DOWNLOAD: Ben + Vesper - "Knee-Hi Wall" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ben + Vesper - "My Father's Eyes" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Danielson - "Grow Up" (MP3)

Ben + Vesper at Knitting Factory (more by Benjamin Lozovsky)

Four years removed from their debut All This Could Kill You, the New Jersey husband/wife duo Ben + Vesper welcomed their follow-up, Honors, this week via Sounds Familyre. Check out a pair of songs from that record, "Knee-Hi Wall" and "My Father's Eyes", downloadable above and streaming below. And while you're down there, make sure and check out the video for "My Father's Eyes" which you can watch for the first time here.

Ben + Vesper will, so far, celebrate the release with a limited run of dates. The weekend before Valentine's Day (Feb 11th, 12th) will see the couple take at two shows in North Carolina, and the band has reserved a date for NYC: February 28th at Zebulon with Aaron Roache.

In addition, Ben of Ben + Vesper directed a video for "Grow Up" by Sounds Familyre labelmate Danielson. The song (downloadable above/streaming below) is the first single from Danielson's forthcoming LP Best of Gloucester County due on 2/22 and featuring appearances from Jens Lekman, Emil Nikolaisen (Serena-Maneesh), Glen Galaxy (Soul-Junk), Mark Shippy (US Maple), and Chris Cohen (Cryptacize). Danielson has an NYC show of his own in the near future too. He'll bring the clan to NYC to play Le Poisson Rouge on March 25th. Tickets are on sale.

More details on that Danielson LP are below, alongside all tour dates, song streams, and videos.

Continue reading "Ben & Vesper released 'Honors', Danielson releasing 'Best of Gloucester County' (both have new videos & upcoming shows)"

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Serena Maneesh - I Just Want To See Your Face (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Wovenhand - His Rest (MP3)

Wovenhand (pic by Erwin Verstappen)

Nary a piece on the great Wovenhand goes by without mentioning mastermind David Eugene Edwards' Christian faith. It's an underlying theme that permeates through his riveting work, but doesn't dominate in style and theme like most conventional "worship music". Wovenhand recently landed a slot supporting metal powerhouses Tool; they're just that damn powerful.

And now Wovenhand will hit the road with a wholly (and holy?) different but nonetheless awesome band, Serena Maneesh, for a string of dates which includes an NYC show at Knitting Factory on October 4th. Tickets are on sale. Full dates are below.

Serena Maneesh welcomed their new album No. 2: Abyss in B Minor earlier this year, and....

August 12th will mark the U.S. release of a split 12" single with Toronto's Fucked Up on the Norwegian and Canadian label Best Of Both Records. This will be a limited edition release, with only 1,000 copies being pressed. The Serena-Maneesh side is a 7 minute song called "Opium Priest" and the Fucked Up side is a song called "Here Lies Are"

Wovenhand's new LP The Threshingfloor is fresh out of the gate, having hit store shelves on June 22nd via Sounds Familyare. Dig on one of those tracks, "His Rest", available for download above.

Tour dates and some video below...

Continue reading "Wovenhand & Serena Maneesh touring & releasing new music - MP3s & dates"

DOWNLOAD: Ortolan - I'll See You There (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ben + Vesper - An Honest Bluff (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ben + Vesper - Especially We (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Danielson - Nice of Me (MP3)

Ortolan...

A Familyre Drive Spring 2010 Tour!!!
Ben + Vesper, Ortolan, and Danielson will all be packin' the van and heading off to make musical merriment at the fine cities below! Come on out! All three bands will have just released or will be soon to release new records, so come hear some fantastic new material, as well as some old hits!

The Sounds Familyre Records tour will kick of on March 7th in Philly and then make a New York City stop on Monday, March 8th at Knitting Factory. Tickets are on sale. It'll also be at SXSW. A tour poster is below.

The NYC show will serve as a release party for Ben + Vesper's new "LuvInIdleness" EP.

Sounds Familyre put out Ortolan's selt-titled, debut EP last July. A track from that is above. Daniel Smith (aka Danielson) produced their first full-length, Time On A String, which will be coming out March 9th (one day after the KF show). More on the band (which is made up of three sisters and a sister-in-law), below.

