ROYAL CITY RETURNS [FREE MP3]

April 9th, 2009 , by

You either love Royal City, or you don’t know of them. We have good news either way. If the latter is true, we’re hoping a well-thought collection of rarities, b-sides, and special songs by the now-disbanded Canadian group changes that for you. Royal City is, dare we say, great. We are lucky to know them because they played their first show in NYC in Sufjan Stevens’ living room in 2003, after wrapping up a tour in Canada where a (then) little known band named Arcade Fire opened for them. Other collaborations included other Canadian heavyweights like Final Fantasy, Feist, and Bob Wiseman. See? They’re friends of your friends.

A good primer to Royal City is journalist Vish Khanna’s retrospective writeup, which serves as this album’s description on our site. Read it here. And we’ve released a free MP3 from the album, "A Belly Was Made For Wine." Graduate from those to an interview by Khanna with bass player Simon Osborne (read here), and then you should be ready for the self-titled album due on June 23rd.

"A Belly Was Made For Wine" (Download)

MBD AT RADIO CITY IN DARK WAS THE NIGHT

April 6th, 2009 , by

If you listen to music, then you – of course! – picked up the superb Dark Was The Night compilation, which included songs from My Brightest Diamond and Sufjan Stevens   (Sufjan covered a Castanets track). Turns out a cadre from the album has gathered to play from Dark Was The Night at NYC’s Radio City on May 3. Spearheaded by none other than the intrepid Dirty Projectors, the concert benefits the AIDS awareness organization, Red Hot. Details and tickets are here. You can still buy the compilation from the website here.

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND IS THE FOREST QUEEN

April 6th, 2009 , by

Photograph by Autumn De Wilde

Shara Worden, frontwoman for MBD, appears quite frequently on a new record from a band you might have heard of. They go by the name, "The Decemberists," and The Hazards of Love recounts the story of "a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William; a forest queen; and a cold-blooded, lascivious rake." Shara not only plays the forest queen on the record, but will also be playing the role in The Decemberists’ "A Short Fazed Hovel tour 2009." Click more to see the dates of the rock opera.05.19 Los Angeles, CA: Hollywood Palladium
05.20 Oakland, CA: Fox Theatre
05.21 Eugene, OR: McDonald Theater
05.24 Missoula, MT: Wilma Theatre
05.25 Denver, CO: Fillmore Auditorium
05.27 Kansas City, MO:  Uptown Theater
05.29 Milwaukee, WI: Riverside Theater
05.31 St. Louis, MO: The Pageant
06.01 Columbus, OH: Lifestyle Communities Pavilion
06.03 Atlanta, GA: Tabernacle
06.04 Raleigh, NC: Memorial Auditorium
06.05 Richmond, VA: The National
06.06 Upper Darby, PA: Tower Theatre
06.09 Boston, MA: Radio City Music Hall
06.11-14 Manchester, TN: Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival

MBD INTERVIEWED BY FITE, RECORDED BY LANDROMATINEE

April 3rd, 2009 , by

We are always happy when My Brightest Diamond shows up. In this case, her cyber-presence is now in two more places. 
Tim Fite, whom you might recognize from a recent MBD tour and musical fame in general, is also an expert interviewer worthy of the sharpest press corp. Why? He doesn’t shy from the rough and tough issues. "I drew a circus tent and I want you to draw some things inside of it that you would want inside your circus tent," he drills Shara Worden of MBD. Her responses to that and many other questions are here at BOMB Magazine.

Shara also recorded a session for Indianapolis’ increasingly famous LaundroMatinee, a spin-off of My Old Kentucky Blog. The quality is, of course, superb, and it is also a treat to see how well MBD’s songs translate to just Shara and her good friend, Guitar. You can watch all four songs here.

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND

April 3rd, 2009 , by

Via the official AK TwitterNetFeedSpace: [Fri] Rafter in #SantaBarbara @ UC, Jookabox in #IowaCity @ Yacht Club. [Sat] Jookabox in #Columbia @ MOJOs. [Sun] Rafter in #Visalia @ Cellar Door.

