Tuesday, March 30, 2004 Baseball season opened today with what true fans are hoping is proper foreshadowing, that the Yankees will be going down in flames much like the first game. Thursday night was the Burnt Toast Vinyl fantasy baseball league draft and we're all ready for the season to be in full force. I'll be at the Phillies spring training game to open up the new baseball stadium on Saturday. I'm hoping it's not going to be too cold. My friends Dave and Nicole were able to go to the Daily Show yesterday in NYC. I was supposed to go and couldn't at the last minute. I'll be up on Friday night to see Sufjan Stevens with John Vanderslice and Will Johnson at the Knitting Factory. The second pressing of the vinyl for Sufjan's Seven Swans should be ready soon and off to your favorite local record shops for purchase. There are still copies available from the btv on-line store and the sounds familyre store, as well. My parents, Jess, Jamie, Matthew and I all managed to find the senior citizens' center in Queens and catch most of a Brother Danielson set there on Friday. It was a performance that was part of an exhibit in the Whitney Biennial and a completely interesting environment to see Dan singing in the tree. His new album is completely amazing and is coming out soon. Denison Witmer is off to Scandinavia for a couple of shows. Willis went along with him for moral support and a vacation. Thanks to whichever friend gave an advance of the new Wilco and props to Mikael for getting some rare Microphones recordings. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 10:29 AM CST Wednesday, March 24, 2004 My parents are here partying down at my house. The big box of new shirts arrived. Pink, blue camo, and black are here in full effect. Images are up for you to see what they look like. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 06:09 PM CST Monday, March 22, 2004 I went with a new strategy for my NCAA bracket this year, picking only the top seed in each game. I did great the first round, but now, my bracket is filled with many Xs due to the upsets. It's a sad thing for me. Makes for interesting basketball. Yesterday, a bunch of us went to a roller skating party for Elisabeth's birthday (Happy Birthday again) and this was a lot more difficult than I remember. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 09:08 AM CST Friday, March 19, 2004 I'm in between games during the first round of March Madness, so the break in basketball gives me time to update my website. Jess is flying in tonight to visit for a few days and work in NYC. I finally finished my review of Lars von Trier's film Dogville and it's up now on tangzine. After reading it, I had to make some minor adjustments. Denison and I saw it with our friends in Amsterdam last August and it's still not been released in the US. The artwork is done for The Trouble with Sweeney : Fishtown Briefcases. Should be getting these back from the factory in a couple of weeks if all goes well. Eric Fisher has been recording more additional musicians to mix into the Bosque Brown record, so that's progressing. In the vinyl neighborhood, there have been lots of pre-orders for the one-sided LPs and Damien Jurado : This Fabulous Century LP. These should be ready in the next month or two at the most. Damien promises the artwork to his LP is underway and the vinyl should be mastered in a couple of weeks. Work is beginning on the Mount Eerie 3xLP mastering and there are lots of packaging discussions underway. Newly added to the one-sided LP series roster are Gathered in Song whose "I Break Chairs" album came out on Sub Pop a while back. A happy birthday to Rueben in Copenhagen whose birthday was yesterday. :::scott:::: Posted by Scott @ 06:16 PM CST Tuesday, March 16, 2004 It's a little snowy here today, just a little reminder that spring is still around the corner, not quite here. I posted images of the forthcoming one-sided LPs from Aspera, Ester Drang, Starflyer 59, and Yume Bitsu in the online store. I am starting to take pre-orders. Your credit card will not be charged until they ship, but pre-orders will be the first shipped. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 06:45 PM CST Monday, March 15, 2004 I added the For Johnathan compilation cd which features a film about director Chris Bennett's friend , Johnathan, who died of cancer. The soundtrack includes songs from Ativin, Dave Fischoff, Early Day Miners, Unwed Sailor, The Album Leaf, Her Space Holiday and more and is a benefit to the home who housed Johnathan during his cancer therapy. I also added the new Jason Anderson cd which features guest vocals from Mirah and Phil Elverum and has some help from Adam Forkner (Yume Bitsu). Sufjan Stevens vinyl is shipping today for all pre-orders. Thanks, :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 02:19 PM CST Friday, March 12, 2004 Happy Birthday to Mikael in Copenhagen who is now 29. Farewell to Dave Blood, you are missed. A few new albums showed up to stock the on-line store, including the new Decemberists ep on Acuarela, the limited Death Cab for Cutie 180g 2xLP version of Transatlanticism, a live Ida recording in a really nice cardboard package, and the new Will Oldham ep. Earlier in the week, we received the cd version of Sufjan Stevens : Seven Swans and new albums from both Jason Anderson and Ativin. The rock is in full effect here. A friend leant me a copy of the new Pedro the Lion album which, after first listen, has some gems that change up the instrumentation, but also some of the same old as far as vocal phrasing, rhythm and pace. I need another few listens to pass fair judgement. Randall also sent a few albums to listen to and review for Tidal Wave Wagazine. So I've got some work cut out for me this weekend. I also intend to have the designs finished and ready to go to press for Aspera, Starflyer 59, and Ester Drang one-sided LPs. Jeremy Dybash finished up etching for Aspera and Ester Drang a couple weeks ago. Yume Bitsu's cover needs to be tweaked and it will be out, as well. Lots of action in one-sided LP land soon. Hopefully, we'll have some cover images and pre-order chances on the website soon. