Friday, November 30, 2007
Soporus are playing tonight at The Infantree Gallery in Lancaster, 21 N. Prince Street. They're playing with our good friends LATRALMAGOG. Show starts at 8:30 and will be awesome. Hope to see you there.
Yndi Halda are playing a special Christmas show for charity sponsored by The Deku Tree. It will be at the Holy Trinity Church in Leeds on 22 December. They're going to be playing Enjoy Eternal Bliss and recording it for a live cd/dvd release.
I've added a few more dates for Unwed Sailor's tour. This Will Destroy You will be with them and the tour starts tonight in Chicago.
The Max Richter performance as part of the Wordless Music series was incredible. There was a 5 piece string section to play alongside Max's piano/keyboard/computer. They played nearly all of The Blue Notebooks. It was in a small church sanctuary and the sound was really incredible.
We also got to visit The Doughnut Plant to have some of the best donuts I've ever tasted.
:::scott:::
Posted by Scott @ 10:12 AM CST
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
I made a big dent in the order backlogs. We have Unwed Sailor The Faithful Anchor and The Marionette and the Music Box LPs back in stock and shipping pretty quickly.
The Starflyer 59 Ghosts of the Future boxes are arriving very soon and they look super awesome. Really. I'm excited.
Tomorrow night, the Commissioner, Cakeator, Nicole, and I are going to see Max Richter play as part of the Wordless Music series. Max Richter'sThe Blue Notebooks is a life-changing record. Seriously.
Little Wars is being mastered right now.
Bosque Brown are working hard to finish the recording of their new full-length this week.
:::scott:::
Posted by Scott @ 12:13 AM CST
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving a little bit late.
I've just posted the images for the Starflyer 59 Ghosts of the Future poster, t-shirt, and box related to the 7" box set. We'll be taking orders for these things momentarily.
The posters will be 25" x 38" on some nice paper stock, suitable for framing. They will be hand-screened by the kind folks at HYMY Industries who have been designing and printing the 7" covers with the same custom blended metallic ink. We'll be shipping them in tubes, rolled up to keep them protected. These will ship in time for the holidays.
The t-shirts will be four hand-pulled screened images on organic cotton fitted American Apparel shirts for the smaller sizes (S/M/L) and non-fitted pre-shrunk 100% cotton t-shirts in the XL sizes. HYMY Industries does a lot of one-of-a-kind silk-screen shirts and the Starflyer 59 shirts will be done in a very small batch, which explains the higher pricing. These will ship in time for the holidays.
If you haven't subscribed to the series yet, you can be a part of what we're calling the special 7/7/70 deal, which is the first 7 7" in the series shipped in the wooden box for $70.59ppd delivered in time for the holidays. Perfect for gift giving. The remaining 3 7" will ship when they are ready in late January/early February 2008 along with the 2 remaining inserts.
The Unwed Sailor tour with This Will Destroy You is starting soon...get ready...
:::scott:::
Posted by Scott @ 12:29 AM CST
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Emperor X tonight, Philadelphia!!
I've been upgrading the journal software on the server and am hoping to be able to add RSS feed functionality soon...I'll make a post and add subscription archives when this is available. Then you'll be able to get automatic feeds of the rambling btv news. I've really been won over by the RSS feed reading function of the new version of Safari and want to deliver this ability to everyone.
:::scott:::
Posted by Scott @ 08:27 AM CST
Friday, November 16, 2007
Steven R. Smith is the latest addition to the btv one-sided LP series. He has a fairly prolific musical pedigree and has been releasing more experimental guitar instrumental records under his own names, some brilliant Eastern European influenced song as Hala Strana, and will be releasing a three album series as Ulaan Kohl for Soft Abuse. He also recorded as/with the bands Thuja and Mirza. My good friend Ethan shared some Hala Strana with me and it set me on a quest for his music.
mewithoutYou are on tour with Thrice and Brand New and have vinyl copies of Brother, Sister with them.
See you at the Emperor X, Niagara Falls, Papertrigger show tomorrow, 17 November, at Circle Broad and Washington, 1125 S. Broad. 8:30pm. $6. I was hoping to have copies of Emperor X's The Blythe Archives Volume One one-sided LP ready for the show, but it's going to be another couple of weeks. Chad spent a long time on the artwork and it's pretty awesome. I've always wanted to do all-text artwork and these covers are really interesting looking. Emperor X is on tour down to Florida, so see him/them play.
