Category Archives: music news

interviews, music news

Interview: Cloud Cult

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Cloud Cult are nothing if not prolific. The Minnesota band just finished up their eighth studio album, Light Chasers, which is set to hit stores on September 14th.

Light Chasers picks up right where Owl and Bear favorite Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) left off, exploring the relationship between the human experience and the unknown. Frontman Craig Minowa took some time out from tea-partying through tornadoes to talk to us about loss, the environment, and what the band has in store for us in the future. Continue reading…

music news

Sufjan Stevens Releases Surprise EP Today

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The once-prolific Sufjan Stevens released a brand new EP, entitled All Delighted People, for download today. A CD and vinyl release of the EP is planned for later this year. Here’s the scoop:

All Delighted People is built around two different versions of Sufjan’s long-form epic ballad “All Delighted People,” a dramatic homage to the Apocalypse, existential ennui, and Paul Simon’s “Sounds of Silence.” The EP includes two versions of “All Delighted People,” which Sufjan debuted on his 2009 tour. Along with six other new songs, the collection is his first original song-oriented material since 2006.

The EP is Stevens’ most coherent work in years, and a return to the (somewhat) more conventional songwriting of his Illinois and Michigan albums. Its eight tracks are brimming with the naked emotion and orchestral swells that make him one of music’s most fascinating songwriters.

So what are you waiting for? Buy it or stream it here.

music news, teevee

Battle of the Animation Bands Comes to LA

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Cartoons and indie music? This is one of those times to wish LA was closer. According to a post by Jerry Beck from Cartoon Brew, “Women In Animation International (WIA) is planning a Battle of the Animation Bands concert, an evening of indie music, to be held in late September in Hollywood that will feature bands created at animation, visual effects and game studios.”

The combination of music and art in the form of animation is nothing new. Actually, the history of cartoon bands (also known as virtual bands) spans over a half a century. From The Simpsons to South Park, animators are able to create the fictional bands seen only in our dreams. Here is a little Cartoon Bands 101 with some of the more well-known animated musicians: Continue reading…

art/books/film, music news

Califone’s Tim Rutili Lends Support to Song+Stories Project, You Should Too

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Independent radio artists Elizabeth Meister and Dan Collison are working with acclaimed Califone songwriter Tim Rutili on a documentary called Journey of the Asian Carp.

For the uninitiated, the Asian carp is a destructive non-native fish that has wreaked havoc on Midwestern waterways by crowding out native fish and uprooting plants. Notorious for their jumping ability, they also pose a physical danger to fishermen and their feeding habits make them hard to capture.

Meister and Collison hope to weave the documentary with Rutili’s music to create something that is more than the sum of its parts. Rutili’s music will supplement the documentary’s narrative as it follows the invasive carp’s slow migration from the American south “to the brink of Lake Michigan, focusing specifically on communities along the Illinois River that already have been invaded.”

If all goes well (more on that later), Meister and Collison will visit some of the small American communities that depend on their waterways and native fish but have been devastated by the Asian carp’s invasion.
Click here to learn how you can help…

contests, music news, san diego

Contest: Win The Moviegoers’ New 7-inch

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Inventions like the iPod and Pandora can reduce music to a blurry background din, yet no matter how jaded we become, certain songs can still pierce the fog.

“Avalanche,” by San Diego’s The Moviegoers, is one of those songs. From its moving spoken-word verse, to its soaring chorus — which features lush harmonies by band members Richard Hunter-Rivera and Jessica Monday — the track is a stirring triumph, and one of the best songs to come out of San Diego in recent years.

“Avalanche” was originally featured on the band’s out-of-print Be A Man EP, but it’s been re-recorded for inclusion on the their new 7-inch, which will be released on August 12th. And as good as “Avalanche” is, it’s only the record’s B-side; imagine how great the A-side, “Big High School,” must be.

The 7-inch was recorded by local knob twister-extraordinaire Keith Milgaten, of Jamuel Saxon/Black Mamba/The Vision of a Dying World fame. Mangoose, the label partially run by Hunter-Rivera, will release the record. The band will celebrate the fruits of their labor with a release party on September 4th at the Tin Can Ale House, but if you can’t wait until then to hear the songs, don’t despair: we generous folks at Owl and Bear are giving away a free copy.

For your chance to win The Moviegoers’ new 7-inch, send an email to contest@owlandbear.com with your name and mailing address. The winner will be selected at random on August 30.

Contest haters and the perpetually unlucky can pre-order the 7-inch here.