Damn, this is BIG! The most anticipated album EVER for us here at Beard Makes Better Music has leaked and is available for listening right now. The album is set for official release on june 20:th.
These guys told us about it. We looked it up and found direct download links by searching the big search engine. Most files are packaged in .rar files, just a small hint.
Obvious theme on this weeks playlist featuring Bon Iver, Phosphorescent, Cat Power, J. Tillman, Ed Harcourt and Iron & Wine. For you who doesn't have Spotify, the tracks are listed below.
Time for a new Spotify-playlist. This week a playlist relating to this blog post about the projects of Justin Vernon. Beard makes better music 3 features: Justin Vernon (Volcano Choir (on the picture), Gayngs, Bon Iver, Anais Mitchell and Eau Claire Memorial Jazz I)
Most of us know Justin DeYarmond Edison Vernon by the artist name Bon Iver. Not everyone have heard of all his other projects through the years. So I thought I'll give you a brief review.
Mount Vernon
When in college Justin started two bands, one of them - Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon did two releases: We can look up (1998) and All of us free (2000)
DeYarmond Edison
DeYarmond Edison was the other band that Justin started early on. The other members of DeYarmond Edison was Brand and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund. After five years together the band split up and Justin left Raleigh and Wisconsin due to this and the break up with his girlfriend.
DeYarmond Edison released two albums by themselves, DeYarmond Edison (2004) and Silent Signs (2005). Also, there's an unreleased EP available on MySpace. When the band split up, the other members started the band Megafaun.
Justin Vernon
In 2006 Justin records the album Hazletons in his own name. Supposedly there is another recording too, but I've never heard it. Hazletons is beautiful though. Here, the title track.
Bon Iver
Love the story of how For Emma, Forever Ago (2008) came to life. After the break up between DeYarmond Edison, and another break up, with his girlfriend. Justin decided to leave town and went to his fathers cabin in north Wisconsin where he spent his days chopping wood, listenting to the howling wolves and writing and recordin For Emma Forever Ago. For me, this album is one of the best albums through all times. In 2009 they released the EP Blood Bank, and that was it for Bon Iver. Hoping for a comeback, forever and ever.
The Volcano Choir The Volcano Choir is a post rock-indie band consisting of Justin Vernon and the members of Collections of Colonies of Bees. Their debut album Unmap, was released in September 2009.
Eau Claire Memorial Jazz I feat. Justin Vernon
The album A Decade With The Duke was released in 2009. A recorded live performance of the Eau Claire Memorial Jazz I and Justin Vernon.
GAYNGS Gayngs is a soft rock band founded by Ryan Olson and the group consists of 23 musicians including Justin Vernons, Rhymesayers rapper P.O.S, and the members of Megafaun (who played in DeYarmond Edison). This year, they released the album Relayted.
Kanye West feat. Justin Vernon
Ok, and then there is this highly anticipated collaboration with Kanye West and Justin Vernon. I don't think I will be anything but disappointed...
Surely there is projects and other things that I've missed, if you come to think of anything, please make a comment about it!
Sometimes when I need input musically, I go to the record labels that I like, maybe they've singned a new artist or they've got someone in their stall that I've missed. This morning i checked out JAGJAGUWAR which I love for artists like Bon Iver, Lightning Dust and Okkervil River just to metion a few. But this time, what I found was the director R. Alverson. Alverson recently directed 2 movies under JAGJAGUWAR, The Builder, starring Colm O'Leary and New Jerusalem starring Colm O'Leary and Will Oldham (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy).
Synopsis: Following an Irish immigrant carpenter from coastal Queens to the Catskills and beyond, THE BUILDER is an american existential portrait that explores the gulf between the idea of a thing and the thing itself. Having set off to the New York countryside to construct a reproduction of the earliest of american cape houses, the protagonist (Colm O’Leary) finds himself overcome by an inexplicable fatigue. Debts and expectations mount alongside the crudest and most naive of deceptions, that of both self and of family. As the chasm grows the Builder finds himself confronted by the unnerving ambivalence of the world around him.
Synopsis: A meditation on friendship, human needs and frailty, New Jerusalem explores the allure and limitations of modern utopean belief. Sean (Colm O’leary), an irish immigrant to America, returning from a non-combat tour of duty in Afghanistan, finds his heart and mind in disarray. He befriends Ike (Will Oldham a.k.a Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy), a strong willed evangelical, who endeavord to ensure his salvation. Inundated by a relentless fragility, Sean is confronted by a choice between the temptation of certainty and tha chaos of the world around him.
En platta som jag uppmanar er att köpa är Dark Was The Night (Red Hot Compilation), den finns förstås på Spotify men i just det här fallet så tycker jag att man kan avvara de 115 kr den kostar (i iTunes) då pengarna går till välgörande ändamål. Det är organisationen Red Hot Organization som står bakom samlingsskivan som är utgiven för att samla in pengar och höja medvetenheten kring HIV och AIDS.
På skivan finns allt man skulle kunna önska sig. Bon Iver, The National, Grizzly Bear, Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists, en fantastisk duett med Feist och Ben Gibbard och en annan med Conor Orbest och Gillian Welsch, My Morning Jacket, Beirut, Arcade Fire... behöver jag fortsätta?
Okej, jag hetsar, jag vet det. Såhär var jag när jag startade min andra blogg också. I två månader. Sedan hamnar jag på någon mer sund nivå. Men innan jag slår igen för idag måste jag visa den här. När jag såg den här fick jag om möjligt ännu mer respekt för Lykke Li. Kolla hur jävla kool hon är! Bara kolla! Inför Bon Iver står hon och bara dansar och äger liksom. Det är så sjukt snyggt.
Tillägg: Sekunden efter att jag skrivit detta inlägg hittade jag den här. Där hon gör samma låt tillsammans med El Perro Del Mar.
Jag älskar att sitta på YouTube och leta efter små inspelningar. Typ radioframträdanden som spelats in och andra live-initiativ som La Blogotheque - A Take Away Show och tidigare nämnda Black Cab Sessions. Jag imponeras av musiker som gör det lika bra, kanske till och med bättre live. Musiker som spelar på lite vad som helst och får det att funka. Och som får till fantastiska stämmor acapella. Sånna grejer. Det finns massor, massor! Här nedan Bon Iver och den fantastiska låter Wolves act 1 & 2.
När Justin Vernon bröt upp med band och flickvän bestämde han sig för att flytta ut till en stuga, långt från civilisationen någonstans i Wisconsin. Han ägnade dagarna åt att hugga ved, höra vargarna yla och spela in ett av de, enligt mig, bästa album som någonsin gjorts. Detta gjorde han under artistnamnet Bon Iver och kallade albumet For Emma Forever Ago. Först släppte han det på egen hand under 2007 och efter att ha fått mycket postitiv respons, bland annat i bloggvärlden så släpptes albumet 2008 på Jagjaguwar Rec. Har ni inte redan det här albumet i er samling så skaffa det. Nedan ser ni en inspelning från MySpace Transmissions där man också någonstans ska kunna ladda ner hela inspelningen gratis. Tidigt i år släppte Bon Iver EP'n Blood Bank, också den helt fantastisk - mer om det senare.
