Celebrate Christmas on Halloween!? Who ever heard of such a thing? Of course we haven’t forgotten Halloween either.

In the same way that brisk, Northern wind whipped by you last week with its chilly reminder that the holiday season is closer than you think, here it is: Sufjan’s 5 CD Songs for Christmas in all its free, streamy goodness, available for enjoyment right now. These computer bytes of joy broadcast over the Internet feature albums recorded by Sufjan over the course of 5 yuletides (from 2001 to 2006), each employing different friends, instruments, and moods to tease and swizzle the Christmas spirit in all of us, even as early as October. Say, maybe it is time to swirl some shortbread and toss a little tinsel.

Of course, you can’t gift-wrap an internet stream. For those who prefer their Christmas with lovingly reused golden bows and Santa-in-pajama wrapping paper, we will be taking preorders for Songs for Christmas on October 31st, the Christmas of October to ship November 14th. This wonderful set weighs at least 15 pieces of coal, with 5 individually wrapped CDs, stickers, short stories, an essay, a video, a comic strip, songbooks, and an Official Original Christmas Family Portrait of Santa Sufjan! Check those off your list! If we could have placed the CDs in snowman adorned cookie tins and delivered them to you by hand at your Christmas office party, we would have. But we just don’t have enough helper elves.

[PRE-ORDER SONGS FOR CHRISTMAS]

[STREAM SONGS FOR CHRISTMAS]

Forget the 50 States. Christmas is a bigger concept. As some of you may or may not know, for the past few years, as a holiday tradition, Sufjan has embarked on an extraordinary experiment to record an annual Christmas EP. It started in 2001, the year of Epiphanies, and continued onward (skipping only 2004), culminating into an odd and idiosyncratic catalog of music that has only existed in the Asthmatic Kitty archives (and on a number of file sharing sites). The recording process took place every December, for one week, usually at home, provoking collaborations with friends, roommates, and musical peers. Armed with a Reader’s Digest Christmas Songbook (and a mug of hot cider) Sufjan & friends concocted a musical fruit cake year after year, implementing every musical instrument they could find lying around the house: banjo, oboe, Casiotone, wood flute, a buzzy guitar, hand claps, sleigh bells, Hammond organ, and some tree tinsel. Did we mention sleigh bells?

[Visit release page for more info]

Advance ticket sales for the Sufjan Stevens and My Brightest Diamond tour are going fast! Some concerts advance tickets have sold out and some new dates have been added.

To buy tickets go here : http://sufjan.ducatking.com/

You will need to use the password – tabby (all lowercase) to buy tickets.

Advance tickets are now sold-out for : New York, Vancouver, San francisco, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis.
Limited advance tickets are still available for : Atlanta, Nashville, Chapel hill, Seattle and Milwaukee.
Advance tickets to go on sale for : Portland, Chicago and Philadelphia at 1PM Thursday, July 13th
For the first time in over a year, Sufjan Stevens is going on tour, bringing with him a talented group of musicians and friends including a small string ensemble and brass section.  They will perform a repertoire of familiar songs from Seven Swans, Michigan and Illinois in a new symphonic context. The tour will bring Sufjan and his ensemble to some of the country’s finest theaters, including Nashville’s esteemed Ryman and Los Angeles’ historic Wiltern.

Supporting the tour will be My Brightest Diamond, a moniker for the talented singer-songwriter Shara Worden. Shara has toured extensively in Sufjan’s band, appears on his recordings, and is often his right-hand woman. Shara is also a close friend, creative peer and Brooklyn neighbor to Sufjan.

The pomp and pageantry of the previous Illinoismakers tour will be augmented by a nuance, mastery and sophistication of talented new players. But don’t expect to see any cheerleading uniforms or routines. Suit coats, neckties and corsages might be more appropriate; but we aren’t about to issue a dress code.

Sufjan would also like to take this opportunity on tour to debut a few new pieces.

