All Good Naysayers's Notes
The Welcome Wagon recently released a 4-song EP of songs that didn’t fit on their debut Welcome To The Welcome Wagon which was “recorded, produced and given sonic shape by their friend, Sufjan Stevens.” Purity Of Heart Is To Will One Thing is available now exclusively at iTunes. All proceeds will benefit Freeset, “a fair-trade business in India that helps to liberate and empower women escaping the sex trade in the largest red-light district in Kolkata (Calcutta), India.”
Read More:
News article at Asthmatic Kitty
EP release page at Asthmatic Kitty
- O Christ, Our Hope
- Up On A Mountain (demo)
- I Am Not Skilled To Understand
- There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood
..as explained by macrobiotic star people and Aunt Harriet’s magic Ouija board
Enjoy your Christmas with this story Sufjan wrote a few years ago for The Independent.
(click thumbnails for full-size images)
Over at the Sufjan Fans forum, kaleidoscope eyes has been diligently keeping track of the major interviews and articles of 2009:
- Vish Khanna/Exclaim! Transcript
- The Guardian (audio)
- The Herald
- The Quietus
- Death + Taxes
- WNYC Soundcheck (audio)
- BOMBlog
- Uncut
- triple j: Mornings with Zan (audio) (scroll to the bottom)
- NPR Morning Edition (audio)
- Irish Times
- Paste Magazine / full issue
- AU Magazine
- Bunyip Voodoo
- Interview Magazine
- Signal to Noise Pt. 1 / Pt. 2
Please let us know in the comments if you have come across any other recent articles, interviews, or reviews.
On November 3, Half-handed Cloud’s latest project is scheduled to be released by Asthmatic Kitty. Cut Me Down & Count My Rings is a collection of 46 songs “taken from seventeen different releases that came out between 2000 and 2009.” Most of the songs are rarities from various compilations and are being released on CD and MP3 for the first time. Contributors to Cut Me Down & Count My Rings include Sufjan Stevens, WHY? and members of Cryptacize.
Release Date: November 03, 2009
View Tracklist and more information about Cut Me Down And Count My Rings…
Sufjan Stevens in a recent Guardian article: “I have no qualms about admitting [the Fifty States project] was a promotional gimmick.”
Super Teenage Hooper Heroes comic book, written by Sufjan Stevens and illustrated by Stephen Halker, is available now in the following formats:
- Black and white version, with The BQE special edition vinyl package
- Color version, paperback
- iPhone/iPod Touch version (iTunes link), downloadable media via Panelfly mobile comic app
About Super Teenage Hooper Heroes:
Sufjan Stevens’ The BQE further extends its mythology by anthropomorphizing the expressway and its theoretical conceits into a 40-page comic book (cover by Matt Loux, masthead by Christian Acker), in which three extra-terrestrial superhero sisters (Botanica, Quantus, and Electress) use hula-hoops to combat the “the Messiah of Civic Projects,” Captain Moses, and his totalitarian social architecture. The comic book, written by Stevens and gorgeously drawn, colored, and inked by longtime friend and collaborator Stephen Halker, visualizes in graphic form many of the political motifs of the movie and soundtrack: mid-century urban theory, modernism, post-modernism, hoop dynamics, and the spiritual practice of Subud.
Description from: Asthmatic Kitty
All The Way From Michigan Not Mars a DVD featuring Rosie Thomas, with Denison Witmer, Sufjan Stevens and Sheila Saputo, will be released by Factory 25 on October 27th. Additionally, a limited edition package with the DVD and LP will be released which includes “never-before released Apartment Sessions with Sufjan Stevens and Denison Witmer that evolved into Thomas’ 2007 album, These Friends Of Mine.”
Pre-order the DVD or limited edition package at Insound.
The film is playing in select theaters and on tour with Rosie Thomas this fall. Check the events section for an up-to-date schedule.
Release Date: October 27, 2009
Sufjan interviews Shannon Stephens: “Back in my collegiate days.. I was in a band called Marzuki.. Our striking lead singer was a local songwriter named Shannon Stephens.. who had a gorgeous alto voice like Judy Collins and a penchant for writing catchy folky songs about love and heartache. Having lost touch with Shannon all these years, I decided to use the release [of The Breadwinner] as a means of catching up.”
I had the pleasure of attending the first night of the Sufjan/Cryptacize tour at Johnny Brenda’s in Philly. A few brand new songs were interspersed between selections from Seven Swans with “Romulus” as the encore.
I have more than a little information overload when trying to keep up with all of the photos, blog posts, tweets, and reviews about the first week of the tour. Rather than trying to keep track of everything myself, let’s do this the web 2.0 way: add your tour photos to the All Good Naysayers Flickr Pool, add setlists to Setlist.fm, add links, reviews and anything else to the show pages listed below. The forum at Sufjanfans.com is also a great place to find media and reviews.
The BQE and Run Rabbit Run are now available for pre-order at Insound. Use the links and coupon code below to get 10% off. The coupon code is good for the rest of 2009, so use it any time you order from Insound.
The BQE:
Run Rabbit Run:
Coupon Code: naysayer10