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…"

Photo by Lizeth Santos

On the 13th of April we'll have the high partying honor of releasing Animal Feelings, the third full length from Rafter. We have high expectations that this will end partisan politics, long-standing family disputes, and decrease aggressive driving accidents by 22%, perhaps more.

It may not quite seem like it, but it is nearly spring. That means flower buds, rabbits making rabbits, bees pollinating…and this year, the appropriately timed Rafter's Animal Feelings. 

"beauty beauty" Animal Feelings (Download)

Wed. 3/17 – 4:30 PM @ VICE House (302 E. 6th St.) – Lose Control Party
Wed. 3/17 ? 12:15 AM @ Beauty Bar Backyard (617 E. 7th St.) ?
Asthmatic Kitty/K Records/Sounds Familyre/Tomlab Party
Sat. 3/20 ? 3:30 PM @ Barbrella (615 Red River St.) ? Moshi Moshi
Music, Wichita Recordings & Mixtape Music Party w/ Bushwalla, Mariachi
El Bronx, Slow Club, and more
Sat. 3/20 ? TBA @ The Iron Gate Lounge (1111 East 6th Street) ?
Singing Serpent Party
Sat. 3/20 ? 9 PM @ The Iron Gate Lounge (1111 East 6th Street) ? Yelp Party

Following the pop-leaning lead of his last EP, Sweaty Magic, Rafter’s latest longplayer, Animal Feelings, hits shelves April 13th! It will be a long winter wait for this a Technicolor pop blow-out, but well worth it! Animal Feelings recalls Nintendo composer Koji Kondo leading a fantasy camp super-jam with Cody Chesnutt, Justin Timberlake, and the Tom Tom Club. Rafter’s history and influences, his dreams and ambition, and his love for love, all come together as a sweet, fun, speaker-blowin’, beat-busting ride into the inner-core of pop and R&B music.

Ask him to drop names for his latest work and he’ll say Justin Timberlake and Sublime Frequencies’ Radio Phnom Penh without batting an eye. He’ll tell you Animal Feelings is "a marriage record, a lust record, a death and sex record" and he’ll tell you to read The KLF’s notorious manual on writing a #1 single, which he says fueled and saved the recording sessions, which stretched over the course of a year and a half.

Animal Feelings, his fourth LP for Asthmatic Kitty, is an idea-packed picnic of philosophies and fears, of affirmations and questions. Like all of his work, this record is a very personal piece of music and Rafter has a lot to tell you. Whether you choose to listen or not is the difference between you getting down on the dancefloor or simply standing outside the club, listening to the beats, muffled and gutless through the walls. You have exactly three months to get ready to join the party!

Check out a track from the album, Paper. (Note: Not safe for radio or sensitive ears!)

“Paper (Explicit)” Animal Feelings (Download)

"Fruit (Live)" (Download)

Get this: Rafter is engaged! And to photographer Lizeth Santos no less, the girl who did the cover art on Rafter’s last album, Sweaty Magic, and has repeatedly inspired Rafter to do such things as the art project a day!

To celebrate the engagement, Lizeth and Rafter are throwing an an engagement party/art show/music show/jamboree. Lizeth has made a whole series of heart-themed photos, and Rafter and friends, playing as "smile now, cry later," will play some covers of their favorite love jams.

And seeing as how you’re a friend, you should go to congratulate them in person! The lovejamfestparty is on Thursday April 30th, 9pm at the Whistlestop Bar in San Diego (21+).

Click more to see the full promo poster and a tease of Lizeth’s heart-themed photography.

Via our Twitter account, some things to do this weekend: Fri- Rafter in Seattle @ Chop Suey. Jookabox in Rotterdam @ Lantaren Venster II. Sat-Rafter in Tacoma @ The Helm, Jookabox in Duisburg @ Steinbruch; Sun-Rafter in Portland @ Rontoms; Sun-Jookabox in Bremen @ Treue.

Details here.