Are you "On the Hatch?" Have you "Met Your Match?" Then maybe you should try THE AVALANCHE, Sufjan’s symphonic answer to those summer time blues. The days are only getting shorter. Why waste it on beach balls and tan lines and sand in your swimming shorts? What is The Avalanche anyway? The refreshing winter air, the snowy bliss, the downhill skiers and Coors Light TV commercials? No! It’s all the musical debris, the outtakes and extras, the soundscapes and folk songs, the electronic experiments, the notey woodwinds, the brassy choruses, the pomp and pageantry, scrupulously sifted from everyone’s favorite "that’s-so-last-year" album ILLINOIS.

Listen to the album [here].Do you like the song "Chicago" enough to hear it deconstructed three times over the course of a single album? Oh, that’s not your idea of a good time? What about a disco-jazz ode (in 7/8) to the Supercomputer hosted at the University of Illinois, Champaigne-Urbana? Ok, not your cup of tea? What about smarty pants Saul Bellow or the man who discovered Pluto or Ann Landers and her estranged sister Dear Abby? We strongly urge drivers to hum a line from the title track whenever they catch sight of an actual Chevy Avalanche truck. If you don’t know what it looks like, catch a glimpse [here]. Wow! What an elegant eyesore! Designed by a six-year-old boy! It’s a toy truck the size of a small house! The Avalanche comes in many shapes and sizes, in many color schemes, with or without plastic bumpers. We strongly urge you to buy a copy [here]. In other news, Sufjan Stevens has announced a tour, not in support of the Avalanche, but in support of [LIFE ITSELF].

Sufjan Stevens will be performing alongside, Philip Glass (Artistic Director), Laurie Anderson, Antony, Nawang Khechog (Grammy-nominated Tibetan flautist), Damien Rice and Allen Toussaint at Carnegie Hall in New York City on March 1st, 2006 as part of the Tibet House Benefit Concert.  A portion of the proceeds of the concert will go to a The New Orleans Artists Against Hunger and Homelessness, Inc. (NOAAHH) aiding New Orleans musicians affected by the hurricane.

Concert tickets are $30-$108 and can be purchased by calling Carnegie Charge at 212.247.7800 or in-person at the Carnegie Hall Box Office (57th Street and Seventh Avenue).

There will be more artists performing at the show so check the Tibet House U.S. website regularly (www.tibethouse.org) as all new updates will be posted as soon as they are confirmed.

A fundraising reception with the event’s Honorary Chairperson and artists will be held following the performance. For more information or to reserve tickets for the concert and reception call Tibet House U.S. at 212.807.0563. www.tibethouse.org

A portion of the party proceeds will go to the local Tibetan community, the Tibetan Association of New York and New Jersey.

Please note: Concert-only tickets are not available through Tibet House.

Sufjan will be appearing on Paper Bag Records kid’s compilation entitled “See You On The Moon!”  This compilation also includes our good friend Rosie Thomas and other wonderful musicians such as Kid Koala, Alan Sparhawk (of Low), and Great Lake Swimmers (of the lovely Misra label roster).  The record will be available in stores in February.

Press Release:

Once upon a time in a land far away three magical dwarves turning the cogs at Paper Bag Records, set to work creating something a little different amidst the foggy haze of indie rock. Avid music fans since birth, the dwarves decided to make a record that kids could listen to with their parents and in turn make all future, long car journeys a pleasure. Instead of releasing plastic, tacky, gimmicky, and not to mention annoying, ditties, Paper Bag Records has made something else?

See You On The Moon! is our offering to kids all over the world. We noticed that most of the time kids are far more intelligent than the adults surrounding them. We can only hope this peace offering of eclectic, new and exclusive tracks will do the trick!

In return for simple, elf magic our friends Alan Sparhawk (of Low), Apostle of Hustle, Broken Social Scene, Detective Kalita, FemBots, Glissandro 70 (of Polmo Polpo), Great Lake Swimmers, Hot Chip, Junior Boys, Kid Koala (with special guest Lederhosen Lucil), Mark Kozelek (of Sun Kil Moon/Red House Painters), Montag, Rosie Thomas and Sufjan Stevens all made very special tracks just for this project. Throwing condescension out the window and understanding the concept of fun without it being mindless or moronic – all the tracks will appeal to kids and grown ups alike.

