Showing posts with label Sufjan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sufjan. Show all posts
Sufjan on WNYC's Soundcheck
photo Denny Renshaw
Hear Sufjan perform "Heirloom" off the All Delighted People Ep at 1:00, "Pleasure Principal" from The Age of Adz at 10:50, and "Futile Devices" off the same at 16:50. Interview takes place between performances. [via]
EDIT: Fast forward all the way through the first player and it will reload and play the bit with Sufjan (although the first segment is a fascinating look at Delta blues musician Son House).
Boxer/Briefs #8
-To celebrate what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday, Atlantic remembers his life.
-Irish Times interviews Sufjan Stevens and The Globe and Mail reviews his new album.
My Tumultuous Week with Age of Adz
I will be the first to admit that I was wrong. Completely wrong. I'm not going to sit here and tell you this album is a "grower" - I simply missed it. In fact, Age of Adz could very well be the album of the year. It's a complex masterpiece of composition, overflowing with emotion and existential angst.
Over the past year we all rolled our eyes (or wiped tears from them) as we read interviews with arguably the most important musician of our generation, bemoaning his creative crises:
"I’m wondering: what am I doing? What is a song even? I’m questioning, what’s the point of a song? Is a song antiquated? Does it have any power any more? The format itself — a narrative song with accompaniment — is really beyond me now."One can speculate whether these musings had direct affect on Adz or not, but if the songs on the album could be described in one word it would be "power." Probably the most jarring moment in the more than hour long record comes in "I Want to Be Well", a song that begins with Sufjan's standard whimsical air, only to deteriorate into a cycle of Stevens passionately declaring he's not "fucking around" - a phrase that certainly caused a few of the troubadour's more faithful fans to spew their morning cheerios across the kitchen table. It is this raw energy that really pushes Sufjan to new heights. His soul, previously buried under myriad layers of history, narrative, biblical allegories and the like, finally makes an appearance - and it's a bit more tortured than we ever imagined.
Yes, Sufjan is singing in the first person. In this context, the chaotic, unnerving electronics that float through the album take on a whole new meaning. They are the loose edges, the "distractions" that he warns us so eagerly to avoid on the 25-minute album closer, "Impossible Soul" ("Don't be distracted, don't be distracted now.") On a far less metaphorical level, his fusion of whimsical folk pop (that he nearly single-handedly pioneered back in the 2000's) with pulsing aquatic electronics creates an utterly unique and original sound. After several listens, the once prominent bleeps and whistles begin to melt into the overall aural texture and the layers become less annoying and much more like the wall of sound they are meant to be.
The best songs, "Vesuvius", "All for Myself", "I Want to Be Well", and "Impossible Soul", close out the album with beautifully arranged melodic structures recalling the atmosphere of Michigan and even some of his more medieval Christmas arrangements. It's a stretch of music that could easily stand with some of the best records of the past few decades.
[mp3]: Sufjan Stevens :: I Walked
[mp3]: Sufjan Stevens :: Too Much
Listen to Age of Adz in its entirety over at NPR
Pre-Order the album HERE
Age of Adz is out 10.12.10 on Asthmatic Kitty.
Sufjan Stevens: I Walked
2010 is being hijacked by Sufjan Stevens.
[mp3] Sufjan Stevens :: I Walked
New Sufjan LP Landing in October
On October 12, Sufjan will release his long awaited full-length follow up to Come On Feel the Illinoise! Its been five years since a full release, although one could argue its only been a week considering the hour long "EP" Stevens dropped on the music world last friday. The All Delighted People EP is a fantastic album, but according to Asthmatic Kitty Age of Adz will sound completely different:
We can say it shows an extensive use of electronics (banjos and acoustic guitars give way to drum machines and analog synthesizers), and an obsession with cosmic fantasies (space, heaven, aliens, love), to create an explicit pop-song extravaganza, augmented by heavy orchestration, and maybe even a few danceable moments.Now this is somewhat troublesome considering how much I love those "banjos and acoustic guitars" but I am not (yet) one to question the ways of Sufjan. All I can say about it right now is (1) Sufjan's still got it and (2) the album cover is pretty awesome.
[mp3] Sufjan Stevens :: Heirloom (from the All Delighted People EP)
You can pick up the new EP over at Sufjan's bandcamp page for $5 - well worth the money.
Review: Clogs - The Creatures In the Garden of Lady Walton
How else can we explain the incoherent impressionistic lyrics that pervade the music scene today? Pastoral scenes are abundant: Animal Collective's adobe slats; Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest island; any Joanna Newsom song, ever.
The independent music of the past half decade has been consistently drawing itself away from the political world and finding comfort in simple, natural landscapes. This movement may in itself be a protest against the seemingly ineffective quagmire of today's politics.
In many ways this new musical escapism has been captured in the work of Clogs, a quartet of classically trained indie-rockers (including two members of The National) that compose a complex hybrid of folk and classical music that is drawn from improvised jam sessions. The band's last album, Lantern (2006), introduced a dimension of accessibility that was absent from their earlier albums. They continue this movement with The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton, a sprawling yet compact album that introduces vocal structures to the band's instrumental landscapes.
From the very first track this realignment becomes obvious. A round of choral vocals introduces the "creatures" of the album; the listener is transported to a medieval realm at the sound of these minstrel harmonies and one could argue we never leave.
