You heard it here first!

In a joint effort, Crossroads of America Records and Flannelgraph Records (both from Bloomington) are releasing a series of records on 3″ CDs that will be released monthly (2 releases per month) as a year long subscription service called the Laminar Excursion Monthly.  Sales will open up on Monday, November 2nd and they are EXTREMELY limited to only 100 copies.  Each 3″ CD will be approximately 20 minutes of new, unreleased music from each artist.  Lots of the bands involved frequently play here in Louisville, so it will be a real treat for the first 100 people who decide to purchase it.  Some of the incredible bands involved will be Damien Jurado, Richard Swift, Cotton Jones, Desolation Wilderness, J. Tillman, Saxon Shore, Bexar Bexar, and a host of others that will be announced in the coming days!  With a roster like this and as cheap as it is (only $45!?), I cannot imagine this being around for more than a few hours before it sells out.  Make sure to put this on your calendar and get ready to enjoy one of the coolest things to have come down the pipe in a long time.

With the labels both being in Bloomington, there are a ton of regional bands involved with the subscription service as well such as Everything Now!, husband&wife, Vollmar, Rodeo Ruby Love, Bro. Stephen, Metavari, Osteoferocious, Homecomings, Frank Schweikhardt, Alexander The Great, Chad Serhal, and more!

LEM = Most Perfect Christmas Present Ever.

From the horses mouth:

The intimacy of its sparsity and the intentionality of its medium promise to make this an even more fulfilling investment than a jelly-of-the-month club.

Subscribers will receive two new 3″ cds at the beginning of every month of 2010.  A unique box will be sent with the initial shipment.  Even if the rest of your world falls apart, you can still count on having two new compact discs arriving to your mailbox each month for the entire year.

Laminar Excursion Monthly will be limited to 100 subscribers.

The yearly subscription fee is $45.00 until January 1st.  If any subscriptions are still available at that point, the fee raises to $50.00.

Subscriptions will be available at www.xrarecords.com beginning Monday, November 2nd.

Continue reading Damien Jurado, Richard Swift, and Lots More Release New Music in Brand New Subscription Service at Backseat Sandbar.

First one up is a band that is actually playing in Louisville TONIGHT at Skull Alley.  That band is one of the great K Records‘ new shoegazey verb-pop band Desolation Wilderness.

I played with these dudes last night in Bloomington, IN at a pizza joint called Greek’s Pizza which was a strange, but cool place to see/play a show.  Think a narrower and longer Skull Alley with tables and chairs set up all over the place so there were a lot of folks sitting and eating, but a huge crowd packed in the front of the restaurant by the door were taking in one of the more talked about bands I’ve come across recently.

These boys hail from all the way over in Olympia, WA which is home to their record label K Records.  Desolation Wilderness is the pet-project of lead singer and songwriter Nicolaas Zwart and features a gorgeous mix of droney guitars, subtle riffs, and Nic’s reverb and tremolo drenched vocals.  You wouldn’t be too far off if you were thinking it was a pre-voice change David Bazan fronting The Jesus and Mary Chain or The Pains of Being Pure At Heart after a Valium bender.  A lot of the techniques and tones employed by Nic and the rest of DW are textbook shoe-gaze, but the structures and melodies that the wrap them around are anything but.  Just one listen to “Boardwalk Theme” and you’ll have a tough time not getting lost in the lilting melody awash in white noise and jangle. This is like your favorite indie-rock band playing behind a waterfall.

Desolation Wilderness just put out the really fantastic full length New Universe which they will have available tomorrow night when they hit up Skull Alley at 8pm w/ Second Story Man (who was amazing when they played Skull Alley w/ Julie Doiron) and local favorite Nakatomi Plaza. As always, the show is all-ages and is sure to be really incredible.  And once again, you have the distinct privilege of getting to see a great new band right before the break through that invisible line of the New Buzz Band.  Be sure to say hey to the boys, buy some vinyl and prepare yourself for your new favorite record to read or clean  your house to.  Then pack your favorite friends in your crappy car and head to Al’s Bar and catch them tomorrow too.

Here’s their lengthy tour schedule and be on the lookout for more tales from the road…

Continue reading What I Learned On My Summer Vacation Part 1: Desolation Wilderness at Backseat Sandbar.