
So, speaking of Sweden (The Knife are from Sweden), we have some great Swedish music to talk about in the upcoming weeks, particularly from both Razzia and Labrador.
12/20/2007 09:21:02
vu
my♥posts
www.weheartmusic.com
I hate jumping on to bandwagons (or should I say bandsleighs?) but we live in dire times. Lapland is on the brink of civil war, terrorists are disguised as children's toys and another factory-line squeaky clean vomit-inducing single is about to make it to number one in the UK charts. Where's President Bush when there is a real crisis? Why he is training his babies to be junior park rangers...of course (If you follow the link there is some free Christmas tunes courtesy of the Whitehouse website).
Malcolm Middleton's odds on winning the 'Christmas Number One' have risen faster than Father Christmas' sleigh in the winter skies. But now is not the time to be complacent! The result of the nationwide musical talent contest, the X Factor, was announced last night. Almost instantly winner Leon Jackson's single appeared on the front page of the iTunes store.
Having never paid any intention to the Christmas Charts, I was shocked to discover that the X Factor winner has seized the 'Christmas Number One' chart position too many times. Leon Jackson is evil. He is charming, he is dashing, he is Scottish, he is pretty much everything I am not. He must be stopped.
On the other hand, Middleton has produced the musical equivalent of Bad Santa, a working man's 'Do You Realize?'. He has captured spirit of the microwave meal for one Christmas. A track to unite all of those people who have ever enjoyed a Christmas glass of Gin and Tonic without the Tonic. A tune for those folks who find themselves taking advantage of themselves under the mistletoe. A ballad of such proportion...oh you get it, I hate Christmas.
Actually I am not too fussed about who gets the 'Christmas Number One' but I needed to pad out this writeup in order to share the Middleton video with you.
Another lovely little video is Sufjan Stevens's Put The Lights On The Tree. This is included as a bonus feature in his Songs For Christmas boxset along with a comic book and other little goodies. I offer this video as Sufjan's Christmas spirit is the yin to Middleton's yan.
Finally in the spirit of Christmas, Okkervil River are offering a free Christmas Mixtape EP on their website. Check it out. It's quite good and it's free. If you see any more free Christmas goodies on offer, let me know!
Merry Christmas!!
December 16, 2007 16:20
Ryan
my posts
wereallgoingtodie.co.uk
He seems to contribute to a whole lot of other projects/artists as well. I would go on naming them, but it is far too much for my lazy self, and mostly because I haven't a clue who all the artists are. He's also done a few mentionable covers. He's covered Tim Buckleys "She Is", Daniel Johnstons "Worried Shoes" and The Star Spangled Banner. Although, it he added whole new verse and rearranged the melody.
As far as the 50 states project goes, the next states are speculated to be Rhode Island, Oregan or Minnesota.
Anyway this is an artist I'm definitly going to be looking further into. I love what I've heard so far and I hope others here will like it too.
