News Archive

Uzi & Ari and TaughtMe: Christmas Box From a Busy Congregation

More than a year after treating us with a plateful of “Headworms” through Own Records, Salt Lake City’s Uzi & Ari are not scheduling their next LP yet but rather closing the year with two small surprises at the foot of our virtual Christmas tree.

The first is a video to “Wolf Eggs”, directed by Luxembourg video artist Ben Andrews. Of a rather confidential scale, Andrews has previously been involved in various short movies and documentaries and depicted other soundscapes including that of Artaban and Chook. The video consistently synthesizes the band’s and the director’s previous visual obsessions: mysterious characters escaped from a modern days fairy tale, a lot of trees and dead leaves, and an atmosphere that fluctuates between game and threat. The video will be premiered tonight in Exit07, Luxembourg, and available full length on the web afterwards.

ClumsyCongregation_Uzi&Ari_TaughtMe_SplitEPThe second gift is the unexpected soft launch of a split TaughtMe/Uzi & Ari (aka the Clumsy Congregation) EP. Soft Launched indeed! It will only be sold on U&A front man Ben Shepard’s solo tour dates and as a digital release hopefully by February. The EP comprises a new song from each band, a reciprocal remixes of each, and last but not least, two covers of Björk, “Unravel” by Uzi & Ari, and “Who Is It” by TaughtMe.

Uzi & Ari – “Unravel”

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TaughtMe – “Who Is It”

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Within then, Ben Shepard will be touring with Arms and Sleepers throughout Europe in January, and will be joined by his U&A fellows in UK. See tour dates here .

Stay tuned to GoodMorninCaptn.com for Own Records’ 2010 good resolutions.

Thomas Mery Invites Purr Mates On 2010 EP

Thomas MeryLater this month, Parisian folk singer-songwriter Thomas Mery will head to Brittany in order to record all-new material with engineer Miguel Constantino (Papier Tigre, Centenaire, La Terre Tremble !!!).

Thomas will welcome his former Purr fellows Stéphane Bouvier and Jérôme Lorichon (Berg Sans Nipple) to play bass, clarinet, drums, and trumpet on new songs such as “Ca” and “Aux Immenses Fenêtres”, which Thomas recently started playing live in Lille and Paris. The 4 to 5 tracks, mostly sung in French, will be released in early 2010 as a vinyl and digital EP.

You may already listen to some of those new songs in Dr Adams’ session streamable here for one month. Thomas recorded this French radio show prior to a home gig set up on November 1st by Dr Adams. Thanks to the latter’s kind invite, we were lucky enough to attend this lovely intimate show, where one could get hypnotized by the smell of Tartiflettes and the swirling sparkles of a disco ball while Thomas sang his new songs along with older ones from 2006’s A Ship, Like A Ghost, Like A Cell. A nice night with nice people in the North countryside of France.

In other Purr-related news, Berg Sans Nipple’s 3rd album should be expected soon, as the duo has finished recording.

Read Thomas Mery’s 2005 interview on GoodMorninCaptn.com.

Garneau The Hobbit

Chris Garneau, who is currently touring in support of “El Radio”, his 2nd and more uplifted full length, just released a new video for Fireflies, where he’s seen running and running through Middle-Earth. A surprising art direction change from Daniel Stessen, the same director who previously shot Chris Garneau’s “Relief“.

Chris Garneau - El Radio I have to admit this video puzzles me… Is Chris openly applying for a role in the next instalment of the Chronicles of Narnia or in Guillermo del Toro’s The Hobbit? If he does get a role in the latter, let’s pray he brings his drummer along to New Zealand and abandon him somewhere. Or at least ban Ben from ever playing again on “Castle Time” and “Relief”, as he was heard spoiling both songs in Paris last month.

Buy Chris Garneau – “El Radio” special edition, only on FargoStore.com

Weekly Indie News: Brian Harnetty & Bonnie Prince Billy, The Limes, Port O’Brien

Brian Harnetty & Bonnie Prince Billy - Silent CityThe LimesPort O Brien - Threadbare

Check out 3 worthy records out this week:

BRIAN HARNETTY & BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY – “Silent City” (Ruminance Records. Already out on Atavistic Records). A contemplative collection of field recordings, quiet songs and instrumentals. See the video of “Some Glad Day” below.

THE LIMES – “s/t” (Sauvage Records). Interesting debut album for the Franco-American super-group including members of Toy Fight, Orouni, and Mina Tindle. Listen to the first 2 songs, “Beyond Blue” and “The Snake“, and order the album here. Paris pub Le Motel will host a release party this Tuesday, Sept. 29.

PORT O’BRIEN – “Threadbare” (City Slang). 2nd studio album of the enthusiastic folk-rockers. Listen to “Sour Milk / Salt Water“.

Taxi Taxi! Swedish Duo Releases Debut Full Length

Taxi Taxi! Still Standing At Your Back DoorEfterklang’s label Rumraket have announced the Scandinavian release today of “Still Standing at Your Back Door“, first full length of Taxi Taxi! This Swedish duo composed of 19-yr-old twin sisters Miriam and Johanna had already enchanted us back in 2007 with an untitled EP on Rumraket (and Talitres in France).

