Dark Was The Night will be released on February 17th, 2009. It’s comprised of 31 exclusive tracks and it will be available as a double cd/triple vinyl/download and will benefit the Red Hot Organization - an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS through popular culture. They are the people responsible for albums including No Alternative, Red Hot and Blue and many more, and this is their 20th year, and this is the 20th release!
The album also features tracks from Arcade Fire, Spoon, The National, Sufjan Stevens, Feist, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, The Decemberists, The Books & Jose Gonzalez, Iron and Wine, My Morning Jacket, Beirut, Cat Power, The New Pornographers, Yo La Tengo and more!
PLEASE NOTE: We are not handling general PR for Dark Was The Night, we just wanted to share this specific track with you!
Press contact for this record is: Lisa Gottheil - 4AD -212.995.5882
Stay tuned for news on forthcoming releases and tour dates from Dirty Projectors….
DIRTY PROJECTORS
Jan 21 Brooklyn, NY BAM (Laurie Anderson & Friends night)
Highland Park, CA band Fol Chen recently joined the roster of Asthmatic Kitty Records - their debut record isn’t due ’til Feb. 17, 2009 and today they’re sharing their second music video (directed by Nancy Jean Tucker), plus another track from their record and a remix track handled by Matthew David of Dublab. The band also has a pair of LA shows planned, Feb. 1 at Spaceland as part of Radio Free Silverlake’s “Rock Against HD” night, and a CD release party on Feb. 7 at Pehr Space.
More about the video’s director, Nancy Jean Tucker:
Nancy Jean Tucker is a Los Angeles based filmmaker and artist. Her animated films have shown in galleries and festivals worldwide including the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the Nashville Film Festival, and the European Media Arts Festival in Germany.
A Transmission from Fol Chen:
“You know that mysterious black object that the creepy family is staring at on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Presence” album? Fol Chen sound like that. But we don’t sound like Led Zeppelin. (We actually do
a little.) Instead, we sound like Prince with Amon Duul II and a children’s religious revival, not to mention Hot Chip, Pink Floyd, Gwen Stefani, Pere Ubu, Danielson Famile, Scritti Politti, Boards of Canada, The Blow, and Pulp. (Mostly.) We are using secret powers and the guidance of legendary DJ Donna Donna to combat our nemesis, John Shade. We are cryptic and joyful and we would like you to dance.”
The Story of Fol Chen:
Traffic was thick, thick, thick and Samuel Bing was unwell, strung out on the latest psychotropic fads: sleeplessness and feeling crummy. The Northern State was crawling like a funeral procession for Robert Moses. Above the overpasses, the clouds were lined with gristle. Even the horizon seemed to be sinking. So, it came just in time when Donna Donna transmitted her message over the open radio waves - a phantom broadcast from a station whose signal had long since dissolved into static. You could barely hear her voice between the Crazy Eddie ads, but Samuel Bing had his radio loud. She spoke backwards for security, but Samuel Bing understood each word. “Initiates in the society of Fol Chen,” Donna Donna whispered, “Let’s get to it. While you sit in traffic, John Shade is busy spreading his black mischief. Here’s the Screamer of the Week: ‘Birds Fly’ by Icicle Works.” Samuel Bing turned off his car and opened his trunk. No one was moving, so no one bothered honking. His trunk was filled with what looked like garbage, but this wasn’t just any piled crap — Every object was a module in a greater, yet-to-be-created whole. Samuel Bing fished out a cassette tape and a broken ice-scraper. He inspected the sides of each, found the hidden grooves, snapped them together. He grabbed a faded Polaroid, an old paperback romance, a polyester potholder, and a pair of drugstore sunglasses. He snapped each edge to edge. He chose twelve items, then another six, and arranged all eighteen in interlocking circles that together formed a wider circle. Just to be safe Samuel Bing welded the grooves with a cigarette lighter, slapped the whole thing on his back. From beneath a crusty blanket where the spare tire should have been, he pulled a wide, machete-like sword, and shoved it in his belt. Then Samuel Bing leapt into the air and let the currents carry him.
