Barn Owl prep new album V and help curate Bay-area music series

By Brendan Sudol on

Barn Owl prep new album V and help curate Bay-area music series http://www.tinymixtapes.com/sites/default/files/1302/news-13-02-barn-owl.jpg

Unlike other birds of prey, the Barn Owl (Tyto alba) has a close relationship with man. Akin to a flying, feathered feline, the Barn Owl hunts and eats pests around the farm in exchange for a warm and safe place to nest. With enormous eyes adapted for nocturnal hunting, the Barn Owl flies through the air, attacking and killing its prey in one fell swoop. Even with its magnificent eyesight, the Barn Owl’s greatest attribute is its hearing. The owl’s ears are so finely tuned it can track down, catch, and kill rodents in total darkness. If there is any justice, the common Barn Owl will use its auditory abilities to check out the new album from San Francisco band Barn Owl.

Bad David Attenborough impressions aside, Thrill Jockey is releasing V, the new album from Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti a.k.a. Barn Owl on April 16. Recorded last summer in San Francisco, with production by Phil Manley of Trans Am and The Fucking Champs fame, it is the follow up to 2011’s Lost in the Glare and sees the duo incorporating electronics and synthesizers into their already deeply textured brand of hypnotic psychedelia. Drum machines now augment their haunting, slow-building soundscapes. Static hiss hints at a rhythm beneath the surface. The influence of dub and minimal techno helps to blur the line between tracks, moods, and themes. V is looking to be the most complex and intricately constructed Barn Owl album yet.

Just as the majestic Barn Owl eats voles, mice, and occasionally small birds, the band has a full plate on its hands, too. The members of the human Barn Owl are organizing a music series called Remote View.

Remote View will focus on Bay-area bands taking part in what is billed as “realtime experiments in performance and sound.” The series will focus on experimental electronic music performances accompanied by a visual component, looking to explore the interaction between aural and visual stimuli. Remote View is the brain child of Caminiti and Porras as well as fellow Bay-area artists Lisa McGee (of Higuma) and Sky Madden. The Remote View series is bookended by performances featuring Caminiti, beginning with Painted Caves (Caminiti’s modular synthesizer project) and concluding on the third date with a performance by Barn Owl.

Remote View dates (all at The Lab in San Francisco):

02.15.13 - Painted Caves, Austin Cesear, It’s Own Infinite Flower, Paul Clipson
03.09.13 - Vallens, Ensemble Enconomique, KWJAZ
04.05.13 - Barn Owl

As well as taking part of the Remote View series, Barn Owl is planning a tour of US cities as well as shows across Europe but so far have only officially announced UK tourdates:

04.26.13 - Bristol, UK - The Cube
04.27.13 - Birmingham, UK - St. Paul’s Church
04.28.13 - Glasgow, UK - The Old Hairdressers
04.29.13 - Leeds, UK - Wharf Chambers
04.30.13 - Brighton, UK - Green Door Store
05.01.13 - London, UK - The Lexington (w/ Koen Holtkamp)

• Barn Owl: http://www.electrictotem.com
• Painted Caves: http://paintedcaves.tumblr.com
• Thrill Jockey: http://www.thrilljockey.com

The Postal Service reissue Give Up, have the gall to announce reunion tourdates on a bunch of Saturdays

By Ryan A. Detwiler on Feb 6 2013

It feels like it was just yesterday that Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamberello paired up for a full-length album following their original collaboration on the standout track “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan” from the 2001 Dntel album Life is Full of Possibilities, but oh, dear reader, how time flies – The Postal Service’s only album, 2003’s Give Up, came out a full 10 years ago. Adding to a handful of already announced festival dates, The Postal Service have fleshed out their spring and summer schedule to what appears to be a full-on reunion tour. Which makes perfect sense, given Sub Pop’s plans to release Give Up in a deluxe 10th anniversary edition on April 9, complete with two brand-new tracks, previously unreleased live material, and anything else they can shake out of the old duffel Ben and Jimmy used to use to deliver mail. Also worth nothing: many of the shows happen to be taking place on a Saturday… ouch.

Joining the boys on tour will be Jenny Lewis, who originally appeared on Give Up and contributes to the two unreleased tracks from the deluxe reissue, and Laura Burhenn (of Bright Eyes and Mynabirds). Tickets are available here, or you can postmark the most emo lyrics you can think of to Jimmy and Ben, c/o TMT Headquarters, and we’ll see what we can do for you.

Tourdates:

04.09.13 - Reno, NV - Grand Sierra Theatre
04.10.13 - Davis, CA - Mondavi Center
04.13.13 - Indio, CA - Coachella
04.12.13 - San Luis Obispo, CA - Madonna Expo Center
04.18.13 - Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre
04.19.13 - Las Vegas, NV - Chelsea Ballroom at the Cosmopolitan
04.20.13 - Indio, CA - Coachella
05.18.13 - Manchester, UK - Academy 2
05.20.13 - London, UK - Brixton Academy
05.21.13 - Paris, France - Trianon
05.23.13 - Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Soundwave
06.14.13 - New York, NY - Barclay’s

• The Postal Service: http://www.postalservicemusic.net
• Sub Pop: http://www.subpop.com

Matador Records ditches their spell check and adds Majical Cloudz to their roster

By Brendan Sudol on Feb 6 2013

Much to the chagrin of anyone who writes about music and uses word processing software with a spell check (i.e., everyone) Matador Records has signed Majical Cloudz. The project of Montreal-based songwriter Devon Welsh and his producer/live collaborator Matthew Otto, Majical Cloudz made a name for themselves collaborating with Grimes as well as releasing the 2011 EP Turns Turns Turns on Arbutus Records.