See here for details.

THIRD MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND REMIX ALBUM, FREE MP3

March 31st, 2009 , by

We have been releasing a series of remixes of from A Thousand Shark’s Teeth and have hit the third of four. This one, by Roberto C. Lange, is perhaps the most divergent and individualized so far – and that’s good thing. Lange’s take on this album is sublime and intriguing, almost as if you’re looking at Shark’s Teeth in your periphereal vision. David Stith (aka DM Stith) continues to provide the album’s stunning artwork. You can pick it up on iTunes for $4.95, and read more about it, here.

Enjoy this free MP3, the first track, from the album:
"Manzanas" (Download)

LAST MINUTE ALERT! CRYPTACIZE IN NYC AND BOSTON!

March 31st, 2009 , by

Photo by Denny Renshaw
Do you see that guitar in the photo above? That is is Chris Cohen playing – nay, rocking his guitar. This is just a photograph, but you can see it live tonight along with Nedelle and the entire Cryptacize troupe on April 1st (no joke!), in Cambridge at TT Bear’s Place with Bobb Trimble (tickets here for $10), and Thursday April 2nd at the Music Hall of Wiliamsburg with Vivian’s Girls (tickets here for $15). Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti is at both shows, so why wouldn’t you go?

Check out all of Cryptacize’s dates, including those for an upcoming European tour, here.

FOUR NEW HERMAS VIDEOS

March 28th, 2009 , by

We’re honored to be releasing Espoir in a few weeks, the debut album from Hermas Zoupola . You can wait, or you can start watching and listening now. Hermas has recorded four videos: in one he walks down his street in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; another is in his back yard; for the third he recorded inside his home; and the fourth takes place in his studio. Together, the four videos provide a nice cross-section of the two-disc album, and the place where Hermas wrote the album. Click more to see the other three videos, or here to go to our Vimeo account.

More videos are on their way. So is Espoir, which will arrive May 19th.

SIX SPECIAL CITIES CAN SEE CRYPTACIZE

March 24th, 2009 , by

Ok, read over this list of cities carefully: Salt Lake, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Pontiac, Buffalo. Read them again. Do you live in or within non-carbon-emitting-distance of any of those cities? Well, this just happens to your lucky week pal.

Between now and the 30th, Cryptacize is stopping by one of those cities. Their new album Mythomania becomes a reality in April, but we’ll bet our company farm they’ll be playing songs from it. That means you can tell your friends you heard them first. They’re touring with Ariel Pink’s HAUNTED GRAFFITI, which gives you another reason to go to the show. Extensive details here.

Not near or in one of those cities? Is ok. Read their blog for Cryptacize antics and hijinks to hold you over until the album appears.

Cryptacize, "Tail and Mane" (Download)

STITH: ON AIR, UNCENSORED (THOUGH NOT AT THE SAME TIME)

March 23rd, 2009 , by

Maybe you caught DM Stith at SXSW this weekend, maybe you didn’t. Either way, you’ll probably really enjoy these two cyber-slices of Stith that have magically appeared online over the weekend. Sunday, Stith appeared on the America’s most famous public radio station, WYNC, and recorded a fabulous session in their studio for Spinning on Air . The sound and production are of course gorgeous. WYNC has posted the entire session, interview, photos, and all, for streaming and download here.
If you’re looking for a rawer version of Stith, one that freely comments on Jesus, graphic design, Obama, and Guitar Hero, you can see over a dozen short videos of “uncensored” Stith videos on Uncensored Interview here. Or, if the written word is your preferred form of media consumption, check out Entertainment Weekly’s SXSW decompression interview with Stith here.
Stith’s debut album, Heavy Ghost, is still streaming at Muxtape but only for a little while longer. Hear it here. You can also pick up the CD ($10+S&H) or Double LP ($15+S&H) here.
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