New Release: Explosions In The Sky returns with All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone

We have waited two and a half years for another album to satisfy our hunger of new songs, new cover art, a new shiny jewel case, new sounds to sit by the speakers and today is that very day. Today is the day you are going to walk yourself to a record store and pick up All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone. It isn't only this particular album that will make anyone in the vicinity of the speakers immediately realize they have found true {music} love, but it is this particular band that will truly change your life.

No Natalie Portman you got it all wrong, the answer is not The Shins. It is Explosions in the Sky! Now this band is made up of only four people armed with only the basic two guitars, one bass, a set of drums, but they can create a cinematic-like sound that seems to fill up the Milky Way and beyond into the infinite, endless space.

Their music climbs, crashes, burns and then gets smothered quietly into soft strokes of lullabies...have you ever heard a guitar whisper? It is as if they reached out with gigantic hands and waved across the sky, blurring the blues, reds, yellows, whites of clouds, those gray days, those rainy days, those Sundays, the sunsets, the sunrises, the many lunar phases, all in all smudging reality, filling the empty spaces left with pieces of their own dreams. They show us what will be the loudest and the quietest moments of our lives. They re-create planet Earth for an hour or two. You'll find when listening to them, time will become irrelevant since they seem to have found the power to make the hands of a clock slow or speed up and in the most heart-wrenching moments...they'll make time stop.

So now that I have either embarrassed myself or enticed some sort of curiosity...let's talk about their new album.

All Of A Sudden I Will Miss Everyone has a theme of solitude and the songs represent that theme for the most part, what I mean is don't be surprised when the first few seconds of their album makes their grand entrance by a towering, looming distortion storm cloud. You can't recognize the quiet parts without knowing what loudness sounds like anyways. This is their fourth album and is the follow-up to their 2003 album, The Earth Is Not A Dead Cold Place. Their new album was produced by John Congleton (The Paper Chase). The album was written in their hometown, Austin and recorded in the summer wilderness of Minnesota last year. The beautiful artwork is done by Esteban Ray who is not a stranger to their music, he drew the artwork for their first and third album.

What makes this album different than their last three? The melodies are allowed more time to elaborate, uncovering new ways to manipulate the main melody. There is also a new instrument welcomed into the fold, a piano is used frequently throughout the album, but it's more prominent in "What Do You Go Home To?" and "So Long, Lonesome". They use the piano just as a good post-rock band should, playing the piano as a way to make a sound have a texture. The soft falling of the notes sound like raindrops drumming on the pavement or pitter-pattering against your bedroom window. That softer sound contrasts with the harsher instruments such as the crashing of the cymbals or Chris's flurried drumming. On "Catastrophe and the Cure" there is a 'chorus' or rather frequent melody in it, in which they synchronized the drumming with the ascending guitar notes and it's breathtaking, like watching a flower bloom or an airplane takeoff.

If you want more info about Explosions In The Sky's current tour read our Anticipate: Explosions in the Sky's gearing up for a long tour for new album post. There's also another post titled, Why You Should Listen To: Explosions In The Sky, which is like an introductory post to anyone new to Explosions In The Sky, it summarizes their last three albums, talks about the history of Explosions, a bit of information on their new album, it's basically me trying to again, explain their 'greatness'.

For anyone who is in Houston and subscribes to the Houston Chronicle, flip to today's Entertainment section, I wrote a short review of their new album on the Yo! page. The Yo! page is all written by teenagers and is in the Entertainment section every Tuesday.

I will also be attending their Houston show at Numbers on Wed. March 7th with Eluvium opening. So if you haven't bought your tickets, you should probably do that before they sell out!

***Someone tell Pitchfork they made another mistake by giving this album a mere 6.0 when it really deserves a 9.0+, preferably the big 10.0, but I'm not going to be that demanding. Really Pitchfork...a 6.0? Not exactly sure why Explosions would reinvent their sound when it works so well and anyways even that is your reason, they did change a few things with this album.***


Stream + Download + Purchase:

{Click on play button to stream, song title to download & band name to purchase}

Welcome, Ghosts| Explosions in the Sky

Links:

>>> Explosions in the Sky's Official Site
<<< Buy All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
>>> Full list of tour dates and links to buy tickets
<<< (great) Explosions in the Sky fansite (footage&audio of live shows, frequent updates)
>>> Interview w/Michael & Munaf on new album, 2004 tour by A Slice of The Shiny
<<< Eluvium's Official Site

~anne

Camera Crowd's V-Day mix!