With See You On The Moon! pumping through sound systems worldwide, once the kids have forgiven us, we will all live happily ever after.

January 14, 2006 (8:30 p.m. & 10:30 p.m.)– A second show has been added as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series. Sufjan will be performing with strings, horns, and a full band in the distinctive contours of the Allen Room, a 500-capacity theater with a unique view over Columbus Circle. This uncommon performance will feature new arrangements of familiar songs from Seven Swans, Michigan, and Illinois, as well as one or two new “pieces.”

Having spent the past few weeks anguishing over staff paper, etching amateur notations, channeling the muses of Charles Ives and Benjamin Britten, Sufjan is now ready to demonstrate the merits of time spent in music school (oh, many years ago!) holed up in a practice room, hunched over music theory periodicals and Barret Oboe Method textbooks. This is not rock-n-roll. Nor is it Broadway Theater. The pom poms have been put in retirement. Instead, Sufjan’s band could be wearing shirts with collars and neckties. Or even–dare we say it–street clothes. There will be violas and violins. In attendance will be wealthy New Yorkers, upper east-siders, grown men and women who can complete the Sunday Times crossword puzzle in ten minutes flat. Please join us with a look of surprise on your face. If you can’t afford the ticket prices, then please consider that surprised look in the privacy of your own home, in front of a mirror.

Information: The Allen Room is located on the 5th floor of the Time Warner Center at Broadway and 60th Street, New York City.

For locals, the box office is located in The Shops at Columbus Circle inside the Broadway at 60th Street entrance.

Main Phone Line: 212.258.98
www.lincolncenter.org

The hand silkscreened posters from the Bowery Ballroom shows are now available in our shop.  These beautiful posters are signed and numbered by artist Jason Munn of the Small Stakes, and are a limited edition poster celebrating the five-night Asthmatic Kitty Extravaganza. 

Asthmatic Kitty Records announces a long-awaited event. It’s not a bird, a plane, or a bunch of balloons, but the arrival of Sufjan Stevens’ acclaimed Illinois in a double vinyl, double-gatefold set, able to leap the Sears Tower in 77 minutes. The set includes all the songs from the CD plus a bonus track–The Avalanche, and features technicolor album art by Divya Srinivasan. The first 5,000 copies of the Illinois vinyl are from the original pressing in which a giant strategic balloon sticker conviently conceals you know what.  The Illinois vinyl will be available in stores Nov. 23rd and is now available in our shop.

Sufjan has contributed a cover to the Tim & Jeff Buckley tribute record to be released October 3rd, 2005 on the Full Time Hobby label out of the UK. The tribute compilation also includes Buckley covers performed by The Magic Numbers, The Earlies, Kathryn Williams, Micah P Hinson, Adem, Tunng, and Matthew Herbert.

In the words of the Full Time Hobby label:
“In the way it honors the heritage of the Buckleys while seriously screwing with it, this album is a testament to the legacy Tim and Jeff left in their wake. Wherever they are, it would be nice to imagine the Buckleys listening to this collection, wondering why certain songs were chosen and others omitted, why certain tunes were rearranged certain ways?and reveling in the volatility of it all. They wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

Here is a full track-listing:

1. The Magic Numbers – Sing A Song For You
2. Micah P Hinson – Yard Of Blonde Girls
3. Sufjan Stevens – She Is
4. King Creosote – Grace
5. The Earlies – I Must Have Been Blind
6.  Bitmap – Dream Brother
7.  Engineers – Song To The Siren
8.  Adem – Mojo Pin
9. Tunng – No Man Can Find The War
10.  Stephen Fretwell – Morning Theft
11.  Kathryn Williams – Buzzin Fly
12.  Matthew Herbert and Dani Siciliano – Everybody Here Wants You
13. Clayhill – The River