New Shannon Stephens Album Out Now

May 22nd, 2012 , by

Seattle-based singer-songwriter Shannon Stephens’ third full-length Pull It Together releases today. Throughout the album’s 11 bluesy racks, Stephens sings about the weighty world, joy, and rest. A shortlist of fine musicians make appearances, including DM Stith and Jeff Fielder. Stephens also teams up with Bonnie Prince Billy (Will Oldham) on the track “Faces Like Ours.”

Seattle Weekly sings the album’s praises, saying, “From Stephens’ band mates to her personal, well-spun compositions, great instincts and well-adapted acoustic flourishes define Pull It Together and make it a deeply satisfying spin.” Read the whole review over on the Weekly’s site.

You can order a copy of Pull It Together on CD or LP here. Also available: a pressed-to-order Tae Won Yu t-shirt in sizes for men and women.

NEW WELCOME WAGON UP FOR PREORDER, EP FOR FREE VIA NOISETRADE, RELEASE SHOW

May 21st, 2012 , by

All those months you’ve been patiently waiting, biding time cleaning out closets, sorting book spines by color, and shining your shoes, are about to come to an end. The Welcome Wagon’s latest full-length, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, will be ready for ears everywhere in a few short weeks.

We officially release the Welcome Wagon’s new album June 12, and we’re taking pre-orders now. To reserve a copy on CD or LP, click here.

To prep for the release, The Welcome Wagon decided to set their last EP, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing, free on Noisetrade.  Get the EP here, or see below.

THIS JUST IN: Record release party in Brooklyn on June 5th at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Brooklyn at 7pm! Beautiful poster design by  Brian Jones here.

NEW SHANNON STEPHENS VIDEO, TOUR [MP3, VIDEO]

May 9th, 2012 , by

Shannon Stephens’ strong-hearted songwriting distinguishes her infectious third release, Pull It Together. The album’s blues-meets-indie folk melodies hover underneath challenging lyrics born out of the Great Recession. And she's taking it on tour.

Stephens begins her Pull It Together Tour on May 16 in Allentown, PA, winding her way through New York, Ontario, Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois, and Ohio before playing a final show in her hometown of Seattle June 8. For a complete list of tour dates, click here.

We're also releasing her brand new single today, entitled “Care of You.” The song captures the essence of the new record: a bluesy ragged jam, as if pulled together on a bar stage with close friends. Watch the video, directed by Christian Sorensen Hansen, above, or download it off of Soundcloud right here. 

We're lucky to be releasing Pull It Together May 22nd. To preorder a copy of the album, click here – $10 for CD, $15 for LP. 

You can also get her new t-shirt, pressed to order and designed by cover artist Tae Won Yu, here.

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND AT CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY

May 4th, 2012 , by

My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden will perform on her former home turf this weekend. Collaborating with New York-based indie-classical chamber ensemble supergroup yMusic, MBD plays Saturday at the Crossing Brooklyn Ferry music fest, sponsored by Brooklyn Academy of Music. yMusic contributed to MBD’s 2011 release All Things Will Unwind.

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry is curated by brothers and musicians Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National). The fest was conceived by BAM director Joseph V. Melillo, who also commissioned Sufjan Stevens’ cinematic suite The BQE in 2007.

Part of a festival lineup, including Beirut, St. Vincent, and Sharon Van Etten, MBD takes the stage with yMusic at the Howard Gilman Opera House this Saturday, May 5 at 8 p.m. Click here for tickets.

PEPE DELUXÉ RELEASE IPAD APP, NEW SINGLE

April 27th, 2012 , by

There are certain things that shouldn’t work together, but do. Spacesuits and gravity. Salt and caramel. Harold and Maude. Every once in awhile, musicians get the idea to join seemingly conflicting elements, and something compellingly new emerges. Enter Pepe Deluxé.

Pepe Deluxé teases fresh, infectious sounds out of obscured vintage technologies, including a 500,000 volt Tesla coil synthesizer, Edwardian telephone amplifier, and gargantuan Stalacpipe Organ built in the mid-50s inside a cave in Virginia.

Then there's the band’s brand new single, “Go Supersonic,” which floats layered vocals over an ecstatic garage rock beat.

Infusing sounds rooted in space pop and psychedelia, Pepe Deluxé released their fourth album, Queen of the Wave, in January. A cryptic and compelling pop opera, the album was inspired by the novel A Dweller On Two Planets, an esoteric book penned in the 19th Century exploring cosmic themes like reincarnation, sci-fi futurism, and Atlantis.

Jari Solo (aka James Spectrum) founded the band in the mid-90s and forms its backbone, collaborating with Swedish ex-pat Paul Malmström. The duo recorded Queen of the Wave with a cornucopia of vocalists, including opera singer Kirsi Thum and vocal group Club for Five.

The single includes mixes by Husky Rescue, Voluntary Butler Scheme, and Secuem. For now, stream the track on Soundcloud here. And if you haven’t, download the free Pepe Deluxé iPad app here.

THREE NEW LIBRARY CATALOG MUSICAL ENTRIES

April 12th, 2012 , by

The Library Catalog Music Series is not for the casual music buyer. It is instead music directed at those with very particular needs and desires. For that reason, when we roll out a new set of these albums we avoid fanfare and ego embellishing. The Library Catalog requires no fanfare because it is fanfare. The people who need to know, know.