I had some really amazing BBQ in Texas. My friend Brian and I took a little field trip to Lockhart and we visited Kreuz's, Smitty's, and Black's, consistently some of the best BBQ in the state (or really the world). Smitty's was our favorite of the 3. It was the old building and you walked in to order the BBQ from the guy working the pit who cut off whatever amount you wanted. He put it on butcher paper and sold it to you by weight. You could see the fire going in the pit and smell the wood smoking. Just amazing. We went to Louis Mueller's later in the day and they were out of most things. Brian said that it was his favorite. Another place to visit on the next trip to Austin, I guess. Also stopped in at Round Rock donuts earlier in the week. Truly some of the best donuts with a really interesting orange colored dough. They open early and keep making them fresh throughout the day. I got a standard glazed that was still nice and hot (and delicious). I also convinced myself to buy the Texas sized donut knowing that I couldn't possibly finish it. This was the biggest donut I'd ever seen, about 12" x 8", really the size of a full dozen donuts. They served it fresh with warm chocolate icing. It was so tasty and so very big. Really incredible. And they say Austin is all about the music...mewithoutYou is playing there tonight, at Stubb's, a nice BBQ restaurant/venue combo.
:::scott:::
Posted by Scott @ 10:40 AM CST
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
I've added some new shows for Unwed Sailor's tour with This Will Destroy You in late November/December. Get ready to see them play.
Soporus have finished the recording and mixing of their full-length album entitled 24,110. This is set to be released in late Winter 2008.
The samples for the Starflyer 59 Ghosts of the Future boxes have arrived and they look great. We'll have these ready to go with the next shipment of 3 7" in early December.
Philadelphians! Emperor X is on tour and will be stopping this Saturday at 1125 S. Broad Street with Honeymoon Music's Niagara Falls and locals Papertrigger. See you there.
:::scott:::
Posted by Scott @ 12:13 AM CST
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Unwed Sailor finished mixing Little Wars. The album is 9 songs which clock in at 42 1/2 minutes. The 2xLP version will include a two bonus tracks, one remix and one track recorded as part of the Little Wars sessions. This new full-length has been a concept for several years, the band playing a track or two as part of their live set. "Copper Islands" is a building block for the album and has been part of the live show over the last few years. Little Wars is the band's most ambitious and complex release yet, building on melodic lessons and recording techniques learned over the last several albums. Not content to follow up with their energetic 2000 debut full-length, The Faithful Anchor, with a mere sequel, the band recorded 2003's The Marionette and the Music Box, challenging its fan base with a Peter and the Wolf inspired, classically influenced fairytale. In 2006, Unwed Sailor released the Circles ep and The White Ox full-length that further departed from their live performance sound, exploring Eno/Lanois ambient recording techniques, resulting in a brooding, gloomy ambient opus wrapped in southwestern imagery. Little Wars reflects both the depth and breadth that Unwed Sailor has developed through these diverging releases and its live show. The songs are energetic and highly melodic, but gently colored and focused by layered keyboards and percussion with a delicate ambience. It also marks the recording return of Matt Putman, Matt Depper, and Nic Tse who recorded The Marionette and the Music Box with Johnathon Ford. The current live line-up, Brooks Tipton, Patrick .., and Andy ..., also played extensively on Little Wars with Phillip Blackwell of Questions in Dialect and occasional live/studio member of Unwed Sailor providing the remix for the vinyl version. The official retail release date is going to be 18 March 2008.
I heard a few rough mixes from the next Bosque Brown album and it's really sounding good. We're targeting the official retail release date for that record as 1 April 2008.
For all of those interested in the Starflyer 59 Ghosts of the Future box set, the wooden boxes have been designed and ordered. We're getting samples in about a week and are planning to unveil them on Saturday, 24 November along with a couple of special items that will be available in time for the holidays. So, be sure to check back in to the website then. We will have the third shipment off to subscribers by mid-December along with the box. Of the final batch of test pressings, one side is going to be re-mastered to improve the song quality. Incidentally, I think it may be my favorite song in the series and I really wanted it to sound perfect.
:::scott:::
Posted by Scott @ 11:58 AM CST
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Happy Halloween a day late. I was helping Brian and Liz hand out candy last night here in Austin and then we shredded on some Guitar Hero. I forgot to post about getting to play Guitar Hero III on the Wii this weekend in Chicago. The Coff had a copy reserved and got it shortly after it was available. Wireless shredding is pretty exciting, but I'm still not very good at it. I had some incredible Texas bbq at Rudy's here in Austin. Seriously some of the best I'd ever had. We're planning a little field trip to the Hill Country to score some more bbq soon. Very exciting.
I'm off to Houston this weekend to see some old friends.
:::scott:::
Posted by Scott @ 01:24 PM CST