News

March 12, 2024

New vinyl editions for This Is The Kit and Bartees Strange

We are pressing up vinyl in earnest for the first time since the pandemic slowed our roll. Previous to these new editions our last new vinyl was a pressing of Hannah Georgas' All That Emotion in autumn of 2020. We kicked things off by repressing two classics from the catalog by This Is The Kit, just in time for some touring throughout North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom. We have followed that up with a pair of vinyl editions from Bartees Strange. Details below: BARTEES STRANGE
Read details on the new edition of Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy and the just-announced "lost" album Magic Boy. This pressing of Say Goodbye is limited to 3,000 copies and will be available in shop...


June 22, 2021

Celebrating 20 Years of Making Music

Established in 2001, Brassland is now 20 years old. We plan to celebrate this fact for at least a decade LOL.More seriously, we have plotted a number of celebrations to memorialize this occasion. Despite our promise to abandon the news section of this site, we'll be updating this item over the next year or so as new elements of our 20 year anniversary party are unveiled. But before we get into it a big thank you to OG member of our label roster Scott Devendorf for designing our 20th anniversary logo. Yay Scott, we appreciate everyone that's stuck with us since day one.A big way we plan to observe this milestone is revisiting our catalog of past recordings. This will start with...


January 1, 2021

Internet Updates Elsewhere

Does anyone check in on their favorite brand website for news updates anymore? Naaaah. In recognition of that fact we're officially retiring this part of the website. Instead, here are three things you can do if you want to keep up-to-date with Brassland content. (That's an icky word but it describes a full range of lovely music & video & people we've gathered so we'll live with it.)EMAIL: Subscribe to our new email list, which we might actually use this time: visit MailchimpFOLLOW: Keep up with us at these sites. They are listed in priority of how often we update them.InstagramTwitterYouTubeFacebookSoundcloudSUPPORT: Most of all consider consuming our goo...


October 21, 2019

You helped keep eclectic new music on NYC's airwaves!

You may have heard that WNYC (the NPR affiliate in our hometown of New York City) threatened the closure of their Soundcheck and New Sounds shows — which would likely mean the departure of longtime, influential DJ and producer John Schaefer, who has been unusually supportive of our wacky band of artists over the years. "Sunsetting the program" is the creepy and Orwellian language which WNYC used to describe the change. You can read the New York times report right here. We happened to think "sunsetting" music programming on a radio station meant to serve the public interest of one of the world's urban cultural hubs was...a weird look? Sayeth our friends Buke and Gase in one social media...


June 14, 2019

Did you ever think we'd release music by a Tony winner?

Earlier today we released "Woyaya" — a collaboration between Anaïs Mitchell and Kate Stables of This Is The Kit. We expected we'd see more Brassland releases from Kate even after she signed to Rough Trade. What's wild is that Anaïs's new Broadway musical Hadestown just won 8 Tony Awards. We definitely didn't see that coming. (Anaïs is incredible and we've been hearing about the evolution of Hadestown since she released it as an album over a decade ago but, wow, who could have predicted that an indie folk singer's dream project would go this far?!?)You can hear the song at your preferred music service by utilizing this link: smarturl.it/woyayaOptimistic and rhythmically complex,...


February 28, 2019

Buke and Gase rack up praise, tour North America, Europe & the UK

Did you know that Buke and Gase are touring throughout March, April & May? (They'll start in the UK & Europe, then cover most major cities in North America.) Did you know they released their first new album in over five years about a month ago? (It's called Scholars.) Did you know that people. Seem. To like. It? (More media hype below.)Do people still say ICYMI? Well ICTD (in case they do) we wanted to give a sum-up of the big splash Buke and Gase's SCHOLARS album made when it was released earlier this year. First it received the second lead review in Pitchfork on the album's day of release: "The melodies are huge, unfurling as multi-colored banners in the sky. ... The production he...