The strongest song on the record is "On the Edge" sung by My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden. Her vibrant melodies are complimented with a delicate arrangement of guitar, strings, bassoon, and percussion that elevate the song, along with her celtic-classical vocal style, beyond indie-folk into the previously mentioned pastoral scenery.
With The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton, Clogs has successfully drawn a structural boundary around their wandering style that utilizes strong vocal performances from a variety of indie musicians (Sufjan Stevens, Matt Berninger, Shara Worden). The end product is an otherworldly work of paradox that is strange and vast yet is consistent and contained within its own predetermined space.
8.4 / 10
The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton is released today, March 2 on Brassland
Purchase the album
mp3: Clogs - On the Edge
New Documentary: Sufjan in "All The Way From Michigan Not Mars"
This is a video in promotion of a new movie documenting the collaborative effort between Sufjan, Denison Whitmer, and Rosie Thomas that became the latter's These Friends of Mine. Via the excellent blog on all things Sufjan, All Good Naysayers:All The Way From Michigan Not Mars a DVD featuring Rosie Thomas, with Denison Witmer, Sufjan Stevens and Sheila Saputo, will be released by Factory 25 on October 27th. Additionally, a limited edition package with the DVD and LP will be released which includes “never-before released Apartment Sessions with Sufjan Stevens and Denison Witmer that evolved into Thomas’ 2007 album, "These Friends Of Mine.”I have heard a lot of versions of this song and this is easily the most chilling and heartbreaking and beautiful.
Pre-order DVD at Insound.
Sufjan Explosion! New Songs Debuted Live
Sufjan Related Things Happened This WeekAt a recent concert in Ithaca, NY, everyones favorite Michigan bred musician debuted several new songs (like a couple other awesome musicians)...and the internet went nuts. The man hasn't written a proper album in 4 years and counting, though he has released a superb collection of Illinoise era b-sides, an epic collection of christmas songs, a long orchestral piece with visual accompaniment and a string quartet reworking of his 2001 electronica album, Enjoy Your Rabbit. While that may seem like a lot of output for most artists (and it is, certainly), it is ultimately unsatisfying coming from a man who is so gifted at the art of crafting albums proper.
All that being said, the most dynamic of the three new tracks he debuted, entitled "There's Too Much Love," doesn't find Mr. Stevens exploring new territory as much as combining all of his old ventures into one grand epic work. This formula isn't even entirely new for Sufjan, as his contribution to compilation-of-the-year-contender Dark Was the Night, entitled "You are the Blood," suggests a similar approach. However, whereas "You Are the Blood" sounds more apocalyptic than anything else, "There's Too Much Love" is downright catchy at its core (at least the first half is). It certainly unites the majority of Sufjanisms including self-critical/conscious lyrics, electronica, a combination male/female vocals, a plethora of harmonies and vocal echoes (feat. Cryptacize's Nedelle Torrisi), fusion orchestral-and-pop arrangements, measured instrumental chaos for compositional counterpoint, jazz instrumental interludes etc. The first half of the song sounds big and inclusive in the vein of Illinoise, until it drops into a more intimate, reflective Seven Swans type instrumental (with the brass section doing their best be-bop impression) during the second half. Not to mention the song itself is seven minutes long, which is a length Sufjan has more often than not transcended since he began playing (the heartbreakingly gorgeous) "Majesty Snowbird" live a few years ago. See for yourself:
If you like it and want more, here are videos + mp3s of the other two songs, courtesy of jp'sblog. And if that still doesn't complete your Sufjan fix, you can read his interview of former bandmate Shannon Stephens, who released her first album in 10 years on Asthmatic Kitty this week.
Sufjan Stevens - "You Are the Blood" - Dark Was the Night
Sufjan Stevens - "There's Too Much Love (live)" - Unreleased
New (old) Sufjan Stevens Song
Sufjan has posted an entry on Asthmatic Kitty's sidebar called "What's in a Name?: Sufjan Steven's on Songs Names and Singing Out of Tune." The best part is that Sufjan not only writes about all of these things, but at the end of the article he posts a song that he wrote in college about Sofia Coppola called "Sofia's song." It a banjorific diddy. At this point though, really any music from him is something to talk about. Where are those other 48 state albums? Huh? Quitter! (read the post and listen to "Sofia's Song" here).
For Your Viewing Pleasure
Boy oh Boy am I thankful for the wonderful folks at Gorilla vs. Bear for posting this fantastic video of St. Vincent. Ever since I saw her play guitar for Sufjan at Sasquatch about four years ago, I have been entirely mesmerized by Annie Clark. This solely piano version of "Marry Me" was taken for Shoot the Player, which according to their website, features "local artists taking part in Sydney Festival’s ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ public piano project, as well as official Sydney Festival artists from around the world." Even all by her lonesome, Clark somehow manages to create a simultaneously intimate and celestial atmosphere which ultimately makes me wish my name was John.Now, if only she would release some new material. Her website does say "Stay tuned for studio updates" and that was only...5 months ago. I guess, this will have to do for now.
The website also has her doing an acoustic version of "What Me Worry" as well as an exquisite video of Beach House in a beach cove.
St. Vincent - Paris is Burning - from the 2007 Lp Marry Me
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