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 09:11 AM CST Thursday, March 11, 2004 I just added several new dates for Denison Witmer's April tour with Rosie Thomas. They'll be joined for a few shows by The Innocence Mission and by Sufjan Stevens. There are also some European dates posted, as well. The graphics are nearly done for The Trouble with Sweeney's mini-album Fishtown Briefcase. The video to be added for the interactive portion is being finished and compressed, also. We're making some progress on the design and format for the Mount Eerie Live in Copenhagen 3xLP. Hopefully it will be out before summer. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 03:07 PM CST Tuesday, March 9, 2004 The six song mini-album from The Trouble with Sweeney has officially been dubbed "Fishtown Briefcase." It was mastered last night and should have a video added to it later in the week to make for a nice interactive cd package. The release date will be in June. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 09:19 AM CST Monday, March 8, 2004 I updated the online store with Sufjan Steven's Seven Swans LPs and cds, along with a pre-order for Damien Jurado's This Fabulous Century LP, a few new btv t-shirt colors (including pink and blue camoflage), and several new releases from other labels. I helped Matthew move into his new place on Saturday. Hope all is well. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 02:42 PM CST Friday, March 5, 2004 There's a new article out today about The Trouble with Sweeney as a preview to the NYC weekend, tonight in Brooklyn, tomorrow in Manhattan. Get yourself there if you're nearby. There's another little blurb about the show here. The new ep will be mastered on Monday. There are two mixes from the forthcoming Bosque Brown record ready and more to come. Eric Fisher is slaving away over the recordings, mixing away as I type this. Quite a few btv releases are ready for digital download at www.disclogic.com at the moment, with other sites being added soon, hopefully iTunes so you can redeem your free song bottle caps, fill up your ipod, and make us rich rich rich. The Mountain Goats were great on Tuesday night and I was proud about how well I timed the show. John's voice was going towards the end, but I enjoyed the set list which was completely different from the last time I saw him play. He had a bass player for nearly all the songs and the drummer from Manischevitz played on a couple of songs. I still haven't bought the new record, though. Sufjan Steven's Seven Swans cd and LP will be out in stores on 16 March. You can order them from the btv site since the LP version is a co-release between btv and Sounds Familyre. :::scott:: Posted by Scott @ 10:40 AM CST Tuesday, March 2, 2004 I added some last minute shows for The Trouble with Sweeney. They'll be in New York this weekend and Chicago next. Be sure to check them out. There are 6 songs completed for their spring cdep release that should contain a video, as well. We're going for mastering on Monday with a release in May or so. A full-length will be recorded soon after and released this autumn. Mara Miller has finished her parts of her Bosque Brown album with Eric Fisher in Seattle. Eric is busy mixing everything down. The full-length will be ready for the autumn, as well. Denison Witmer's Philadelphia Songs will be out on 31 March in Scandinavia and 19 April for the rest of Europe. Denison will be touring Scandinavia in early April and the UK in mid-May for two weeks with Charlemagne. There will be additional dates for Denison in mainland Europe to coincide with the UK dates, as well. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 10:05 AM CST Monday, March 1, 2004 I just got back from a super last minute trip to the West Coast to see Jess, The Zombies, Low, Andy, and Jeff. The Zombies are on a little reunion tour and I couldn't resist the opportunity to go. The band sounded amazing playing songs from Odessey and Oracle and some of Colin Blumstone's solo material. Rod Argent's solo stuff and the new songs from the Zombies weren't quite up to snuff, but the rest of the set was so amazing that the rest was forgiveable. I was definitely glad to have gone. Low played the Knitting Factory and Jess and I were able to sit really close to the stage, so the sound was incredible. They played quite a few new songs and "murderer" from their ultra-limited 10" release. It was a fairly long set and definitely a great one. The opener, Azalia Snail, was completely atrocious. Avoid, avoid, avoid at all costs. I'd like to think I saw them on a bad night, but I'm sure that wasn't the case. Tonight, I'm hopefully going to meet up with my friend Emil from Oslo. Tomorrow, the Mountain Goats are playing in Philadelphia in the basement of the First Unitarian Church. Be there. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 01:06 PM CST [ Archives ]