swarbles.
sometimes i sing.
sometimes i make things.
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dogs are really cool and i love them
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i don’t ever wanna kiss anyone who doesn’t love animals
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DIY Tiny Souvenir Book -Free PDF Instructions from At Home with Handmade Books
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DIY Observation Journal - Free PDF Instructions from Handmade Books for Everyday Adventures
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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...
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.
the fourth fanfare for the elephant 6 recording company has been released!
above (or over to the left, depending on where you’re seeing this) is my cover of the music tapes’ “takeshi and elijah,” which hasn’t actually been properly released yet. but takeshi and elijah and i have been friends for a while. i think this makes it okay to have covered.
and below (hopefully; i’m not sure this will work they way i’d like it to) is my cover of the instruments’ “ode to the sea.” i had to use public domain waves because my quests to catch local waves left me empty handed. without waves.
i think you can download those individual tracks in their players (i’m not sure, i’m not really up to speed on bandcamp). or you could get them from their bandcamp pages (takeshi and elijah, ode to the sea).
if you’re an elephant 6 fan, you should check out the whole release on the townhall orchestra’s bandcamp page! there are a lot of great covers this year!!!
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).
i was thinking the other day about all the music tapes memorabilia i have and i figured i had a lot of things, so i wrote it out in list form to see just how many, and as it turns out, i have more things than i thought.
we’ll list in order of most common to most rare. or at least what i think is most common and most rare. i’m not sure about some of the things and i’m too lazy to try to figure it out. but the last thing is most definitely most rare.
(also i recognize that the singing saw at christmastime isn’t “the music tapes” per se, but go with it. but if i am going by that logic, shouldn’t i also be listing both chocolate usa cds? i have them both. consider them listed.)
- the music tapes for clouds and tornadoes cd.
- the singing saw at christmastime cd.
- first imaginary symphony for nomad cd (with pop up).
- the music tapes for clouds and tornadoes 12”.
- the singing saw at christmastime 12”.
- a poster promoting the singing saw at christmastime.
- two music tapes pins.
- green friend of music tapes shirt with red ink.
- white raglan with black sleeves featuring the gentlefellows and metronome from the music tapes for clouds and tornadoes.
- music tapes pillowcase (in which sleeps the music tapes blessed pillow).
- music tapes kazoo (with intact reindeer game [i made a copy of it so as not to have to cut the actual copy that came with the kazoo because i have problems]).
- purim’s shadows (the dark tours the world) tour only cd-r with music-headed man artwork and hand written liner notes (i’m actually not sure how limited this was, since i know julian was assembling copies all through the tour).
- why is the president crying/untitled flamenco solo picture disc 7” from stop smiling magazine (#452 out of 1000).
- the television tells us/freeing song by reigndeer 7” (earworm european pressing of 500) (with pop up artwork and lyrics poster and bonus small blue poster).
- please hear mister flight control/smoke is a fireman’s friend 7” (with pop up artwork and poster by brian dewan).
- the first imaginary symphony for nomad 12” (with pop up artwork and comic strip poster by brian dewan).
- erika records inc. test pressing of please hear mister flight control/smoke is a fireman’s friend 7” in very beaten white paper sleeve with very faintly written “music tapes” in somebody’s writing (maybe julian’s? it doesn’t really look like his, but it might be) in dying green marker.
- the second imaginary symphony for cloudmaking on cd-r with a nesey gallons’ decorated label with poster of nigh (which has suffered a small tear because i am bad at life).
- various items left at my house after the lullabye delivery evening in 2010, consisting of; a length of green and white polka dotted ribbon, a green peppermint candle, a broken blue light bulb, several strips of paper).
- a test pressing of music tapes for clouds and tornadoes in a ray kinney record sleeve that nesey decorated with encyclopedic clippings, with nesey drawings on the record label (with ray kinney’s “lovely hula hands” still included [which is funny, because i already had that record prior to purchasing the test pressing]).
- a christmas card featuring artwork by sarah (the lovely artist who did the ice palace drawing in the liner notes for the music tapes for clouds and tornadoes), with drawings and very brief notes on the inside from julian, nesey, sarah, and ian (ludders) from the day i first met all those kind folks for belated christmas carolings.
(that last item is one of my most prized possessions in the history of prized possessions and would probably be the first thing i would try to rescue if my house were ever to catch fire. it was one of the most lovely days i have ever had and i hold it very close.)
(and of course there’s also the metronome love patch sweater and the music tapes garland i made, but those don’t really count as they are not officially sanctioned music tapes memorabilia, right? [although they could be! and maybe should be??? they should let me know. well, first they should know about their existences. and then, yeah! payment could be monetary and/or in physical manifestations of appreciation and adoration. i mean, who wouldn’t want cuddle times with any of those fellows and/or a seven foot tall metronome?])
![hobbies include:
leaving comments on last.fm track pages for music tapes songs that only certain members of the music tapes and their friends would understand (a grand total of maybe six people, depending on how good at remembering they are).
(although julian is sometimes not so good at remembering.)
(relatedly; sometime last year, i discovered a last.fm account that i am about 70% certain belongs to julian, but it seems to be mostly abandoned. the account was created in march of 2009, which is around the time it seemed as though he was starting to try to exist online a bit more [he used farcebook for about two months starting that same march after i sent him some fevery message when i had pneumonia and he left me one of the nicest comments in the history of farcebook {he probably would not remember this either, but i was so feverish and delusional and excited when he had posted it, i screen printed it and saved it somewhere} before he deactivated his account {i’m guessing because people online are creepy and/or he lost his internet access.}.].)
i also enjoy commenting on my own songs with applicable anecdotes.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1qbyzPasW1qzz5tco1_r1_250.jpg)
hobbies include:
leaving comments on last.fm track pages for music tapes songs that only certain members of the music tapes and their friends would understand (a grand total of maybe six people, depending on how good at remembering they are).
(although julian is sometimes not so good at remembering.)
(relatedly; sometime last year, i discovered a last.fm account that i am about 70% certain belongs to julian, but it seems to be mostly abandoned. the account was created in march of 2009, which is around the time it seemed as though he was starting to try to exist online a bit more [he used farcebook for about two months starting that same march after i sent him some fevery message when i had pneumonia and he left me one of the nicest comments in the history of farcebook {he probably would not remember this either, but i was so feverish and delusional and excited when he had posted it, i screen printed it and saved it somewhere} before he deactivated his account {i’m guessing because people online are creepy and/or he lost his internet access.}.].)
i also enjoy commenting on my own songs with applicable anecdotes.