"Valentine's Day is a day invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap. "

And so we are told by the narrating thoughts of Jim Carrey's character Joel Barish in Eternal Sunshine of A Spotless Mind. Whether you are single or taken, have a problem with Valentine's Day or you don't have a problem with this holiday, take a second and let it go this year.

All that stress and anger can't be good, instead focus on the good things like, how tomorrow you can run to the grocery stores and buy Valentine chocolates for half the price! Also, Valentine's Day doesn't have to stop at couples, take this holiday as an excuse to show how much you care about the people around you. Small things like an emailing a friend you haven't talked to in awhile, holding the door for a stranger, calling your mom or dad or making a mix cd of your own and pass that around as Valentines...it's pretty eye-opening when you see how many people you know and love are around you.

Now that you're all inspired and eager to show how cheesy you are, be nice to yourself and listen to some good music. Oh yeah...Happy Valentine's Day!

{You can hear the playlist by using the music player here and then download the songs you like below! Save time by multi-tasking: check your email, facebook, myspace while listening...}

{Click on song title to download, we use yousendits so just open it in another window. Click on the artist/band name for more info!}

Tracklisting:

1. If You Rescue Me (Afterhours melody-Velvet Underground) | Gael Garcia Bernal & Co. *
2. Annie Waits | Ben Folds *
3. Cheated Hearts | Yeah Yeah Yeahs #
4. Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes | Beck #
5. Angel In The Snow | Elliott Smith *
6. Overs (live) | Simon & Garfunkel *
7. Mon Amie La Rose | Francoise Hardy #
8. Bulletproof | Rilo Kiley #
9. She Moves In Her Own Way | The Kooks *
10. Free | Cat Power #

* anne's picks
# charlie's picks

Bonus track!

Careless Whisper {live cover} | Ben Folds feat. Rufus Wainwright

Love, Team Camera Crowd
(Anne and Charlie)

SF Indie Film Festival

If you're a Camera Crowd follower and have read my movie recommendations, you know very well I'm a big fan of foreign/independent movies. Good ones come out here and there, but the most unnoticed films where you have to dig really deep are the best ones. Well for two weeks in February, the San Francisco Indie Film Festival unleashes a line of fresh foreign and independent films for people like me to drool over. The films, long and short, can't get any more original and independent. Or can they....


This years lineup consists of over 90, (yeah 90!) full length and short films. Full and short length films ranging from animation to documentaries. And these films are spread out over 4 different venues over the Bay Area.

>>Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street, San Francisco
>>Roxie Cinemas, 3117 16th Street, San Francisco
>>Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th Street, San Francisco
>>Landmark’s California Theatre, 2113 Kitteridge Street, Berkeley

General tickets are 10 bucks a pop. But if you're hardcore fan and plan on seeing more than just one film, check out these discount passes.

>>The IndiePass = $195 >> (good for all films and parties) less than $5 per program and you get the front of the line.
>>5 Film Pass = $45
>>10 Film Pass =$80

As for my recommendations, with the help of a friend, I've narrowed it down to around 6 films. It'd be nice to check out all of them, but that's just impossible for me. I might've missed some good ones, so if you have any films in your To See List that I should check out, let me know.

Dante's Inferno

"a unique, subversive, darkly satirical update of the original 14th century literary classic. with paper puppets, "






Rock N Tokyo

"In today’s Tokyo you can find anything you can imagine—and at the same time get a new surprise on every corner. While most of Japanese society still preaches uniformity and order, there is an important underground world, where people lead a freer life. This is the Tokyo of “Rock N Tokyo."



LOL

"Alex, Tim, and Chris view the women in their lives through a computer screen or the lens of a camera-phone, struggling to balance their online fantasies and addictions with the demands of real life."