November 26, 2018

A gift to you from Brassland

Since 2014, we've made it a semi-annual custom to put out holiday music.* The best place to dig into our catalog of seasonably appropriate tunes is this playlist co-curated by Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, whose Christmas Spells EP we released in 2015. It includes not only holiday selections from the Brassland catalog but hep December-ish songs from Joni Mitchell, LCD Soundsystem, Mariah Carey, Sufjan Stevens, Mary Margaret O'Hara & other talents major and minor. (But mostly major.) The embed below goes to Spotify but the link leads to versions on YouTube & Apple Music as well if those are your preferred streaming jams. (Also we won't complain if you buy our songs off Bandcamp or other dow...


September 12, 2018

Buke and Gase announce new LP, fall tour with Shellac

Buke and Gase have released three new songs and announced an autumn tour & the January 18, 2019 release date of their third album SCHOLARS. You can hear the new songs on your favorite platform at this link: http://smarturl.it/nolandpinkboots or watch the videos below.DERBY - link
NO LAND - link
PINK BOOTS - link
The duo will tour the west coast of the United States with Shellac in October — and announce a handful of autumn 2018 headline dates imminently. Ticket links & more info can be found on their Facebook page or their website. A single headline show at The Vera Project in Seattle, WA has already been announced:10/03: Seattle, WA @ The...


September 21, 2017

The National take This Is The Kit and Buke & Gase on tour

Our head of corporate PR just came storming through the office to notify us that brassland.org has not published a news story about The National in almost 5 years. Apparently this dearth of info-bits™ is causing all kinds of problems with our Google search results & Facebook EdgeRank prioritization, so we need to remedy the lack of Brooklyn-by-way-of-Ohio-musician-oriented news immediately!?! So, without further adieu, a thanks to label godfathers, (sometime) benefactors & O.G. signees The National for taking both This Is The Kit and Buke & Gase out on the road as part of their Sleep Well Beast tour. Not sure what we're talking about? Is brassland.org your only source of #realnews? A...


July 9, 2017

Baby Dayliner returns!

Ten years after "quitting" the music business, the literate, electronic pop artist Baby Dayliner is back. (Aka Ethan Marunas...or Babbs if you're being casual about it.) If you've been paying attention to the internet these past few weeks you've probably noticed. Most prominently king-making NYC scene blog BrooklynVegan debuted his new EP in full this past Friday. Before reading any more of the hype, though, may we encourage you to just listen to the music for yourself...(Hopefully you'll get so caught up in the tunes you won't even bother reading the rest of this.)...but if you insist, we'll be happy to oblige with *MORE*. The centerpiece of the release is the title track of...


April 11, 2017

This Is The Kit sign to Rough Trade Records

A big congrats to This Is The Kit for today's announcement that they've signed to Rough Trade Records — progenitor of the indie music ideal — original home to legends like The Smiths & The Strokes — as well as a haven for quirkier artists like Pantha Du Prince, Scritti Politti and Jeffrey Lewis (who are just as close to our hearts, if not closer, than some of the label's 'hitmakers').A new album by This Is The Kit is in the works — and summer & autumn tour dates have been announced: June in Brooklyn, New York and at Eaux Claires Festival in the Wisconsin; then September in the United Kingdom. (Full tour dates list below.) To whet your appetite, watch this snippet of the band playin...


March 16, 2017

The Gloaming tour the USA in April

Happy St Patrick's Day. As has become our custom on or about this special holiday, we have some live dates by The Gloaming to share with you. The Irish-American supergroup will do a short run of shows through the Northeastern United States next month, before crossing the Mason-Dixon line for a one-off in Richmond. The Northeast shows including their long-awaited Boston debut. Boston is a big Irish town so be afraid, very afraid. Or at least expect there to be a lot of Americans wearing green & stuff at that gig.April North American tour
• 20 State Theatre: Portland, ME, United States
• 21 Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover, NH, United States
• 22 Berklee Performanc...


