Everything you are
Is everything we have
You’re the only good thing
A sun came.
We have been called to participate in the world’s creation from the very beginning. Making music. Baking cakes. Sewing curtains. These things mean something greater: that we have been known from the very start. Our eye color, our hairline, our jawline, the shape of our big toe, the tone of our voice. These things have been designed from the very beginning. What kind of music we listen to. The sort of skirt that looks good. The baseball cap, the tennis shoe, the orange bandana. We have been made to find these things for ourselves and take them in as ours, like adopted children: habits, hobbies, idiosyncrasies, gestures, moods, tastes, tendencies, worries. They have been put in us for good measure.
Perhaps we don’t like what we see: our hips, our loss of hair, our shoe size, our dimples, our knuckles too big, our eating habits, our disposition. We have disclosed these things in secret, likes and dislikes, behind doors with locks, our lonely rooms, our messy desks, our empty hearts, our sudden bursts of energy, our sudden bouts of depression. Don’t worry. Put away your mirrors and your beauty magazines and your books on tape. There is someone right here who knows you more than you do, who is making room on the couch, who is fixing a meal, who is putting on your favorite record, who is listening intently to what you have to say, who is standing there with you, face to face, hand to hand, eye to eye, mouth to mouth. There is no space left uncovered. This is where you belong.
— Sufjan Stevens (via brotherstories)
Silver & Gold demo. Christmas 2010.
Ok. so this is haunting and kind of chilling in its simplicity.
Been hooked on this one tonight.
Sufjan Stevens- Star of Wonder
This is maybe the best Christmas song I’ve ever heard.
Sufjan Stevens- Vito’s Ordination Song (live)
Now that I’m finally feeling a bit rested and clearheaded, here are some Record Store Day purchases.
The Mynah Birds
A short-lived Motown band from 1966, the MBs featured Neil Young and Rick James (bitch!). It’s kinda like the Stones or Them, with a little psychedelic feel to it. It’s pretty great, I think.
New Multitudes
A couple of studio tracks and a couple of demos are on this EP from the alt-country supergroup. The demos are the real find here. All lyrics are by Woody Guthrie (whoever that is).
Sufjan Stevens/Rosie Thomas
This is fun stuff from two of my favorite artists. It makes some generous post-Bon-Iverian use of the auto tuner, which adds an eerie synthetic quality to two of the more painfully earnest voices in indie pop.
Townes Van Zandt
This is a 1987 LP from Townes, and it’s a good one. The production is refreshingly clean— I had worries about a 1980s Nashville country album that featured a DX-7. It’s country, though, with some genuinely decent harmonica work, which is pretty rare.
Mates of State
This is an album of covers from indie pop’s durable spouses. I hadn’t heard any of this, and was a bit worried when a friend told me (post-purchase) that he’d seen them playing this material live and was underwhelmed. But it’s actually very good, and they make the covers their own. I still prefer their music when it’s just the two of them playing, but the slightly larger ensemble really works well on this one.
There were other non-purchases that I’ll get when I have a chance— the Uncle Tupelo LPs were pricy, though entirely worth the money. They should be around a while, though. There were a couple of killer blues anthologies by Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt, and a live Cohen set, which will probably be in my next batch of purchases. Seeing as I get paid in records, I figured this was the best allocation of my “funds” for the day.
Happy Record Store Day, planet Earth.
Sufjan Stevens- To Be Alone With You (live at Schuba’s)
Here’s a nice live version of this one, appropriate for today.
Sufjan Stevens- The Midnight Clear
Sufjan Stevens- Vito’s Ordination Song (acoustic version)
This one makes me think of so many far-off friends and acquaintances. I love this acoustic mix.
Sufjan Stevens- A Sun Came (live at Calvin College)
Here’s a little early Sunday morning music.
Sufjan to Appear on New Roots Album, "undun"
- Spin: So who, exactly, is the protagonist Redford Stephens?
- ?uestlove: Well, the album's name is inspired by the Guess Who song "undun." But we named the character after the Sufjan Stevens song "Redford" from his Michigan record. We imagined Redford as being like Avon Barksdale from The Wire. He's a good guy who could have just gone to college and been a great engineer or something. But he makes a bad decision and pays for it. We tell that story in 10 songs, under 44 minutes. Actually, Sufjan makes an appearance on the album, too.
- Spin: Really?
- ?uestlove: We've always loved the song "Redford" from Michigan. So we close the new album with a cover of "Redford." We stretched it out into this four-part movement. Part 1 is Sufjan at the piano performing it. And then Part 2 is a string quartet that we had interpret it. Part 3 is myself and D.D. Jackson, who is an avant-garde piano player. He's probably one of the most dangerous pianists — I don't know how he doesn't have carpal tunnel now. But he just destroys, literally, destroys the piano. The final movement, which ends the record, is essentially the beginning of the story. But it's the last thing you hear. It's a very powerful piece of work.
“What would Beyonce do?”
I’m so disappointed that I can’t make it to this show.
: Sufjan Stevens @ Cirque Royal. 10.05.11
What was experienced last night at Cirque Royal – the venue that played host to the first night of Les Nuits Botaniques – was not really a concert, it was more of a sci-fi musical or a fine musical form of avant-garde theatre.
Stevens, a man whose progression as a popular…
Two Records: Sam and Sufjan
I’ve got a couple records I’ve been cycling through on the turntable tonight. The first is a record that I’ve already talked a little bit about—Iron & Wine’s new disc, Kiss Each Other Clean. What strikes me tonight is what a fantastic vinyl sound this has. There are textural contrasts which don’t come across anywhere near as well in the digital version. There’s a very sharp definition of the difference between Beam’s filtered vocals and the very sweet and clean harmonies in Big Burned Hand, creating an effect that is hard to describe in words. But it’s very, very cool. And on Monkeys Uptown, the blending of the rhythm section, harmonies and melody feels so natural and easy. And the first track, Walking Far From Home, makes sense as an opener when those filtered vocals at the song’s beginning are heard with much more depth and presence. All in all, the album holds together as well as any I’ve ever heard, in terms of sheer sound.
The second record is the vinyl release of Sufjan Stevens’ All Delighted People EP. I’ve listened to The Age of Adz several times now, but I hadn’t gone back to this one until I got the vinyl release. Again, this is a sonic masterpiece; Sufjan’s voice is handled perfectly, sometimes with reverb, sometimes with tightly layered harmonies, but always with the sort of presence and intimacy that serves it best. Beyond the voice, the record is so volatile that it overwhelms me at times. Everything fits together, but the songs constantly surprise me. Dynamic swells (as in the title track), interjections of unexpected instrumental lines in a number of tracks, and startlingly spare piano lines (like in The Owl and the Tanager): These might seem chaotic and incoherent, if not for their adherence to the melodies. Everything supports the ever-escalating melodic lines, surging and vanishing at just the right moments.
That’s all for now. Time to flip.
I’m kind of mesmerized by the album art for Sufjan’s All Delighted People EP. For one thing, I recognize a few of the people I see, aside from Leo DiCaprio and Jimmy Carter. But beyond that, it’s this relentless collage of faces. And I’m referring to the vinyl pressing of the EP. It’s a gatefold sleeve, and the collage extends front, back and on both interior panels. The effect is pretty intense.
