News

New Clogs Album Ships Early Only at The Brassland Store, Lantern Now on Limited-Edition Vinyl - February 17, 2010

On March 2nd, Clogs will release their fifth studio album, The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton. Their first long-player since 2006's Lantern, The Creatures was recorded in Brooklyn and Sydney over 2007-2008 and features a variety of guests, including Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), Sufjan Stevens, Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner (The National), and the Osso String Quartet.

Now for the new news. As of today, you can pre-order the album from The Brassland Store, where it will ship early and arrive at your doorstep before it's available in fine music retailers across the country. We've put together a few bundles that you can choose from:

Bundle #1 - CD + Download of Veil Waltz
Bundle #2 - CD + Clogs T-Shirt + Download of Veil Waltz
Bundle #3 - CD + Clogs Back Catalog + Download of Veil Waltz

For details on pricing, visit The Brassland Store. And don't forget that all orders in the US receive free shipping!

In addition to releasing The Creatures, Clogs have pressed Lantern on limited-edition vinyl. Hand-numbered for that personal touch, the album is available at The Brassland Store for $18; for $28, you can pick up a CD copy of The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton. Order quick, before they're all gone.

[ More about Clogs ] / [ More news stories for Clogs ]

Nico Muhly Writes His First Opera for Met and Lincoln Center, Kitchen Gigs Coming Up - February 15, 2010

Late last week, the New York Times ran an article on Nico Muhly's new opera, written in collaboration with Craig Lucas for the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center's first joint commissioning project. Describing the commissioning program, the performance time line, and a brief plot synopsis, the article provides a good overview for Nico's latest project:

The work will make its debut in June 2011 at the English National Opera, which will share in the production’s cost with the Met. It will come to the Met for the 2013-14 season. It will be the fourth time that the Met and the English National Opera have co-produced a show since Mr. Gelb took over, in a system that has essentially turned London into an out-of-town tryout locale for the Met.

The opera is the first for Mr. Muhly, 28, an increasingly prominent, productive composer who has a long association with Philip Glass. He was a late addition to the joint commissioning project. A dozen composer-librettist teams were formed to create pieces that could then be steered toward the Vivian Beaumont stage at Lincoln Center Theater or the Met, depending on whether they were more musical-like or more operatic. Each team was offered a $50,000 commission. "It's somewhat ironic that he's last in and first out," Mr. Gelb said of Mr. Muhly. "He was very quick. He had a very strong idea."

A rough draft of the opera is complete, Mr. Gelb said, and will be fine-tuned in further workshops. It was inspired by a story in Britain in the late 1990s involving a 14-year-old boy who took on the identities of women on the Internet in the hopes of luring someone into killing him. The murder was never carried out.

While the opportunity to see Nico's opera is a few years away, one can catch Muhly and Doveman during their two-night stand at Manhattan's The Kitchen in mid-March. Titled "Doveman and Peter Pears: An Evening with Thomas Bartlett and Nico Muhly," the events will feature songs from Doveman's latest release, The Conformist, as well as songs by Peter Pears, Muhly and Bartlett's duo project. Tickets are on sale now for the reasonable sum of $15. Be there or be square.

[ More about Nico Muhly ] / [ More news stories for Nico Muhly ]

The National Set Release Month for Album, Announce Tour - February 01, 2010

It's been well over a month since The National last made news in these parts. At the time, they were boasting a four and a half star rating on YouTube! for their Google commercial and were well at work mixing their follow-up to Boxer. Last week, the band announced that the as-yet-untitled album will be released worldwide this May on 4AD. Matt sat down for an interview with Pitchfork to discuss mastering the record, the possibility of naming it Summer Lovin' Torture Party, and having Sufjan sing back-up.

In addition, the band will play a few shows that straddle the album's release, including: The Big Ears Festival (3/28) in Knoxville, TN; a two-night stand at The National in Richmond, VA (4/22 and 4/23); Royal Albert Hall in London (5/6); and a gig with Pavement in Paris (5/7). Late May sees the band in California before a string of shows in the American Northeast in early June, ending with a June 16th show at Radio City Music Hall in New York. For a full list of dates, venues, and links to purchase tickets, click over to our shows page.

[ More about The National ] / [ More news stories for The National ]

MusicNOW Celebrates Fifth Year, Announces 2010 Lineup - January 25, 2010

In 2006, Brassland co-founder Bryce Dessner (also known for his work in The National and Clogs) created the MusicNOW Festival in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, in order to highlight the work of contemporary musicians and artists "that take risks and do not fit neatly into categories." Held at Memorial Hall, MusicNOW has stayed true to its mission, inviting artists as eclectic as Sufjan Stevens, Grizzly Bear, The Books, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Kronos Quartet.

Earlier this month, MusicNOW announced their lineup for 2010. Running from Tuesday, March 30, through Thursday, April 1, the fifth incarnation of MusicNOW will feature Joanna Newsom, St. Vincent, Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver) in a rare solo appearance, and yMusic, who will perform a festival-commissioned piece written by St. Vincent's Annie Clark.

Tickets, which cost $20 per concert or $50 for a three-day pass, are now available online here. If you prefer the old-fashioned way, you can call 1-800-838-3606.

To celebrate the festival's fifth anniversary, Each Note Secure compiled a history of the festival, including streaming video, pictures, and links to interviews. Some highlights we thought we'd post here, as well:



Sufjan Stevens plays "Lakes of Canada" on Memorial Hall's roof in 2007. (Video by Vincent Moon for La Blogotheque)

Andrew Bird belts one out onstage at the 2008 festival. (Photo by Joe Long)

Kronos Quartet performs at the 2009 festival. (Photo by Meredith Melragon)

[ More about Bryce Dessner ] / [ More news stories for Bryce Dessner ]

Clogs To Release New EP in January 2010, New Record in March - January 12, 2010

Back in September, Asthmatic Kitty posted a playlist that included a new song by Clogs. Featuring Sufjan Stevens and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), "We Were Here" was teased as a possible track off their follow-up album to 2006's Lantern. Over the past three months we've hammered out details and now have information on the album, including title, tracklist, and artwork.

You can read a lot more details than even we know as reported on the internet websites Stereogum and Pitchfork.

Recorded in Brooklyn and Sydney over the course of 2007 and 2008 then mixed & finished over the next year and a half, The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton includes performances by Sufjan Stevens, Shara Worden, Matt Berninger, and Aaron Dessner (of The National). The tracklist is as follows:

1) Cocodrillo [ft. Shara Worden]
2) I Used to Do
3) On the Edge [ft. Shara Worden]
4) Red Seas
5) The Owl of Love [ft. Shara Worden]
6) Adages of Cleansing [ft. Shara Worden]
7) Last Song [ft. Matt Berninger]
8) To Hugo
9) Raise the Flag [ft. Shara Worden]
10) We Were Here [ft. Sufjan Stevens and Shara Worden]

Do we have anything for you that those other sites don't have? Well, below are some pictures taken while the album was being recorded:

Bats hanging from a tree in Sydney's Domain Park.

A look inside the studio.

A look outside the studio.

The album will be released on March 2, 2010. An EP-length prologue titled Veil Waltz will be released January 26th. Get excited!

[ More about Clogs ] / [ More news stories for Clogs ]