January 25, 2017

Buke and Gase play Los Angeles, Asia & Brooklyn residency — plot new record(s)

It's been awhile since we posted an extensive Buke and Gase update. In autumn 2015, of course, the duo of (girl) Arone Dyer and (boy) Aron Sanchez did some touring with Battles in the United States and United Kingdom. This past summer they played Eaux Claires — the Wisconsin event started, in part, by Aaron Dessner— where they were declared one of the best performances at the festival. (Consequence of Sound wrote "no act on the bill went for the weirdness without turning back quite like Buke and Gase.") Things seemed to pick up again this autumn, as the band participated in Brassland's residency at Threes Brewing — Arone popped up as a member of the indie all-star backing choir for Bon Iv...


November 29, 2016

This Is The Kit's holiday single, new videos & final Bashed Out tour dates

This Is The Kit have finally wrapped up their tour dates in support of 2015's most excellent Bashed Out, the BBC approved '6 Music Album-of-the-Year' which we've been flogging at you for about 16 months now...and which we will continue flogging for years to come! Ah the record industry, wherein constant pestering is somehow transmogrified into beloved backcatalog and expanded deluxe editions on every 5 and/or 10 year anniversary. *sigh*

Speaking of which, earlier this month we released a holiday single by This Is The Kit, consisting of two covers that put their unique pan-European folk-rock-but-more-uncategorizable-than-that spin on the season. And without further adieu, take a...


November 8, 2016

#fakeempire

It will take us a few days to process the path that America has just chosen. Since we are a record label not a person, we see our role as amplifying the voices of the artists who we work with. It would be accurate to say that most of them are shocked by the result of last night's American presidential election and that many of them are horrified.

If you feel similarly, it is a good time to donate your money & time to causes which support civil liberties. The National have suggested these organizations:
• Planned Parenthood
• ACLU
• Southern Poverty Law Center
• Democracy Now
We're sure there are many worthy entities who will pursue an agenda of social p...


October 6, 2016

A report from #EndlessNameless in Berlin, Germany

Brassland was founded around a dream about an island. Imagine a cross between a commune, an artist's colony and the television show Giligan’s Island: a bunch of creative people voluntarily stranded, making new things, and having ridiculous adventures.

Last week in Berlin that dream came true. Endless, Nameless was an experimental music festival bringing together 80+ artists to the Funkhaus. In the week prior to the public-facing festival, the artists hung out, explored & collaborated in the dozens of nooks, crannies & studio spaces throughout this enormous, out-of-time feeling facility. Originally the Funkhaus was build to be the home of East Germany's central radio station, and...


September 28, 2016

A month of Sundays in Brooklyn this October

Brassland is 15 years old. We don't have a specific birth date because things were a bit hazy in the early days. But we are planning to celebrate — offline, online & in product form — thru summer 2017. We will revisit some long-dormant artists who we've worked with over the years. There will be occasional, special vinyl things. We're exploring a subscription offering for the hardcore fans among you. And, finally, we are finding new ways to foreground the increasingly ornate & renown family tree that has sprouted up around the label & our community of artists.

But first…

We are kicking off our year of mild partying & retrospective looks with a series of shows at Ti...


August 18, 2016

The Gloaming earn 2016 ‘Album-of-the-Year’ praise, plot 2017 tour dates

Tomorrow The Gloaming celebrate five years as a band. On 20 August 2011, Martin Hayes (violin, fiddle), Thomas Bartlett aka Doveman (piano), Iarla O'Lionaird (vocals), Dennis Cahill (guitar) and Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh assembled at The National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland to play their first ever concert. The show was sold out and the band created a synthesis of traditions from the start: Irish, ambient, well-composed but fluid & full of improvisation. You can relive those first moments via this free download. (It's also available on major streaming services if you click that way.)

We're happy to report the band's growth continues apace, and that our February re...