G.R.A.: Graffiti, Roman Art

"This energetic film documents a city-approved annual graffiti project in which hundreds of graffiti artists participate to make their mark on long stretches of designated walls."

Your Mommy Kills Animals

"A brilliant documentary shows how animal-rights activists may be killing free speech."

Mojave Phone Booth

"This is the story of four disparate people whose lives intersect at this mystical outpost. There is Beth (Annabeth Gish), a troubled woman facing dilemmas with her love life and a recurring, baffling crime; Mary, a young South African, who is contemplating selling her body for the funds to escape her dreadful existence; Alex, a woman who is losing her lover to the belief she is plagued by alien parasites; and Richard (Robert Romanus), driven to desperation, who happens upon the booth after his failed suicide attempt."

The film fest starts today and ends on the 20th, so if you live in the Bay Area or have enough money to fly to the Bay Area and want to see this films, get up and go!!!

More Info:

SF indiefest |everything you need to know is on the official website.

Tunes you can Listen to while checking out the flicks.

Double Feature | Camera Obscura

In The Cinema Alone | Memphis


postscript: Thanks to my friend Marina for helping me pick and shortening the list of flicks worth seeing.


-Charlie

Au Revoir Simone

As Anne mentioned in the Voxtrot post below, Au Revoir Simone, an Indie/Pop trio from Brooklyn, NY will be touring with Voxtrot this summer. I've been meaning to write about this colourful trio since last summer when we started this blog but something always came up and they ended in the bottom pile of my posts. But I think now is the perfect time especially with a new album coming up and then a tour with Voxtrot.


Even if you haven't heard of Au Revoir Simone, after seeing one of their pictures you might assume, "beautiful and talented triplets". Hey that's what I thought! Sorry guys, these beautiful women aren't related at all. Actually the group consists of Erika Foster, Heather D'Angelo, and Annie Hart. The band started out with Erika Foster and Annie Hart meeting on a train ride home to New York City. On the ride home, they discovered that "they shared a common desire to form an all-keyboard band." And that's what happened, they started hanging out regularly to play music and along the way they picked up Heather D'Angelo and Sung Bin Park who left the band in early 2005. And the rest is history.


Their first album, which was considered a mini album, Verses of Comfort, Assurance & Salvation came out in 2005, where electro/pop fans like me got a taste of what three beautiful and talented girls who can sing and play keyboard sound like. With Au Revoir Simone, you get that soft female vocalists sound you so want, and the finger tapping beat that you can't avoid. And you multiply this by three!! To me Au Revoir Simone is what forest fairies would sound like if you hand them a keyboard during spring time and let them reveal their magical side.

Their second album titled The Bird of Music gets released in the U.S through Moshi Moshi Records on May 1st. The U.K and Japan get much earlier release dates than we do. Although you can buy the entire album digitally starting February 19th. But where's the fun in that?

Even though you can't wait to get your hands on a copy of The Bird of Music after hearing two songs from it, I suggest getting their first album first. It's the developing side of Au Revoir Simone, how they sounded in the beginning. I can tell you now, after hearing a couple of songs from The Bird of Music, Verses of Comfort, Assurance & Salvation is a bit calmer, kinda like an afternoon nap lullaby.





The Bird of Music
Moshi Moshi Records
5.1.07 (U.S)






Tracklist :

* The Lucky One
* Sad Song
* Fallen Snow
* I Couldn't Sleep
* A Violent Yet Flammable World
* Don't See The Sorrow
* Dark Halls
* Night Magestic
* Stars
* Lark
* The Way To There

Fallen Snow | Au Revoir Simone

Stars | Au Revoir Simone

Fallen Snow Video





Verses of Comfort, Assurance, And Salvation
10.31.05
Purchase C.D







Tracklist:

* Through The Backyards
* Hurricanes
* The Disco Song
* Where You Go
* Back In Time
* The Winter Song
* And Sleep Al Mar
* Stay Golden


Hurricanes | Au Revoir Simone


Links:
Au Revoir Simone Official Site
Au Revoir Simone Myspace
Moshi Moshi Records
Au Revoir Simone Flickr

