SURPRISE! RAFTER UNLEASHES A QUIET STORM OF AN ALBUM 2011-01-28
Surprise! A new album from Rafter?!? OH YES.
Rafter sprang Quiet Storm on us this week and we loved what we heard. He wanted it out and about, right now, pronto STAT. So we said, OK BOSS! And here it is! Take Rafter's yoga-like swagger, his pop sensibilities, then throw those out the ducktaped window of your 1987 Honda Civic Hatchback. Throwthe nearest unlabeled CO2 cassette in the car's $44 SoundATech stereo (and complimentary speakers!), turn the broken knob as high as it goes, and you will get Quiet Storm. Thuuunder!
Rafter, on Quiet Storm, which originated while touring for Animal Feelings: "we listened to a lot of black metal demo tapes in the car... it was really inspiring, extreme, blown out, ridiculous but heartfelt... i made this album, fed by those inspirations and a wave of existential freakout, human mind explosion. in my fantasy, it's like darkthrone meets the kinks meets lee perry..."
Stream the new record for free, and if you love it as we do, name a price ($0.69 or more) here. The rest of Rafter's catalog (here) is similarly you-name-it priced, for a limited time. If there was ever a day to indulge yourself in Rafter, today is that day.
RAFTER CAREER ON MOUNTAINTOP, AS IN HE IS PLAYING ON ONE 2010-06-29
Of course we have all seen the music videos wherein the band is helicoptered in and plays on top of a mountain. Lovely, all of them, but just an illusion, yes? Bands don't actually play on mountaintops.
Or do they? An elite few actually do - an elite few that will soon include our very own Rafter, for Peppermill Fest 2010, held August 13-15th! In prep for the mountaintop fest, Vancouver's Peppermill Records are scouting Shangri-La Basin in the majestic Rocky Mountains. Although they've confirmed Rafter, the lineup is still in the works so keep checking here for details. Tickets are $200 (this is a good deal!) and includes all kinds of great stuff like food and drink and music, so you should buy tickets from here soon - Rafter promises a "1 of a kind set;" listening to Rafter on a mountaintop should not be missed.
SURPRISE! RAFTER'S ANIMAL FEELINGS REMIXES IS OUT TODAY [FREE MP3] 2010-05-18
You are probably still dancing if you picked up Rafter's Animal Feelings. We sure as heck still are, and it's cost us several hundred dollars in office furniture as a result. The album is so perfectly crafted to getting it down and sweaty like that we thought Rafter needed some time to sit back and relax.
But nay. We had quite the pleasant surprise when a package arrived at AK HQ from Rafter and inside was a whole album worth of remixes. Apparently, this man never stops working - to make us dance. Says Rafter, "I'm always restless, always rebelling against whatever seemed to work last time, so when I turned in Animal Feelings and let that enormous process leave my hands, I immediately started deconstructing it."
Take, as evidence of Rafter's innate feistiness, our free gift to you and your love partner(s): the remix of "fruit" by California mainstay Baths. He's transformed Rafter's original chicka-chicka, booty-swinger into the pitch-perfect, prom night, credit-rolling slow dance. Give that disco ball a little spin and prepare to fall in love...again. If this were 1987, John Hughes and ilk would be clamoring over their directors chairs to license this little capsule of innocent/naughty love for their film's closing scene.
You can buy the album right now on iTunes for $9.99 by clicking here, or from our own little digital store for $7 here.
