swarbles.
sometimes i sing.
sometimes i make things.
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i’m at my psychiatrist’s office and somebody upstairs is playing a very difficult piece on piano and they’re making small mistakes but i want to...
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Music makes the people come together
Holy frack! After lamenting over the absence of one of my most valued creative outlets, I am incredibly happy to...
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there's nothing in the constitution that says a dog can't design and regulate a currency system
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sometimes i name animals i see at the park or on the street and then wonder how they are months later
there is a duck named jimby who i have to...
The first video from Mary’s Voice has been released! The video for “S’Alive to be Known (May We Starve)” was directed by Albert Birney, former member of the Spinto Band.
Julian spoke to MTV Hive about the video.
Some of the objects and images that may seem vintage are actually just things or objects that are a part of the Music Tapes world: the sailor playing the white sousaphone is Robby from the Music Tapes and the Sousaphone is one of the horns he plays. The tower with the wooden arms coming out of it is our Organ Playing Tower. The wonderful footage of the swaying Elephant was actually filmed by Robby in person (at a preserve). A lot of these things actually have come over time from family (my grandmother’s basement especially) — and junk stores too.
the loveliest.
i love this so much but it makes me a little sad that julian is potentially going to part with the elephant banjo (my dad still has a neck for at his house, although it looks like julian found one for it). also having to try to figure out what to pledge (or i guess, more accurately, what i want the most) is proving to be really difficult, which i do not want to be limited by my limited funds (my dad said today that he’s hoping to get us caught up at least a little more this week). i will eat rice for the next twenty days. i have no problem with that. and i don’t go anywhere anyway. and i have at least $50 in change right now. so that’ll get me at least to the $200-ish range, probably (i really want a one of a kind music tapes christmas ornament! and a painted saw, but that’s probably not going to happen). i just won’t buy anything at all ever again and eat a lot of rice. okay.
From the album Mary’s Voice, out September 4, 2012 on Merge Records.
i just can’t even find words to explain how much i love this. honest to everything, if this doesn’t make you cry and feel melty and good, you should probably check for a pulse.
as an fyi because i asked because i worry about things like this because i worry about everything and i will probably keel over and die if i don’t actually have this in my childsized hands on the day it comes out:
if you preorder mary’s voice and live in the united states and choose the free shipping option, they will actually ship your order a bit earlier to account for shipping time. it doesn’t matter what option you choose, you’ll get your record by/on/around the release date because merge records is good people.
it’s embarrassing that i worry about these things. i swear, i am the most embarrassing person in the world.
From Merge Records:
On September 4, The Music Tapes will release Mary’s Voice.
Mary’s Voice, The Music Tapes’ third full-length album, is the warmest and most accessible invitation yet into Julian Koster’s world—the culmination of a vision he has been realizing for over a decade.
That vision began taking shape in the ’90s, during which time Koster also became a key member of Neutral Milk Hotel and a contributor to The Olivia Tremor Control and other legendary members of the enormously influential Elephant 6 Collective. Since then, Koster (along with long-time collaborator Robbie Cucchiaro on horns) has pushed the boundaries of what audiences have come to expect from an “indie rock” band—staging unique caroling and lullaby tours, performing alongside mechanical contraptions like the 7-Foot-Tall Metronome, and displaying virtuosity on both the singing saw and orchestral banjo.
Mary’s Voice, the follow-up to 2008’s acclaimed Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes, is part one of a planned two-part album and inaugurates a newly active phase in The Music Tapes’ evolution—with plans to tour the world in a circus tent later this year and an NPR radio serial in the works. Recorded with The Music Tapes’ signature method of using recording machines of both past (early 1900s, ’30s, ’40s, ’60s) and present to achieve a timeless sound, the album is, in Koster’s own words, “a holiday from what is so often mistakenly called the ‘real world’… In music, time can disappear the way it does in long summer evenings when we’re allowed to go out and play as kids, or afterwards, when exhausted, we dream.”
Mary’s Voice track listing:
1. The Dark Is Singing Songs (Sleepy Time Down South)
2. Saw and Calliope Organ on Wire
3. S’ Alive (Pt. 1)
4. The Big Beautiful Shops (It’s Said That It Could Be Anyone)
5. Spare the Dark Streets
6. To All Who Say Goodnight
7. Kolyada #3
8. Playing “Evening”
9. Go Home Again
10. S’ Alive to Be Known (May We Starve)
11. Untitled
12. Takeshi and Elijah(In my excitement, when I went to add the release date, I accidentally deleted the earlier post. Sorry! T.I.C.O.T.I.S.)
npr serial! tent tour! third record! featuring sleepy time down south! and takeshi and elijah! ahhh!!!
