Someone recently asked me if I posted about anything but Sufjan anymore and I said, “no.” In an effort to prove that true, here is yet ANOTHER song from Sufjan, this time featuring the vocals of Vesper Stamper. Another new song. For a guy who claimed to be on the verge of calling it quits (someone find me a link to this interview please) he’s had a damn prolific year. An EP, a full length, a Christmas record and now this, a Christmas single recorded for the folks over at Sounds Familyre Records. You can pick up the entire ‘A Familyre Christmas Volume 3′ for free over here.
Give this song the time it needs to ruminate, I’m in love with it. A sort of dirty interformat love between an organism and an mp3. It’s rare enough in nature but right now you’re seeing it in full effect on your computer screen. Let’s hope it doesn’t get messy. As is often the case with Sufjan, if you don’t listen to the full four minutes of this track you won’t hear what you need to hear.
Sufjan Stevens & Vesper Stamper – Up On The Housetop
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Up on the housetop, reindeer pause
Out jumps good ol’ Santa Claus
Down through the chimney with lots of toys
All for the little ones, Christmas joys
Merry Christmas.
The new Middle East track Jesus Came to my Birthday Party is now available to download on itunes. Alongside the new single are two other new tunes. Western is an upbeat toe tapping country rock number that reminds me a little of Graveyard Train (and sees Bree’s vocals once again on the sideline) while Sydney to Newcastle is an instrumental with some samples of moving trains and station announcements. I couldn’t tell you if they’ll be included on the upcoming record but my gut instinct tells me no. Download the three unreasonably priced mp3s here.
I have to be quick because I need to be at work in less time than it’ll take me to get this posted so here’s the short summary. Sufjan has five discs worth of Christmas songs, each recorded year by year. He’s just released a brand new Christmas album (he’s had a productive year huh?) that he’s made in collaboration with the Dessner brothers from the National. At the moment I don’t think it can be purchased but you can stream it in it’s entirety right here. Heck, I haven’t even had time to listen to it again so if it’s rubbish (impossible) then I’m sorry (improbable). Go.
[EDIT: This is no longer available. Apologies.]
If you’d like to download his 42 other Christmas tracks for only $12 then click here. I recommend having a listen to Holy, Holy, Holy at the very least.
In March 2011 Noah & the Whale will release their third full length record. The first, a masterpiece. The second? Quality, but they’d exchanged the upbeat folksy flavour of their debut album for something dark and melancholy. While I’m as prone to fits of pessimism as the next man, The Last Days of Spring was too much for me. It was like a funeral dirge. So that you can understand the levels of depressing we’re discussing here, have a quick look at the video to ‘Our Window’ from The Last Days of Spring
Having heard the second single ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N’ from their upcoming album Last Night On Earth I thought perhaps they were heading back to the, as Chloe Bickersteth would say, “Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding Happy Music” that blew me away on their debut.
So, knowing more than you needed to about Noah & the Whale’s back catalogue, you can now listen to ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N’. SUPER BONUS! I’m also going to stream Jocasta from their first album Peaceful The World Lays Me Down. You don’t have to thank me, just sign the petition to stop the government shutting my blog down before I’m accused of a blown up rape charge and extradited to Sweden. I’m surely next.
Noah and the Whale – Jocasta
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There have been whispers that old man Faith is back in the game with another cracker and they’re right. Dead right. I’m here with a surefire winner. High Highs is the name of the artist and the team at Sound Doc are truly enamored. We’ve all been talking amongst each other about the harmony, the reverb, the haunting vocals, the Deathcabian acoustic tones and the fact that they’re Australian, initially hailing from Sydney though they now perform out of New York. Download two songs free of charge from their Unearthed page.
Having just visited their facebook page I’ve noticed that five of my friends have already ‘liked’ this band. So to Samantha Howell, Zak Kaczmarek, Patrick Wall, Nicola Robinson and Peter Covington, thanks for taking some of the wind out of my sails.