Melissa Thorne and Phat Jeph were waiting in room 12A when Samuel Bing landed in the parking lot of the Desert Hot Springs Hotel Spa. This is where they met in times of elevated risk - when the Highland Park compound was out of the question. Phat Jeph was ripped on peppermint schnapps, but he was a gentle, melancholy kind of drunk, and hard to deal with sober, so Melissa Thorne made sure his glass stayed full. Samuel Bing didn’t bother knocking. He already had a key. He searched the bathroom, looked under the bed. “Where are the others?” he asked. “G-Bone and Wass are on the way,” said Melissa Thorne. “What about
Baby Alex?” asked Samuel Bing. But they fell silent, just stared at the rug. Samuel Bing poured himself a schnapps and asked what happened, though he knew the answer. “John Shade got him,” Phat Jeph slurred. Samuel Bing gripped the pommel of his sword. “We don’t have time for this,” said Melissa Thorne, and elbowed Phat Jeph in the ribs. “Okay, here’s the idea,” he said. “We have to build a serious pyramid. That way we can measure the stars, the distances between them. Like the Aztecs and the Incas and King Tutankhamen. We have to take this battle to Shade.” “I’ve drawn up some plans,” said Melissa Thorne. She pushed the blueprints across the filthy bedspread. “You in?” Samuel Bing smiled for the first time all week. He pulled his sword from his belt, tested the blade with his thumb, nodded. “I’m in.”
- Ben Ehrenreich
“Fol Chen has only been around for a few months, but is already blowing up. Their forthcoming debut album is heavy with wobbly pop tunes that get the toes tapping and keep a listener guessing.” -XLR8R.com
“…sounds a bit like Sufjan Stevens if he’d been raised by David Koresh instead of Christian-hippie parents in Michigan” -LA Times
“The result is a record that balances light and dark, and is fresh enough to hold listeners captive” -NPR
FOL CHEN
Feb. 01 Los Angeles, CA Spaceland
Feb. 07 Los Angeles, CA Pehr Space
Mar. 18 - 21 Austin, TX SXSW
Fol Chen Part 1: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made
(Asthmatic Kitty)
Street date: Feb. 03, 2009
1.The Believers
2.No Wedding Cake
3.You and Your Sister in Jericho
4.The Idiot
5.Red Skies Over Garden City (The Ballad of Donna Donna)
6.Winter, That’s All
7.Cable TV
8.Please, John, You’re Killing Me
9.The Longer U Wait (Version)
10.If Tuesday Comes
To avoid any potential confusion (and there is a lot of potential for confusion here) we’ll break this down for you nice and slow:
* WAVVES has a self-titled debut album out now on the Woodsist label
* WAVVES’ second album is called WAVVVES (notice the extra “V”)
* Both albums have very very similar covers
* WAVVVES by WAVVES is being released on Fat Possum (not De Stijl, as we originally announced) on March 17, 2009
Bio:
When not watching Cops or drinking 40s in the park, Nathan Daniel William blogs on classic rap and records waves and waves of effortlessly great slack / crust / beach / punk compressed onto 4 track cassette in his San Diego bedroom. It’s a room that most of us will only imagine. Thanks to the eager bloggers, you may have already heard WAVVES. if you have not, we can say that few things are more annoying than reading a string of sound references. So how ’bout this : WAVVES are exemplifying every pastiche of what anyone in their mid 20’s has been through musically and somehow, some that they have not. How a tune written by a 22 yr old can evoke this boyish reverie and reverence of thoughtful nostalgia is beyond me, but listen between the grooves and yr gonna hear it too. WAVVES is the sound of today’s american youth! It’s a new day rising and as the wavves get higher, they gotta converge. You can choose to stay down in the curl, but if you follow the winner, we can meet up on the crest..
