Sufjan live at Bowery

I caught the Sufjan show at the Bowery recently, his 'practice/workshop' tour and happened to record it. It came out pretty damn good, but I even spent time cleaning it up.
I'm listening to it right now, and not just because I'm posting it, because the new tracks are great, all electronic glitch, like Digital Ash Digital Urn, and he played every great song from Illinoise and Michigan...ridiculous
I swear you can hear someone crying, who came back by the bar to get napkins during Casmir Pulaski Day.
It's perfectly quiet, no one yells out songs like dickheads, really the only distracting thing is the floor creaking, and people whispering if you can believe that.
He's a god damn humble genius, he doesn't let you down. No wonder he sells out 4 nights in a row.
I have to sell some things for that BQE vinyl...like my kidneys.

So for the Friday show it's Sufjan at the bowery. All 7 hours.

Christmas #1! Fantastic plastic - The Black Arts

Ahhhh, the holidays bring out the crazy collaborations. Here we have something just emailed out yesterday. Art Brut and Black Box recorder are teamed up as Black Arts for this Christmas 7". Entitled Christmas Number One, I don't know what the tracks might be like, but this is sure to be gone fast. It's very reasonably priced at 2 pounds 50.
I keep checking Suicide Squeeze site to see if there will still be an annual Pedro the lion Christmas 7" of some kind, but I'm about to give up hope. I'll be sure to pst if I hear about anything.
I have a Walkmen Christmas 7", the White Stripes Christmas one (best present ever), most of the pedro ones, except the latest, and a deerhoof tomlab xmas picture disc. That's all I can think of at the moment.
I'm still trying to come up with something for that Sufjan Stevens Xmas song exchange contest, but it's hard...I try to go funny, then think , no this should be serious, and hate them both. I'm not giving up, it's just hard. Damn I want that song to release as a 7".

You can preorder this bad boy at Fantastic Plastic.

"Top of the Pops" may be off the air, but that clearly hasn't quashed the ambitions of Art Brut's Eddie Argos one bit. If this year is anything like last year, there will be a "TOTP" Christmas special, and Argos hopes to crash it with a bona fide Christmas number one.

To do so, Eddie has teamed with another UK act fond of the speak-singing, lovable cynics Black Box Recorder, and a pal who goes by the name of Keith Top of the Pops. Together as the Black Arts, this upstanding bunch has recorded a holiday heatseeker, conveniently titled "Christmas Number One", about-- get this-- a Christmas single that takes on a life of its own. This "One" has it all: jingle bells, children singing, some tacky rhymes, a bridge in waltz time, the delirious barks of Argos, and the authoritative coo of BBR's Sarah Nixey.

Meanwhile, B-side "Glam Casual" has Argos reminding us that "the internet is full of mean and evil people." Errr...

Fantastic Plastic offers up "Christmas Number One" as a limited edition (1,000 copies) slab of green 7" vinyl on December 10, and as a digital download on December 3. But it's up to you, the record-buying public, to take it to number one. And if you don't, THERE WILL BE NO CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR. (Haha, kidding, but Christmas won't be nearly as funny.)

Sufjan stevens • Seven swans • Seven inch

I haven't seen this rerelease of Seven Swans mentioned anywhere...this description came from a store in sweden, maybe a little too early?
Sounds Familyre doesn't have a mention of it. I don't know when this might be coming out, so I'll mention it again. I haven't gone back far enough in the sufjan catalog... I have seen 'that dress looks nice on you' 7" on ebay, and don't want to spend that kind of money.
And here's why: I still feel responsible for the don cab 7" I won and therefore ruined via the post office...that was bad enough but my new stupid problem is I keep telling myself 'don't grab the seven inch with your fingernails' when I try to pry it off the turntable because inevitably one finger will slip and I'll gouge a line straight across the record and have to put another penny on top of the needle. It kills me even thinking about it. That I permanently altered a record, that every time I try to enjoy it, I kind of damage this perfect object. Just like everything I guess.