In December, Danielson put out a single for the song "Moment Soakers." The video for that song, Ortolan tracklist and info, and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Sounds Familyre (Danielson, Ben & Vesper, and Ortolan) touring & releasing new albums "

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Danielson - Animal In Every Corner (Version) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Dan Zimmerman - Symbols In This World (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Dan Zimmerman - Everyday In My Heart (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Dan Zimmerman - Either Or (MP3)

Danielson (top, middle)& Dan Zimmerman (bottom)

Upon hearing Dan Zimmerman's music, his rich, distinctive, roasted baritone, somewhere in between Lee Hazelwood and Tom Waits, will be your first impression. It's all character, with nothing pretended or imposed. Dan's been singing since he picked up the guitar in 1957, and his resonance is pure experience. He's a Methodist preacher's kid turned '60s art-school van-gypsy, married by a swami, turned Northwestern mountain-man singing at lunch-hour for fellow workers at a tree-packing plant... And that's just the groundwork. Six years in the making, his new album, Cosmic Patriot, features Daniel Smith (Danielson), Emil Nikolaisen (Serena-Maneesh), Josiah Wolf (Why?), Joshua Stamper, Jason Kourkounis (Bardo Pond) and many more. It captures the band and the man perfectly.[Glen Galloway @ Sounds Familyre]

Dan Zimmerman has scheduled two upcoming gigs with label founder Danielson to celebrate the release of his new album, Cosmic Patriot, out April 21st on Sounds Familyre. One is at NYC's Mercury Lounge on Friday, May 15th. (Tickets are on sale now.

Zimmerman's new disc is his first since 2001's Great Small, which was the Sounds Familyre label's first non-Danielson (and second overall) release. As on that record, Danielson and "Famile" appear in supporting roles on Cosmic Patriot.

Last year Danielson released a retrospective album, Trying Hartz, and played a Halloween show at NYC's Knitting Factory.

All Danielson/Zimmerman tour dates, and an episode of Breakfast at Sulimay's where Danielson gets the Philly diner treatment, below...

Continue reading "Dan Zimmerman & Danielson - albums & shows "

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Danielson - Animal In Every Corner (Version) (MP3)

Secretly Canadian on Danielson:

Over the next few months we will be releasing brand new videos, unreleased mp3s from live shows, radio sessions, and the vault, as well as much much more. To start we're announcing two joyous events: the first domestic Danielson tour in over two years and the release on November 4 (December 1 in the UK) of Trying Hartz (First Fruits '94-'04), a two-disc retrospective of the first ten years of Danielson's body of work. Aside from fan favorite album tracks, it includes previously difficult-to-find songs, alternate takes, new intros & outros, and a few very choice live recordings. Also included are notes on each individual song by Daniel Smith himself as well as liner notes by best-selling novelist Rick Moody (The Ice Storm, Garden State).

Danielson will swing by the Knitting Factory in NYC on Halloween for the inaugural date of a month-long US tour - tickets are on sale. Joining (as part of the Famile and on their own) will be '60s-influenced pop trio Cryptacize, whose debut Dig That Treasure came out earlier this year on Asthmatic Kitty. Asthmatic Kitty is the "sister label" to Danielson's own Sounds Familyre. All tour dates and the "Trying Hartz" tracklist & cover art, below....

Continue reading "Danielson - new album, 2008 Tour Dates w/ Cryptacize "

* Sufjan Stevens @ Southpaw
* Sounds Familyre is giving away Christmas songs
* A City Harvest benefit @ Europa
* Mr. Scruff opens for Francois K at Deep Space at Cielo
* The Robert Glasper Experiment with Q-Tip @ Highline Ballroom
* Knitting Factory hosts Pittsburgh Slim

Pittsburgh Slim is the man behind that horrible "girls kissing girls" song. Reasons to go: You have Pittsburgh pride, you're thinking Jay-Z could show up, or you're hoping they might reenact the video in some way live on stage.

What else?