May 4, 2016

Bryce's big year, MusicNOW is BBC 6Music's 'compilation of the week'

Think about label co-founder Bryce Dessner's achievements over the past 365 days and it's easy to see he's had what you call 'a banner year': music festivals built around his extended artistic family in Cork, Ireland and Minneapolis, Minnesota - new compositions premiering at the New York City Ballet and LA Philharmonic - his first major Hollywood film score for The Revenant - and, last but not least, the 10th anniversary of MusicNOW, the intimate festival he curates each year in The National's hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Speaking of which, we had a happy & unexpected bit of news this week when BBC Radio 6Music DJ Lauren Laverne picked our MusicNOW album as her "compilation of t...


March 20, 2016

The Gloaming release 2, top Irish charts, tour USA

"In a conundrum to cause maths teachers everywhere to break out in hives, 2 has proven bigger than 25, as The Gloaming knock Adele off the top of the Irish charts," wrote Hot Press Magazine last week. Yep that's right The Gloaming's sophomore album has topped the Irish album record sales charts, beating out more familiar pop contenders like Justin Bieber, The 1975 and, yes, even Adele. We were as gobsmacked as anybody when we saw this report. A lot of crazy things have happened to Brassland artists over the years: opening slots on R.E.M. tours, hang sessions with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, even Oscar nominations. But we're not sure any of our artists have ever had a number one record on a...


February 29, 2016

OP-ED: Oscars's music controversy & the dumbing of America

After last night's Oscar broadcast, one of the label's co-founders Alec Hanley Bemis wrote a thing about the f**ked-upness of the Oscars' relationship to music in 2016 — and posted it to Brassland's F'book page. Alec has some strong opinions on the matter, having met Elliott Smith in 2000, soon after Smith's own Oscar appearance changed the singer-songwriter's life—for better & worse. And it feels relevant to post here seeing as two of our artists & two mentors/friends of the label were caught up in the competitive scrum of the Academy Awards this year. (To reel 'em off, label co-founder Bryce Dessner co-composed the soundtrack to The Revenant; The Gloaming's singer Iarla Ó Lionáird had a pr...


January 22, 2016

Bowie Bonds playlist, Doveman covers "Lazarus"

Almost two weeks after David Bowie's passing, the Brassland community is still grieving. Let us be the first to acknowledge that, duh, Bowie occupied a far more widescreen canvas than we could ever hope to. Everyone from his peerless peers like Brian Eno to the artists we grew up with like Trent Reznor to contemporaries who thrill & infuriate us like Kanye West have marked his passing in the social media medium. Unlike another recent legend's passing, we and our roster didn't have a particularly personal relationship with Bowie or his music -- Bowie having been off-the-musical scene for most of our label's existence, he seemed less like a presence we might encounter and more...


December 4, 2015

This Is The Kit get Album of the Year, José González tour & new EP

We try not to let our site get too dominated by a single artist, but what a run This Is The Kit have had in 2015, hogging attention in a way quite counter to their considerate nature. We're pleased to confirm the details of their new Rusty and Got Dusty EP, a new support slot opening for José González across continental Europe in December and, last but not least, the selection of their Bashed Out LP as one of BBC Radio 6 Music's Albums of the Year.

We'll lead with that last bit since there's not much to say about it beyond "Woo-hoo!" In announcing the award the responsible DJ said, simply "I just love the honesty and I love how she sings like a songbird." 6 Music will be playing a...


November 27, 2015

Holidays with Brassland, Mx. Bond and Misters Bischoff & Lerche

If you spend any length of time in New York City, you'll be familiar with double happiness. Most urbanites learn the phrase from seeing it on a seemingly random assortment of Chinatown store awnings: bars, travel agencies, 99¢ shops, low-cost bodywork outlets, et. al. Traditionally associated as a good tiding in Chinese wedding ceremonies, there is even a character for the concept 囍 which is actually a doubling of a single character 喜 which, in turn, means joy.

Which is our (typically) roundabout way of saying: we wonder if we can make ^^ (double Christmas Trees) a thing?

Which is our still-more roundabout way of saying we have a ^^ surprise for you— new seasonally-ap...