I think this rerelease will be great, I could use an excuse to get this on vinyl and a seven inch with unreleased tracks. So far he hasn't written a song I don't like and I'm trying to not let his religious beliefs influence how I feel about certain tracks. And he's incredible live, the entire band...to see the orchestration played out with a group of people...at times louder than the PA system....it's just as amazing as the music.
This is from Daniel Smith himself:

On sounds familyre STEVENS SUFJAN - SEVEN SWAN 2xLP+7"

When thinking about re-issuing the vinyl version of "Seven Swans," Sufjan and I decided to look back at some of the unmixed tracks that didn't make the cut for the record. I went back to the 1/4" 8 track tapes and made rough mixes of these recordings to play for Sufjan. "Seven Swans" was actually recorded before "Michigan", so we had an early version of "Romulus" that Sufjan had decided didn't work with the album. Also we had a song "Borderline" which ended up on a Rough Trade 7". The two remaining songs, "I Went Dancing With My Sister" and "Waste Of What Your Kids Won't Have," were great fun to hear again. I put bass lines down on them and mixed them up for Sufjan to hear. We liked what we heard, but felt that they still belong separate from the album. So here we are with the vinyl re-issue of "Seven Swans." It's an album that I so proud to have been part of and still enjoy listening to. The vinyl mastering is better, the vinyl is thicker, the cover is matte instead of shiny, and it's got a bonus 7" of two Sufjan songs from the "Seven Swans" sessions that are not available in any other format. Get a new needle for your turntable and enjoy. Daniel Smith, Clarksboro

2007TRACKLISTING: 01. ALL THE TREES OF THE FIELD WILL CLAP THEIR HANDS 02. THE DRESS LOOKS NICE ON YOU 03. IN THE DEVIL'S TERIITORY 04. TO BE ALONE WITH YOU 05. ABRAHAM 06. SISTER 07. SIZE TOO SMALL 08. WE WON'T NEED LEGS TO STAND 09. A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND 10. HE WOKE ME UP AGAIN 11. SEVEN SWANS 12.

THE TRANSFIGURATION DISC #2: 01. I WENT DANCING WITH MY SISTER 02. WASTE OF WHAT YOUR KIDS WON'T HAVE

PANTALEIMON 7 inch - Bookeaters 826nyc Sufjan

Revenge of the Bookeaters, a benefit for 826nyc, was last night at the beacon theater....Sufjan Stevens was amazing, it sounded so incredible in this theater, he played 'Chicago', "That dress looks nice", and "Casimir Pulaski Day"...I can't remember the other one. He played piano at one point, standing, tapping on the side of his leg. I couldn't think of a song where I heard a lot of piano, I guess I always distinctly hear the banjo, or horn sections...I mean of course he plays piano, probably his first instrument. I get the feeling that he has his hands in everything, there isn't one piece of the arrangement from any song that he can't play himself, or compose. It all distincly has his imprint.
Just amazing, he sang the high harmony parts. We kind of realized that as he's singing, every harmony he takes the really high falsetto and the girl backup singers have the low parts? hmmmmmm...what can't he do?
I wish he could have played for another hour, it was a perfect space to see him, everyone was really quiet and he talked about one teacher who stayed after school with him in catholic school and helped him with creative writing, it kind of got him through those years and how he really wanted to be a writer coming to NY. Someone yelled "you are". He just seemed so nice and appreciative of the audience, and then david byrne brought him out for a cover of 'Saginaw Michigan' by lefty frizzell. He said, "this is the only song about Michigan not written by Sufjan."

I think I originally came across, Andria Degens (Pantaleimon) because she was opening a bunch of shows for will oldham, and he had some great things to say about her. I think it's like Vashti maybe, I have to check out her myspace.
This is going to be on blue vinyl and an alternate mix from the one on thee album.

NEW SINGLE 'UNDER THE WATER' AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER FROM BLUE SANCT RECORDS

The new PANTALEIMON 7" entitled 'Under the Water' will be available from Blue Sanct Records. This record will feature a different mix of this song from the version which will eventually appear on the new album. The record will be pressed on clear vinyl with one side featuring the exclusive song from the recent studio sessions, whilst the other side of the record and the front cover will feature screen prints of drawings by Andria Degens.

To pre-order email: figurehead@bluesanct.com