And those who know, know that the Library Catalog Music Series can help sell something. Or provide a soundtrack to the birth of a child. Or the background music for cubical efficiency implementations. The Library Catalog is Epcot Center (TM) in its creative approximations, and the Grand Canyon (C) in its magnitudinal awe. 

The newest additions, volumes 15, 16 and 17 are no exception. 

They include the dubbed out mouth beats of Ero Gray ricocheting off of ancient subconsciousness of our planetary ancestors, the shimmering waves of Alfred Brown melting symphony halls and mausoleums walls returning the orchestra to a place of grandeur and hope, and the deep sonics and nuance wizardry of Effacer wielding sound as the sound of sound itself.

These are albums that do not only occupy the airwaves and the shelves of record collections, they occupy the annals of history. They rapture consumers from plundered FM assimilation. They circumvent subpar creative directors and medicore agencies, rescuing listeners in retail storefronts and movie-goers from the mundane needle-drop of uninspired hacks with high end synthesizers.

Rest. Listen. Breath. And feast your ears on these new and fresh audio delights, now available for all your licensing and listening needs in both the original physical needle drop form of vinyl records or in instantly gratifying digital stream or download compatibility. 

Listen and purchase here.

GET DENISON WITMER ALBUM FREE ON NOISETRADE

April 10th, 2012 , by

We released Denison Witmer's The Ones Who Wait a few weeks ago, and it's just as good sounding today as it was then. You can listen and buy here.

But Denison has a robust back-catalog, and that includes one of our favorties, Are You a Dreamer? Our own Shara Worden and Sufjan Stevens and the Library Catalog's James McAllistor make appearances on the album, as well as Karen Don Peris (of Innocence Mission). 

As of today Are You A Dreamer? is available via Noisetrade and all it takes is your email address and zip code to download the album. You can also leave a support Denison with a "tip" if you like.

Do so below, or visit the page on Noisetrade right here.

DENISON WITMER, CASTANETS ON DAYTROTTER

April 6th, 2012 , by


Illustrations by Johnnie Cluney

We've been listening to Daytrotter for a while, and have loved every moment. Their recording sessions are some of the best in the biz. The sound quality and engineering is incredible. The writing and illustration always capture the essence of an artist.

All that to say: Daytrotter gets it.

So when one of our own artists pops up with a session, we rush like lemmings (do lemmings rush?) to the site to hear and download and read. When two our artists go up in one week? Things get a little crazy.

Of Denison Witmer, Sean Moeller  writes, " The one thing that must keep him going is getting to play the songs that he writes every night – these songs that are so filled with deeply personal anecdotes and sentiments. They are the intimate thoughts that he can't bottle up."

And speaking about Ray Raposa of Castanets, Sean wrote that  he "never ceases to mystify when he writes. He never seems to give it all up and for that, he's a master of the form."

If you're not already a subscriber – hey why aren't you? – you can try Daytrotter for free and snag these sessions. Castantets is here, and the Denison session is here.

A WELCOME REMEDY FROM THE WELCOME WAGON

March 23rd, 2012 , by

It is March, in the two-thousand-and-twelfth Year of Our Lord. The economy is still in the tank, our gas tanks are emptier,  jobs scarcer still than gas, and don’t even ask about health care.  White House hopefuls are bickering and backbiting like there is no year after this.  

We are sick and tired of it all. Heck, we’re just sick and tired, period.

We need some good medicine. Something a lot like Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices from The Welcome Wagon.

Not the 17th century Puritan classic by Thomas Brooks that you’re thinking of – though that book’s a fine place to start – but the new album of the same name by The Welcome Wagon, the musical duo of Vito and Monique Aiuto, a Presbyterian pastor and his wife.

The 13 tracks on Precious Remedies, which we’ll have the honor of releasing come June 12th, provide a much-needed healing balm, very much like the one Brooks describes in the preface to his old devotional: “A special salve for every spiritual sore, a special remedy against every spiritual malady…Food to nourish you, a staff to support you, a guide to lead you, a fire to warm you, and springs of life to cheer and refresh you.”


We’ll have a way for you to join The Welcome Wagon in a few weeks. For now you can get a head start by signing up for their mailing list on their website, watching the first single and debut video  on Relevant Magazine here, or listening and downloading the song below. More info on the release is here.

SUFJAN TO PLAY EINDHOVEN, AMSTERDAM, & LONDON WITH BRYCE DESSNER AND NICO MUHLY

March 22nd, 2012 , by

Sufjan Stevens is collaborating with good friends/old haunts Bryce Dessner and Nico Muhly to create a song-cycle loosely based on the planets. The trio will be performing their work in just a few select venues, accompanied by a trombone choir, string quartet, and drums/percussion/drum machine (played by the indefatigable James McAlister). Selections from the song-cycle will be “live workshopped” at Music Now festival in Cincinnati on March 30. Official performances are scheduled in Eindhoven, Amsterdam, London, and Sydney. More details here. Performances in Europe will be preceded by short string quartet works by each collaborator, including two selections from Sufjan’s Run Rabbit Run project.

No other performances for this project have been scheduled and all dates are sold out except Amsterdam, April 8th. Last chance to see cosmic history happen here.

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