September 30, 2015

The Gloaming visit America; Buke and Gase tour UK/USA with Battles

It's rare that our artists have not one but two major tours happening in the United States simultaneously. So, contrary to our usual practice of filling these news updates with random yuks, jokes & asides, we'll get right to the point. (But yes, technically the image we've used with this news story counts as a joke.)

Here is where you Americans can catch The Gloaming.

OCTOBER
- 02 Los Angeles, CA: Bovard Auditorium, USC
- 05 Seattle, WA: Benaroya Hall
- 07 AnnArbor, MI: UMS at Michigan Theatre
- 09 Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center
- 10 Chicago, IL: Old Town School of Folk Music
- 11 Philadelphia, PA: Annenberg Center for the Performing Ar...


August 11, 2015

This Is The Kit collect praise, BBC support & tour dates

This year's been a doozy for This Is The Kit (aka Kate Stables and whoever joins her aka TITK for short). We released their new, Aaron Dessner-produced album Bashed Out in April. (Vinyl came along a few months later and, hey now, links to get it in any format are here if you are so inclined.) Reactions have been universally positive, with some daring to call it one of the best British albums of 2015. (That "some" includes "us" of course.) We'll get into more details about the positive reviews in a moment but ***HEADLINE ALERT*** the BBC has even made a half-hour format documentary TV show about the project. It debuted last week, as one of the first episodes in a new series called Music Box w...


May 27, 2015

Bryce Dessner, So Percussion, Aron Buke & Gase team-up

Of late, Brassland has had our most Dessner-heavy release schedule in quite some time. There is the wonderful (and still fresh) Aaron Dessner production-work on This Is The Kit’s new album Bashed Out — the Bryce-curated indie-all star compilation MusicNOW: 10 Years
— and, just last week, Bryce’s new solo album Music for Wood and Strings which, amazingly, was the Hot Shot Debut on this week's Billboard Classical chart!?!

(That chart debut is even more amazing if you consider the fact that most of the Billboard "classical" chart is stuff like Lindsey Stirling's dubstep violin jams and compilations with names like Classical Treasures: Classics For Relaxation.)
...


March 30, 2015

Secret history of Sufjan's CARRIE & LOWELL

Oh hi. Recently we've heard some grumbling about these news updates on brassland.org. "It's so long I didn't read it," people complain. "Why do your news updates take such a roundabout way of getting to the freaking point?" one friend told us. (i.e. Note the picture that goes with this particular update, a barely relevant #selfie of Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner and some dude with a hat from the most recent installment of the MusicNOW festival.) Finally others criticize: "You could say the same thing with far less verbiage." Basically "TL;DR" one might say, if one cared to use contemporary internet slanguage.

So, in the interest of quickness we're going to start explori...


February 8, 2015

Steven Reker of People Get Ready wins award, debuts at Lincoln Center

Things may have seemed quiet on the People Get Ready front since the summer release of their sophomore album Physiques but rest assured respect, accolades and affection continue to accrue for the members of this uncategorizable indie/performance quartet.

That accrual has been most pronounced in the case of main man Steven Reker. First Lincoln Center selected him to debut a new piece of work at their prestigious American Songbook
series. (The date is February 27th for those who like keeping your calendars up-to-date.) And just this morning The New York Times announced that Steven has been awarded American Dance Institute (ADI)'s Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography....


February 3, 2015

This Is The Kit announce April release date for Bashed Out

Earlier today, after This Is The Kit wrapped up an UK opening tour for The Barr Brothers, Stereogum broke news of the release date for their long-anticipated new album Bashed Out, which was produced by The National's Aaron Dessner. Before we say more, take a listen to the first music released, the album's title track.

"Kate Stables has been recording music as This Is The Kit for years now, but this is probably one of the first times you’re reading about her," wrote Stereogum. "Bashed Out will be her third full-length album, and…it will also likely be her breakout."

For those who have been following the band since they joined the label in 2012, This Is The...