Fierce Panda will take care of the release for the rest of Europe on October 12th.

Download “More Childish Than In a Long Time” (MP3), 2nd track of the album.

Weekly Indie News: Lisa Germano, Le Loup, Noah And The Whale, Volcano Choir

Lisa Germano "Magic Neighbor" / Rachel Grimes "Book Of Leaves" / Islands "Vapours" / Le Loup "Family" / Noah & The Whale "First Days Of Spring" / The Twilight Sad "Forget The Night Ahead" / Volcano Choir "Unmpa" / Why? "Eskimo Snow"

Pretty exciting week ahead, with a bunch of new releases out:

LISA GERMANO – “Magic Neighbor“, new album on Young God Records. Listen to “Snow” (MP3).

RACHEL GRIMES – “Book Of Leaves” (Karate Body / Ruminance). First piano solo album from one of The Rachel’s core members. More info and MP3 here.

ISLANDS – “Vapours” (Anti). The Canadians seem to have lost most of what once made them interesting. You may still listen to “Vapours” on their MySpace to prove me wrong.

LE LOUP – “Family” (Hardly Art / Talitres). Much expected follow-up to their 2007 magical debut LP. Listen to “Beach Town” (MP3).

NOAH AND THE WHALE – “First Days Of Spring“. Sophomore album and accompanying film are coming out this week in France (already out in the UK; 2 more weeks to wait for the US release). See the trailer below.

THE TWILIGHT SAD – “Forget The Night Ahead” (Fat Cat).

VOLCANO CHOIR – “Unmap” (Jagjaguwar). Intriguing debut of Bon-Iver-mastermind Justin Vermont’s more experimental band. Listen to “Island, IS” (MP3).

WHY? – “Eskimo Snow” (Anticon).

Thomas Mery’s September Shows

Finally some news from our dear singer-songwriter Thomas Mery, as he played his first gig in a long time, last week in Lille, and has 2 more in Paris this month.

Catch him this Sunday for a short set among many acoustic performances at Boutiques Sonores and Monster K7’s party, or on Wednesday, September 30 with Blackthread and Thos Henley at la Cantine de Belleville. A nice opportunity to hear some of Thomas’ new songs, as a foretaste of his upcoming album, expected for -hopefully- 2010.

Biggest BS Acoustic International Party, L'International, Sept. 20

Blackthread - Thomas Mery - Thos Henley

Read Thomas Mery’s interview on GoodMorninCaptn.com.

Rachel’s Rachel Comes Back With Solo Piano Album

Rachel Grimes - Book of LeavesBest known for sitting behind the piano of Louisville’s cult band Rachel’s in the 90’s and early 00’s, Rachel Grimes has recorded a whole new album on her own, Book Of Leaves, set to be released on September 22 in the US by Karate Body and October 12 in Europe and Japan by RuminanCe. 100 copies of a special edition vinyl will include the original score sheets; only 25 copies were still available for pre-order at Karate Body earlier this week.

Listen to 2 songs from the album on  Rachel Grimes’ website: Long Before Us and Every Morning.

Following the release of Book of Leaves, Rachel will bring her intimate songs on a Fall tour in the US, and is expected to fly to Europe in April 2010.

24 Sep 2009 – PianoForte Chicago, IL
25 Sep 2009 – PianoForte Chicago, IL
8 Oct 2009 – 21C Museum, Louisville, KY
9 Oct 2009 – WRFL Boomslang Festival, Lexington, KY
12 Oct 2009 – Le Poisson Rouge, New York, N
13 Oct 2009 – The Ethical Society, Philadelphia, PA
22 Oct 2009 – Good Shepherd Chapel, Seattle, WA
24 Oct 2009 – Swedish American Hall, San Francisco, CA

And Said Ólafur Arnalds Let There Be Light

Olafur Arnalds - Found SongsLast April, 22-year old Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds created one song a day for one week, and made each one of them freely available on the same day on foundsongs.erasedtapes.com. The 7 nice songs that resulted from the exciting project have been drawing more and more listeners, among whom many contributed their own artwork via Flickr. Erased Tapes eventually decided to physically release “Found Songs“, and the remastered record is coming out on August 31 as a limited-edition CD, 10″ Vinyl incl. digital download code, or high-quality download. Here is a dreamy video of the 7th-day track, “Ljósið“.

Buy Ólafur Arnalds’s Found Tapes on Erased Tapes online store.

Music Go Music’s Time-Travelling Video From Debut LP

Musi Go Music - Expressions - 10.06.09 (Secretely Canadian)

Music Go Music - Expressions

Halfway between their label mates Bodies of Water and 70’s disco icon ABBA, Music Go Music is starting to gain more and more attention, as they have announced their debut full-length release on Secretely Canadian, “Expressions“, due October 6. Don’t get too excited if you’re an early fan though, as it will merely be a collection of their 3 previous EPs, “Light of Love“, “Reach Out“, and “Warm In The Shadows“. If you’re not yet a fan of the promising L.A. band, here’s your opportunity to enjoy their psyched disco-pop, with the time-traveling video of Warm In The Shadows. You can also catch the catchy song for free from Secretely Canadian’s site.