While their debut for the label isn’t going to be out for a while, Majical Cloudz have released a Yours Truly session, which can be viewed below, and they’ll be touring this winter with Autre Ne Veut.

Dates:

02.26.13 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brendas *
02.27.13 - New York, NY - Santos Party House *
02.28.13 - Montreal, QC - Le Belmont *
03.01.13 - Toronto, ON - Wrongbar *
03.02.13 - Chicago, IL - Schubas *
03.04.13 - Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock *
03.07.13 - Vancouver, BC - Electric Owl *
03.08.13 - Seattle, WA - Barboza *
03.09.13 - Portland, OR - Bunk Bar *
03.11.13 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent *
03.12.13 - Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour *
03.13-17.13 - Austin, TX - SXSW

* Autre Ne Veut

• Majical Cloudz: http://www.facebook.com/MajicalCloudz
• Matador: http://www.matadorrecords.com

Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich announce DJ dates, fans scramble to decipher the meaning behind spinning four hours of Fleetwood Mac songs

By E. Nagurney on Feb 6 2013

Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich are a real odd couple. One sings and plays guitar in Radiohead, the other one produces Radiohead records. How could such oil and water personalities mix? Well, they mix, buddy, they mix just fine. So fine, that they’re playing together in Atoms For Peace, who just happen to be releasing their debut record Amok on February 26 via XL Recordings. They even mix so fine that they’re doing a trio of DJ dates together in February and March.

Further details on those DJ sets are… a little scarce. They’ll be playing London, Berlin, and New York City, but they have yet to announce exactly where in those cities they’ll be playing. Don’t worry, though, there can’t be more than four or five places to do a DJ set in any of these cities. Prove me wrong.

Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich dates:

02.22.13 - London, UK
03.08.13 - Berlin, DE
03.14.13 - New York, NY

• Radiohead: http://radiohead.com
• Nigel Godrich: http://www.nigelgodrich.com

Eluvium announces new two-disc album Nightmare Ending; Freddy Krueger strongly objects

By Mike Reid on Feb 6 2013

You remember 2010? Yeah, me neither. Talk about your unremarkable years; I can’t remember anything worthwhile that happened, either on a personal or global level, and no, before you interject, the Winter Olympics in Vancouver only ventured into “Eh? Ehhhh” territory. “Oh, well what about the World Cup?!,” you might ask with an air of assurance. Spain unsurprisingly dominated and the world was introduced to vuvuzelas — nuff said.

What would’ve been remarkable had listeners not already been so skeptical of the theory behind it, was the release of Similes (TMT Review) from Portland, Oregon-based, typically ambient musician Eluvium a.k.a. Matthew Cooper. The album marked his first experiment with vocals under the moniker and was generally met with average reviews. Resistance to change is as much a human characteristic as bipedality.

Calming the nerves of his more anxious followers (taxonomy: Homo sapiens), Eluvium has just announced the release of Nightmare Ending, a two-disc album of mostly (entirely?) ambient material, and his first true follow-up to Similes (though one shouldn’t ignore the limited Static Nocturne). Fans of 2007’s Copia will likely find something appealing in the fact that Nightmare Ending was initially conceived as its direct follow-up, until creative frustrations put the project on hold. Later revisited, it’s the result of years of conscious and unconscious consideration. Don’t know about you, but I’d consider a purchase when it’s released on May 14.

Nightmare Ending tracklisting:

Disc 1:
01. Don’t Get Any Closer
02. Warm
03. By the Rails
04. Unknown Variation
05. Caroling
06. Sleeper
07. Envenom Mettle

Disc 2:
01. Chime
02. Rain Gently
03. Impromptu (For the Procession)
04. Covered in Writing
05. Entendre
06. Strange Arrivals
07. Happiness

• Eluvium: http://www.eluvium.net
• Temporary Residence Ltd.: http://temporaryresidence.com

Digitalis’ reissue of the amazing UK duo Leven Signs’ only release opens stargate to alternate, cooler past/future

By Liz Louche on Feb 5 2013

Forgotten progenitors of weirdo avant garde electropop and most Googleable band ever Leven Signs are getting some long overdue attention from the good people over at Digitalis. Like almost 30 years overdue. (And seriously, if you Google this band, you get like 10 exact results, and only one is inexplicably for an iPhone 4 case.) In 1985, the experimental UK duo of Peter Karkut and Maggie Turner released their one and only album Hemp Is Here as a cassette on Unlikely Records and as a vinyl LP on Cordelia. And then, like a shifting, shimmering dream of gamelan-studded, organ-washed, minimal electronica from an alternate future, it was gone. Gone from the pressing plant, gone from the wherever tapes are made. Gone from the collective consciousness of post-punk lovers everywhere.

Until an undisclosed date in February, when Digitalis gives Leven Signs a vinyl reissue. The phrase “before their time” gets tossed around a lot, but the mysterious and lovely Leven Signs should stir the hearts of the same people freaking out about the likes of Peaking Lights or Fabulous Diamonds. That sorta thing. Check out the track “Prague Spring” below:

• Digitalis: http://www.digitalisindustries.com/music

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