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Sufjan Stevens @ Merrill Auditorium 4.14.15 photo by Hannah Hays
Death is the elephant in the room of our lives. It’s one of the few universal inevitabilities we all face in our world, and yet we pretend it doesn’t exist and choose to ignore its impact until we’re directly faced with it. The thought of death, of losing our loved ones, or even ourselves, can paralyze us if we let it overcome us.
Sufjan Stevens confronts death directly on his new album, Carrie & Lowell, named for his mother and stepfather. Stevens’ mother passed away recently, and this new 11-song album is an auditory documentation of processing his loss and grief, as well. The result is a devastating, meditative, but ultimately hopeful understanding of death. It is Stevens’ most personal & introspective album to date; it is also among his very best work.
Carrie & Lowell is a more sparse effort than most anything prior in Stevens’ recent discography, trading in bombastic arrangements for more minimalist acoustic production. The “return-to-indie/folk” sound occasionally recalls the fingerpicked guitar and double-tracked vocals of the late Elliott Smith. Subtle orchestration and warm synthesizers round out the sound, resulting in the most intimate and serious sounding work for Sufjan Stevens’ career.
This Saturday, April 18th, record stores around the state will participate in the 8th annual Record Store Day. It’s no surprise that Bull Moose has the biggest list of events for this new holiday, since record guru/longtime Bull Moose employee Chris Brown actually invented the holiday. If you have about two hours to spare, his annual RSD preview video is pretty all inclusive:
Bull Moose Brunswick, 151 Main Street
8-11 a.m. – Custom Home Theater Systems will be on-site with a hi-fi audio demo station set up for customers to listen to their Record Store Day purchases. The demonstration will feature a Debut Carbon turntable with Ortofon OM-10 cartridge, NAD receiver, and PSB speakers.
Bull Moose Lewiston, 20 East Ave.
12-2 p.m. – Original WrestleMania tournaments on 8-Bit Nintendo to celebrate The Wrestling Album and Piledriver release.
2:30 p.m. – Jeff Beam acoustic in-store performance.
Bull Moose Portland, 151 Middle Street
2:30 p.m. – Dot Wiggin Band signing.
4:00 p.m. – Worried Well acoustic in-store performance.
5 – 6 p.m. – Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots tournament.
Bull Moose Scarborough, 456 Payne Road
12 – 2 p.m. – WCYY DJ Mark Curdo DJ Set
2 – 3 p.m. – Murcielago in-store performance.
Bull Moose South Portland, 219 Waterman Drive
1:00 p.m. – An Overnight Low acoustic in-store performance.
Bull Moose Waterville, 80 Elm Plaza
12 – 12:45 p.m. – Audio Apocalypse in-store performance.
1 – 2 p.m. – Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots tournament.
Bull Moose Portsmouth, 82-86 Congress Street
1 – 2 p.m – Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots tournament.
3 – 4 p.m. – “Professor Colletta’s Music History Trivia A to Z”
5 – 6 p.m. – Wheel-O-Fun. Spin the prize wheel— every spin wins something!
Bull Moose Salem, 419 South Broadway
2 p.m. – Carissa Johnson acoustic in-store performance.
Locally, Portland folk rockers Tall Horse will be releasing their new single on VHS, of all formats. Will it be an audio visual experience? Will it be the first installment in a new formatting trend? Where did I put my VCR?
Prolific Portland pop rocker Spencer Albee will also be cranking out another new release for the holiday, a CD called Mistakes Were Made.
Some Maine locations do choose to participate, but not hold any special events, which means some of the exclusive RSD releases will also be available at Newbury Comics on South Portland, Manny’s in Camden, Music Plus in Biddeford and Record Connection in Waterville.
Of course RSD is so much about supporting independent record stores and the local community, but what would this holiday be without a little consumerism? So what should we be excited for? Well I can tell you didn’t watch that whole video, so here’s some highlights:
Jack White is re-releasing Elvis’ first ever vinyl release which was originally recorded in 1953 and features “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.”
Courtney Barnett’s Kim’s Caravan 12” featuring “Kim’s Caravan” and “Close Watch” (a John Cale cover!)
Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybee 7” on a heart shaped vinyl (whoa) featuring “I Love You, Honeybear” (acoustic) and a new song “Never Been a Woman.”
Johnny Marr’s I Feel You 7” featuring his covers of Depeche Mode’s “I Feel You” and kinda himself with a version of The Smiths’ “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want.”
Vampire Weekend’s Step 12” featuring “Step,” the remix featuring Danny Brown, Heems, and Despot and the instrumental.
Blitzen Trapper’s Harvest 12”, a live recording from the other Portland of the band covering tracks from Neil Young’s Harvest album.
J Dilla’s Love 7” featuring previously unreleased material and a reissue of his “Fuck The Police” on a 7” shaped like a badge.
Metallica’s 1982 demo tape No Life Til Leathr, on cassette no less.
D’Angelo’s The Charade 7” which features “Charade” and “1000 Deaths” Rhino Records is also releasing a “Side by Side 7” Series,” which features two artists doing their own versions of the same song, one the original, and one a cover. R.E.M. and Syd Barrett doing “Dark Globe,” David Bowie and Tom Verlaine doing “Kingdom Come,” Death Cab for Cutie and Freedy Johnston doing “Bad Reputation,” Stiff Little Fingers and Grandmaster Flash doing “The Message,” the Lemonheads and Gram Parsons doing “Brass Buttons,” and The Stranglers and Dionne Warwick doing “Walk on By.”
On the national level, RSD’s official 2015 ambassador is Dave Grohl, who is releasing a batch of early recordings from the Foo Fighters titled Songs From The Laundry Room, and even hehas a video.
The official RSD beer is Dogfish Head, and they’ll be releasing a compilation called Music To Drink Beer To, which was compiled by the brewers and features Bob Dylan & The Band, Uncle Tupelo, Iggy & The Stooges, Cheap Trick (!) and a Tribe Called Quest (?) among some other well known artists.
As with every record store day, its usually a good idea to check online on Friday to make sure the record you’re looking for is at the location you plan on hitting up, and when you do head in to get a RSD exclusive, you may want to get in line early. It’s like Christmas, you guys, Nerd Christmas in April.
It’ll be a great show of course (this was) —there is no ill will on my part. But it made me think of how many bucket list bands are getting checked off this summer in Portland for the the 17-30 year old spread. Spoon? Check. Slayer? Check. Sufjan Stevens? Check. That band your little brother just discovered? Check.
Then it quickly led me think of a game I will often play with friends of “Entirely Possible Portland Dream Shows” which will serve as a bucket list suggestion for the always amazing bookers of Portland.
Looking at you, Lauren, or unknown millionaires — and to give it that HillyTown local touch, the opening act for this scenario will be a Maine-centric band.
I’ve made it pretty clear by now that I’m a huge fan of everything that Greg Bazinet, Tara and Brian Cohen have been involved with musically. From their scrappy roots playing (for the most part) acoustic-tinged punk, to their all-out epic and final album under The Rattlesnakes banner, Spine..
But as some famous guy from awhile ago one said: “The times they are a’changing,” and The Rattlesnakes have been given their burial rights and it’s time to get very, very excited about the next sister band to come from The Rattlesnakes — Fur — who just released a DIY video for “Bronze” the first official studio track from their new album 2 Hearted Horse.
..Illinoise swept-up a small subset of an indie culture inthralled with Stevens’ Magnetic Fields—esque promise of writing, composing and producing 50 albums for all 50 states, a plan he later rebuked).