Europe Tour Dates

• February 13 2007 : The Fly, London, England
• February 16 2007 : Debaser, Stockholm, Sweden
• February 17 2007 : Storan, Gothenburg, Sweden
• February 18 2007 : Blå, Oslo, Norway
• February 19 2007 : Loppen, Copenhagen, Denmark
• February 20 2007 : Haus, Hamburg, Germany.
• February 21 2007 : Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland.
• February 22 2007 : Botanique, Brussels, Belgium.
• February 24 2007 : La Marchoquinerie, Paris, France
• February 26 2007 : Hoxton Bar and Grill, London, England.
• February 27 2007 : Nice and Sleazy, Glasgow, Scotland
• February 28 2007 : Whelans, Dublin, Ireland
• March 2 2007 : Studio 672, Cologne, Germany.
• March 3 2007 : Bastard, Berlin, Germany.
• March 4 2007 : Nato, Leipzig, Germany.
• March 6 2007 : Atomic Cafe, Munich, Germany.
• March 7 2007 : Casa 129, Milan, Italy.
• March 9 2007 : Bad, Düdingen, Switzerland.

-Charlie

Anticipate: Explosions in the Sky gearing up for a long tour for new album

We were promised a tour by Explosions in the Sky and since that early November news, it's now time for the tour to kick off! 2007 is sounding better everyday with new albums, upcoming tours and the crazy festival lineups we're seeing coming out. EITS will start their tour in Brooklyn on Feb. 19th at Warsaw and then jet to Europe for the rest of February and come back to the US for a nice, long tour.

They're actually going to revisit Europe two times during the tour to give fans a chance to see them if they missed them the first time around and if that's not forgiving enough, you get a third chance to see them at All Tomorrow's Parties VS. The Fans at Somerset with a nice lineup of Modest Mouse, The Books, Band of Horses, Do Make Say Think, Built to Spill, Grizzly Bear and more! For a full list of tour dates and links to buy tickets go here. For everyone in Japan, Taiwan and Australia, hold in those complaints:

We are also really excited that we will be playing the Coachella festival for the first time (in April), and All Tomorrow's Parties again (in May). There will likely be other festivals in the summer, and we're working on tour dates for later in the year as well, including Japan and Taiwan and Australia, we hope.

Two beautiful things happening on Feb. 20th, their new album, All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone will release for the US and Canada and they also will play on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, so that will be interesting to see how they try to shorten their set, but here is how it'll debut for the rest of the world:

Feb. 2nd Japan (Human Highway Records)
Feb. 17th Australia (Spunk Records)
Feb. 19th Europe (Bella Union)

To buy the album with the remix CD shop at an independent record store in your neighborhood and not at the big chain stores, we're told that they won't have that special version available. The remix features Four Tet, Adem, Jesus, Mountains, Eluvium and The Paper Chase each remaking a song off the new EITS album. Eluvium and The Paper Chase will join EITS on tour for most of the dates.

For more information on their upcoming tour, EITS keeps fans with a mailing list and their homepage, to sign up for their mailing list scroll to the bottom of their site. For more information on the history of Explosions in the Sky, downloads, short gists on each album on their discography and details of their new album, please visit our post or mail it to a friend who you think might like EITS, but haven't gotten around to listening to them: Why you should listen to Explosions in the Sky.

There is also a great interview with Munaf (guitarist) and Michael (bassist) on A Slice of the Shiny, you can listen and download it here. They talk about their exhaustive tour in 2004, where Munaf actually passed out at a show in Belgium and also discusses how the albums parallel what has happened with Explosions in the Sky since they formed in 1999:

Well, I think each album has had it's own theme. For example, we're four records in now, so our first record, "How Strange, Innocence", it was quite that, it was a very innocent attempt, at making music and writing an album, we were very young and almost naive to an extent.

Then we moved onto the next record, "Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live " which was very war-oriented and that became it's theme, a lot of marching, the idea of battle.