Firewall of Sound, a documentary about the internet’s impact on the music industry (for better or for worse) featuring an interview with Julian and some performance footage from his set at XX Merge, is now available to watch in its entirety on Vimeo!
i hope this means the dvd from the kickstarter campaign will be out soon, and i hope said dvd includes the bonus clips of julian talking about when they might be giants called his grandmother’s house to ask him to play on john henry, and the full length cut of that unreleased song from the music tapes set at xx merge (well, it’s mostly unreleased, anyway, part is from smoke is a fireman’s friend).
![imaginarysymphonies:
The Music Tapes in Toronto with the artwork from the out of print First Imaginary Symphony for Nomad LP.
From the Merge Records Blog:
Our art director Maggie who lives in Toronto sent us this report from her recent visit with The Music Tapes:
I met up with The Music Tapes’ Julian Koster and Robbie Cucchiaro in Toronto’s Kensington Market for pie. Down the street, they have been putting the finishing touches on their next project. They brought along a copy of the LP package for their out-of-print First Imaginary Symphony for Nomad as we spun ideas for a beautiful package to hold their next album.
Two hours in the company of these kind and radiant souls is like getting a Christmas present in March. You can have half an hour of Music Tapes stories, songs, and year-round Christmas magic through this video of their NPR Tiny Desk Concert recorded last December.
Visit the Merge store for all of your Music Tapes needs. If it’s pie you’re after, it’s Wanda’s Pie in the Sky you want.
look at these handsome gents!
relatedly;
that moment when you realize the yellow yarn you bought three years ago when you decided to take up knitting perfectly matches the yellow on that hat, and all you are good at in regards to knitting is one certain kind of stitch (that you subconsciously picked up from watching your mother knit) that is perfect for scarves, and yes, in fact, the knitting project you started three years ago with that yellow yarn was a scarf….
maybe i’ll pick it up again and finish it this year, since my mom made me that nice scarf for my birthday and i (debatedly [red dots of misspelledom say that is not actually a word, but they also say that the word that is supposedly actually the word i mean {debatably} is not a word either. make up your mind, internet. they can’t both not be words]) have too many knitted scarves. maybe, in between musical projects and other projects and sleeping and having nice dreams about you. maybe.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1pdz8K8Tv1qjf7ivo1_500.jpg)
The Music Tapes in Toronto with the artwork from the out of print First Imaginary Symphony for Nomad LP.
From the Merge Records Blog:
Our art director Maggie who lives in Toronto sent us this report from her recent visit with The Music Tapes:
I met up with The Music Tapes’ Julian Koster and Robbie Cucchiaro in Toronto’s Kensington Market for pie. Down the street, they have been putting the finishing touches on their next project. They brought along a copy of the LP package for their out-of-print First Imaginary Symphony for Nomad as we spun ideas for a beautiful package to hold their next album.
Two hours in the company of these kind and radiant souls is like getting a Christmas present in March. You can have half an hour of Music Tapes stories, songs, and year-round Christmas magic through this video of their NPR Tiny Desk Concert recorded last December.
Visit the Merge store for all of your Music Tapes needs. If it’s pie you’re after, it’s Wanda’s Pie in the Sky you want.
look at these handsome gents!
relatedly;
that moment when you realize the yellow yarn you bought three years ago when you decided to take up knitting perfectly matches the yellow on that hat, and all you are good at in regards to knitting is one certain kind of stitch (that you subconsciously picked up from watching your mother knit) that is perfect for scarves, and yes, in fact, the knitting project you started three years ago with that yellow yarn was a scarf….
maybe i’ll pick it up again and finish it this year, since my mom made me that nice scarf for my birthday and i (debatedly [red dots of misspelledom say that is not actually a word, but they also say that the word that is supposedly actually the word i mean {debatably} is not a word either. make up your mind, internet. they can’t both not be words]) have too many knitted scarves. maybe, in between musical projects and other projects and sleeping and having nice dreams about you. maybe.
This was recorded during last year’s Lullabye Delivery Tour. You can sign up for a free 7 day trial to download the mp3s.
The Conductor of These Imaginary Symphonies would like to take a moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and the sincerest hopes for a Happy New Year!
yay! finally! what a lovely christmas this has been.
You can also download an mp3 of the show here!