WAVVES
Fri-Jan-23 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall*
Sat-Jan-24 Los Angeles, CA El Rey*
Wed-Feb-04 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY SMOG - Bard College #
Thu-Feb-05 Poughkeepsie, NY Vassar College #
Fri-Feb-06 Brooklyn, NY Market Hotel #
Sat-Feb-07 New York, NY Less Artists, More Condos
Mar 18 - 21 Austin, TX SXSW
* = w/ TAPES N TAPES and WHITE DENIM
# = w/ BLANK DOGS, WOODS
WAVVES WAVVVES
(Fat Possum)
Street date: March 17, 2009
1. Rainbow Everywhere
2. Beach Demon
3. To The Dregs
4. Sun Opens My Eyes
5. Gun In The Sun
6. So Bored
7. Goth Girls
8. No Hope Kids
9. Weed Demon
10. California Goths
11. Summer Goth
12. Ghost Ramp
13. Killr Punx, Scary Demons
14. Surf Goth
bonus track: Wavves
Papercuts’ You Can Have What You Want is the newest phase in Jason Quever’s ongoing pop investigations. The relatively earthbound happy-sad pop of Mockingbird & Can’t Go Back is now launched into the vault of the skies. Here Quever delves further into epic, hazy pop using mostly vintage organs, pulsing bass & Kraut-via-Ringo-inspired drum rhythms. Intact from those earlier efforts are Quever’s sense of arrangement and drama, as well as his soaring vocals, draped in reverb gauze.
The words reveal an obsession with mortality and things cosmic, while sonically the voice acts as another instrument. This obsessively all analog effort (no computer processing here whatsoever!) cuts across several eras of dreamy sound: 80’s/90’s Creation & 4AD records, The Zombies, 60’s French pop, even CAN’s Future Days, & then there’s the inevitable connection to former tourmates Beach House & Grizzly Bear. Indeed, Beach House’s Alex Scally helped with some of the arrangements, but You Can Have What You Want is its own strain of addictive pop. For many, it will be the blissful / melancholy jam of the summer.
What the press said about Papercuts’ Can’t Go Back:
“Bay Area singer-songwriter Jason Quever disguises his songs’ weighty themes in lush delicacy. By injecting overtly somber contemplation into summery, feel-good pop instrumentation, Quever wears his West Coast influences - not to mention his heart - on his sleeve.”-NPR
“It takes a few seconds of Papercuts’ second album, Can’t Go Back, to think that maybe you’ve stumbled upon something special, a delicate mood piece made to slice through the din and chaos of modern life.” -Pitchfork (8.3)
“…this is easily the most exciting new pop album of a still young year. Can’t Go Back grabs you with the first flurry of guitar strums, all cool, voluminous tone and three-dimensional space. It’s the first salvo in what emerges as a damn-near perfect album, each cut luminous and distinct from the others, yet arranged in a way that flows easily from start to finish” -Dusted
“…uncorking a clutch of gorgeous emotion-drenched ditties in an affecting, androgynous croon.” -SPIN
“It’s as complete a sunshine daydream as you’re likely to hear this year.” -SF Bay Guardian
“Judging by the majority of Can’t Go Back, Quever has succeeded on a scale that he himself may not have imagined. There is a swirling, dreamlike quality to Quever’s work that is balanced by a forceful yearning that escapes many in the pop field.” -The Dallas Observer
“It’s magnificent. It’s clever and poppy and thought-provoking and, above all else, fun.” -The Stranger
“Proof that sometimes it feels good to feel bad. But like a four track-recording Brian Wilson, his catchy vocal melodies and whip-smart arrangements make these self-produced songs shine warmly” -SF Weekly
Papercuts You Can Have What You Want
(Gnomonsong)
Street date: April 14, 2009
01 Once We Walked In The Sunlight
02 A Dictator’s Lament
03 The Machine Will Tell Us So
04 A Peculiar Hallelujah
05 Jet Plane
06 Dead Love
07 Future Primitive
08 You Can Have What You Want
09 The Void
10 The Wolf
Fol Chen
WAVVES
Papercuts