From that, we moved to "The Earth Is Not A Dead, Cold Place", which was our version of a romantic album, we wanted to write love songs, this was our version of love songs and then it came to this one, "All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone", which was this feeling of solitude and loneliness and I think that that is possibly something maybe in our subconscious we were really feeling and experiencing over the last couple years.

Because like I said, we went from everyday being in a new city, being surrounded by a lot of people just in the days of hundred miles of an hour, just stopping. And It became quite silent. In all of our rooms, in kind of in our lives, it was by our own volition, we wanted it to stop, and so that's where we were...all of a sudden I miss everyone. It was this long feeling of loneliness and what have you, so that was the kind of progression in what has led us to this point. Now, with the next album, well I don't know, we'll see when we get to that point.

Each of the records, they relate to the moment, the time because that's what we're feeling, innocence to war to love to loneliness and so on.

Stream + Download + Purchase:

Welcome, Ghosts| Explosions in the Sky

Links:

>>> Explosions in the Sky's Official Site
<<< Pre-order All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
>>> Full list of tour dates and links to buy tickets
<<< (great) Explosions in the Sky fansite (footage&audio of live shows, frequent updates)
>>> Interview w/Michael & Munaf on new album, 2004 tour by A Slice of The Shiny
<<< Eluvium's Official Site
>>> The Paper Chase's Official Site


~anne

Anticipate: Voxtrot's upcoming tour and debut album!

{Photo by Rebecca Miller}

Finally! Go run around the house and kiss the ground and yell to the neighborhood that "Voxtrot is going on tour!" It seems too good to be true, Voxtrot is finally touring and will start off by playing overseas in Europe for most of this month and have two shows in Germany in early March, then it's flying back to Austin for South By Southwest! For all tour dates, please scroll down. {If anyone knows if Voxtrot is playing shows outside of the two SXSW showcases during that week, please let me know!}

When summer rolls around, they're going to headline a tour with Brooklyn's Au Revoir Simone, who will release their sophomore album, The Bird Of Music on May 1st, listen to some songs on their myspace!

Voxtrot will be starting this tour with a CD release party at Austin's Emo's on May 25th. Voxtrot's debut album produced by Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave, PJ Harvey), still untitled will release worldwide on May 22nd on Beggars/Playlouder. Pitchfork has a nice interview up with singer/guitarist Ramesh Srivastava on the debut album. There will also be a UK-only limited edition 7-inch with "Trouble" and a download available on Feb. 26th.

Tour Dates:

02-21 London, UK - Rock Sound
02-22 Manchester, UK - Night And Day
02-24 Glasgow, SCT - The Hold w/Big Face 18+
02-25 London, UK - NME Awards (The Astoria) w/The Shins!
02-28 Paris, FR - La Fleche D'Or

03-02 Berlin, Germany - Mudd Club
03-02 Hamburg, Germany - Molotov
03-12 Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa (Austin Chronicle SXSW Film party PASSES ONLY)
03-14 Austin, TX - SXSW Beggars showcase (inside Emos) AA
03-15 Austin, TX - SXSW Kork showcase (outside Emos) AA

(touring w/Au Revoir Simone)
05-25 Austin, TX - Emo's (CD release) AA
05-29 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey AA
05-30 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall AA
06-01 Portland, OR - Doug Fir 21+
06-02 Seattle, WA - Crocodile 21+
06-05 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock AA (5pm)
06-06 Grand Rapids, MI - Intersection AA
06-07 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick AA
06-08 Toronto, ON - Sneaky Dees 19+
06-10 Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place
06-11 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom AA
06-12 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar AA
06-13 Washington, DC - Black Cat AA
06-14 Boston, MA - Middle East 18+
06-15 New York, NY - Webster Hall 18+
06-16 Philadelphia, PA - Pure (Making Time)21+

Download + Purchase:
{click on artist/band name to purchase!}

Your Biggest Fan | Voxtrot

Four Long Days | Voxtrot

Through The Backyards | Au Revoir Simone

Links:

>>> Voxtrot's Official Site
<<< Voxtrot's MySpace
>>> Pitchfork Interview w/Ramesh
>>> Au Revoir Simone's Official Site
<<< Au Revoir Simone's MySpace

~anne