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Curate-a-Thon for The National - January 23, 2012

The National have found a way to cure the post-tour blues, now that they're keeping busy with curatorial activities throughout the year. The band was recently invited headline the All Tomorrow's Parties festival this December, and as part of that they get to pick the whole line-up. The festival is held in Minehead, UK which is, uh, right near Bristol, which is in...uh...yeah? (Ok, we had to Google Map that.) Anyway, a preliminary line-up has been announced, including (but not limited to): Kronos Quartet, The Antlers, Owen Pallett, Boris, Tim Hecker, Sharon Van Etten, My Brightest Diamond, Wye Oak, Lower Dens, Megafaun, Suuns, Dark Dark Dark, and our very own Buke and Gase! The rest of the 40 total acts for ATP are still To Be Confirmed, but tickets for ATP recently went on sale.

(To Be Confirmed is not the name of a band by the way. Don't get any bright ideas.)

Earlier in the year, Bryce Dessner will present the seventh installment of his MusicNow Festival back in his Ohio birthplace in late March. Finally, Bryce and his brother Aaron will be busy curating another music festival, called Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. This latter festival will be produced by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and will be held from May 3 to 5. Over the three nights there will be performances by a variety of bands. (To Be Confirmed might even show up!) While the lineup for Crossing Brooklyn Ferry has not yet been released, a late-night dance party is most definitely on the agenda, and we hear there will also be screenings of short films commissioned for the festival, and other things which are quite artistic but considerably less indie rocking in nature. Tickets for the music festival will go on sale in March.

Maybe you're all, "Just three festivals, aren't they doing anything else with their time?" Well, first of all, give The National a break. It was a long tour. Second, let us direct you over to our update on all the collaboration work that will keep our musicians' thumbs from twiddling.

Good night and geez, cut a band a break sometimes.

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Our artists resolve to mix things up in 2012 - January 06, 2012

The theme for the new year at Brassland might be "collaboration," with several of our artists teaming up for various "special projects" and some more classical pursuits.

Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) has begun working with a new band called The Gloaming, an Irish/Celtic-oriented group which also features Iarla Ó Lionaird, Dennis Cahill, and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. They will play in globalFEST 2012 this weekend, a sold-out festival featuring twelve artists held at New York's Webster Hall. A few days later Buke and Gase will enjoy a change of pace, performing in the New York Guitar Festival on January 12th alongside Sonic Youth's Lee Renaldo and guitar goddess Kaki King. All three of them will be premiering live scores to silent films by Buster Keaton. B&G chose the 1926 jam The General.

Next up is Bryce Dessner who, after several years of touring with The National, is starting off 2012 in a different, slightly less Rock Staresque direction, joining Nico Muhly along with our friends Shara Worden, Owen Pallett in performing a piece by composer David Lang. The word "supergroup" has been bandied about but we're not sure if you're allowed to use that word in the 2010s. Paul Hillier's Theatre of Voices is also involved somehow. We know three facts: (1) The night features music exclusively written by Lang. (2) It will be held at Stanford University on January 25. (3) A second performance to follow at Carnegie Hall on the 27th. Be there or be square Californians & New Yorkers.

But that's not all! The scare quoted "supergroup" term will continue rearing its head throughout the year. Aaron & Bryce Dessner's The Long Count piece arrives at London's Barbican Theater in February. The Doveman/Nico Muhly project with Sam Amidon, The 802 Tour, will revisit earth (as opposed to our dreams) with two shows in March. Last but not least Bryce and Muhly join forces with Sufjan Stevens for a mysterious horn-focused piece in April.

Want to know more about these events? Well, look at our events page or just Google it.

Want to know more about the supergroup concept? Check Wikipedia. We have verified already that it is a compound word.

Want to buy tickets to these events? You'll need cold hard cash. The internet can't help you there. Sorry.

Brassland Wraps Up Anniversary Year - December 30, 2011

Well, it's almost 2012, which means our ten-year anniversary festivities are almost over. We want to take a couple minutes to thank all of our long-time fans, along with the new followers we gained over the past couple months, for joining us for an internet party of sorts. The Song-a-Day Giveaway of music downloads lasted throughout November, with a distribution of freebies running the gamut of Brassland material. It included everything from early demo tracks by The National to songs by three new bands recently signed to the label.

We even got some nice press about the November celebration, with articles in Spin, the Guardian, BrooklynVegan (here and here), Pitchfork, Exclaim, Sequenza 21, East Village Radio, Oolgy, Hot Press, and LaDepeche (we're allowed to brag, ok, it's our anniversary). New York Magazine also did this fun interview with Aaron Dessner that linked to our giveaway. So, while we spent 2011 reflecting on our ten-year history, we also highlighted what you can expect from Brassland in the future. We really owe all of you fans for making our anniversary so special. Ok, before we get too sentimental, we're going to cut to some music. Here's a recap of the song giveaway, in playlist form:

Song-a-Day Giveaway by Brassland

The National ends tour with Beacon shows - December 20, 2011

The National's tour bus has finally rolled to a stop, with the band concluding their High Violet tour with a series of performances at the Beacon Theater in New York City last week. Their six-show grand finale featured The War on Drugs, So Percussion, Wye Oak, Sharon Van Etten, My Brightest Diamond, and This is the Kit as openers, with various other musical friends like Richard Reed Parry from Arcade Fire and Trey Anastasio from Phish joining the band throughout the week. Nico Muhly and Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) were both part of the on-stage party on Saturday.

The band sure has come a long way since we started out with them...and, in the spirit of feeling like proud parents, many congrats to Matt Berninger for his inclusion on Stereogum's 2011 Indie Crush List, and the whole band for making the Oscar shortlist for best original song in a motion picture, for their track on Win Win. These are the kind of honors even your mom who is still waiting for you to get a real job one day could get behind.

Finally, here are some photos taken at the Beacon, courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan.

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Big ass announcement(s) from Buke and...Gase? - December 02, 2011

Your phonetic struggles are over! We know it's been hard on everyone trying to figure out the pronunciation of Buke and Gass. Is it bass like the fish, or bass the unusually funky instrument? Well, now there's no more subtly trailing off as you tell your friend about this great new band you love so much. ("Oh, you should really check out that band Buke and Guh-aa.....yeah, that one.") The band has decided to officially change their name to (insert drum roll here) Buke and Gase. Aron and Arone wrote their own explanation:

A limerick announcement addressing the mis-pronunciation of our name:

If there was one thing to replace
It would be the last S in Gass,
There isn't much class
When rhymed with sassafras,
So we changed it to E just in case.

With Love,
Buke and Gase

So, there you have it. We're busily updating lots of important looking file folders with the new name, and hopefully the internet won't take too long resolving itself to the change. (Bang, you are so damn fast, Mr. Internet.)

But wait, we have yet more announcements about Buke and Gase (née Gass). News flash #1: The band was recently nominated in the Best Art Vinyl 2011 contest, for their Riposte record! You still have time to vote for Aron and Arone, who created the cover themselves, both of their hands & with their hands. Cast a vote right here.

Finally, hopefully you're already aware that Buke and Gase have been tooling around Europe on tour! You have until December 14 to see them live so we suggest you take a look at the updated list of Buke and Gase shows here.

That is, AFTER you cast a vote in for the Best Art Vinyl. We're trying to be thorough here.

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