Microminiature Love: finally back on vinyl and out today!
Originally recorded in 1968 and slated for release on Sire Records, Microminiature Love languished unreleased until unearthed and issued by De Stijl Records as a very limited, vinyl-only pressing in 2002. This pressing sold out nearly immediately and was followed in July 2003 by Sub Pop’s CD-only reissue, which included six bonus tracks recorded around the same time in 1968 as the album tracks. Sub Pop’s Aug. 16, 2011 vinyl reissue of Microminiature Love presents the album in its original 7-song version, and all six of the bonus tracks from the CD will be included in the download that comes with the LP.
Our friends at Aquarius Records had the following to say about the original vinyl release:
“An obscure late-sixties ahead-of-his-time visionary gets his due with this LP reissue. Yonkers’ stuff was like nothing anyone had heard back then (or even now really): fucked-up garage psych with dementedly genius lyrics and crazy acid-fried guitar. Yonkers, a legendary Minneapolis-area figure, built his own effects pedals, cut his Fender Telecaster down to a plank, and played like no one else ever. I’m at a loss of words on how to describe this. It’s sort of like a fusion of stripped down Black Sabbath, The Troggs, Pere Ubu, and The Cramps??”
You can sample the debut single “What About Us” off of Sound Kapital by inserting your email address into the fancy widget above.
Sound Kapital is the third full-length from Handsome Furs, the Canadian two-piece of husband and wife Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry. It’s also the first Handsome Furs album written exclusively on keyboards. This was a conscious decision. Here in 2011, the suggestion that electronic music is cold, alien or unfeeling, somehow detached from the human experience, is as lingering as it is outdated. Handsome Furs don’t just shrug off this myth on Sound Kapital, they reject it with every fiber of their shared being. On this new album they use keyboards and drum machines to forge life-affirming anthems taut with muscle and blood. These nine songs of innocence and experience occasionally look ahead to a better world in the not-so-distant future, but Handsome Furs know what time it is: Now. They are fully engaged in the moment and their surroundings, wherever that may be.
Sound Kapital was recorded quickly, polished and rehearsed in the Furs’ derelict Montreal studio, then preserved for posterity by longtime producers Howard Bilerman and Arlen Thompson at Hotel2Tango, mixed by Finnish dudes Antti Joas and Jonas Verwijnen at Kaiku Studios in Helsinki and Berlin, and mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering in Montreal.
Track listing for Sound Kapital:
1. When I Get Back
2. Damage
3. Bury Me Standing
4. Memories of the Future
5. Serve the People
6. What About Us
7. Repatriated
8. Cheap Music
9. No Feelings
Handsome Furs are about to hit the road. Click here for a full list of dates.
Los Angeles resident Jimmy Tamborello records, releases and occasionally performs music under the name Dntel. In 2007, we at Sub Pop released the Dntel album Dumb Luck which included contributions from a whole raft of talented people too numerous to list here (a short version of that list would include members of Grizzly Bear, Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes, and Arthur & Yu). And at the end of 2010, we released a pair of companion EPs by Dntel, entitled After Parties 1 and After Parties 2. Together these two EPs total 8 tracks, all of them instrumental, and featuring (to the best of our “knowledge”) a list of guest contributors numbering exactly zero.
Back in 2001, we did not release the Dntel album Life Is Full of Possibilities. This album was originally released by the Plug Research label, and because we’ve always secretly wished we’d put it out back then, we’re going to release an expanded, re-mastered version of the album to mark its ten-year anniversary in October of 2011. This double-CD version of the album will include the re-mastered version of the original album on one CD and a collection of both previously released and new remixes, plus outtakes and b-sides on the other. The double-LP version will spread the re-mastered original 10-track album across two pieces of vinyl at 45 rpm 33rpm, with the bonus material included in the download that comes with the record. This will be the first time that Life Is Full of Possibilities has ever appeared on LP.
Life Is Full of Possibilities features collaborations with a number of guest artists, one of which, with Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard (on “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan”), led to the formation of The Postal Service. Because Give Up, the 2003 album by The Postal Service, to date the group’s only full-length release, is Sub Pop’s second best-selling album of all time, this is worth noting. Also worth noting: the album was very well-received at the time of its release, earning a 9.3 rave review from Pitchfork, and the following from the BBC: “Few electronic musicians out there have come close to the strength of the songwriting contained within this delicately produced CD.” We’re exceedingly proud to be releasing this expanded, deluxed-up reissue of Life Is Full of Possibilities.
Dntel will be part of The Soft Alarm Tour with The One AM Radio and Geotic throughout the month of August. Click here for a full list of tour dates.
We at Sub Pop World HQ are going ape for the February15th release of the lengthy but fittingly titled record, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (forthwith, for the sake of brevity and crypticness, to be referred to as HCWNDBYW) from Scottish ear-bleeders, Mogwai. HCWNDBYW…will be available on a deluxe 2xCD (the bonus disc features “Music For A Forgotten Future (The Singing Mountain)” a 23 minute epic originally composed to accompany an art installation created by Olaf Nicolai and Douglas Gordon), or gatefold 2xLP (the LP comes with a digital download code which will include the bonus material). If you’re among the first 500ALL customers to pre-order HCWNDBYW by February 15th, we will send you thoughtfully conceived and beautifully executed limited edition Mogwai earplugs with case so the insane decibels will just make your ears throb instead of bleed. So you don’t have to wait until your order arrives to experience the soaring sounds of Mogwai, as soon as you complete your purchase we will grant you access to a stream of the new record in its entirety.
Do you know about the just-this-week-released Rano Pano 7" single? We hope so. The a-side of this single, “Rano Pano,” is on Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will and the b-side, “Hasenheide” is not. Also worth noting, the cover art here is in the style of classic Sub Pop Singles Club singles. Find it here: http://www.subpop.com/releases/mogwai/singles/rano_pano
Also brand new this week, Mogwai’s “Rano Pano” Video!
Jan 26 Tolbooth, Stirling, United Kingdom
Jan 27 Pailsey Town Hall (UK), Paisley , United Kingdom
Jan 28 Perth Theater, Perth , United Kingdom
Jan 29 Lemon Tree, Aberdeen , United Kingdom
Jan 30 Grand Ole Opry (UK), Glasgow , United Kingdom
Feb 13 Mandela Hall, Belfast, United Kingdom
Feb 14 Live Lounge, Galway, Ireland
Feb 15 Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
Feb 17 02 Academy Bournemouth, Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Feb 18 University of Cardiff, Cardiff, United Kingdom
Feb 19 02 Academy Bristol , Bristol, United Kingdom
Feb 20 02 Academy Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Feb 21 Picture House UK, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Feb 23 The Regal, Oxford, n/a
Feb 24 Institute, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Feb 25 Brixton Academy, London, United Kingdom
Feb 26 Academy 2 (Manchester University), Manchester, United Kingdom
Feb 27 Sage Gateshead, Gateshead, United Kingdom
Mar 06 Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany
Mar 07 Backstage Club EU, Munich, Germany
Mar 08 WuK, Vienna, Austria
Mar 09 Estragon, Bologna, Italy
Mar 10 Alcatraz, Milano , Italy
Mar 11 Rote Fabrik, Zurich , Switzerland
Mar 13 Den Atelier, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Mar 14 Stollwerck, Cologne, Germany
Mar 15 Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Mar 17 Le Trianon, Paris, France
Mar 18 L’Aéronef, Lille, France
Mar 19 La Laiterie, Strasbourg, France
Mar 20 Le Transbordeur, Lyon, France
Mar 21 Théâtre Lino Ventura, Nice, France
Mar 22 Le Bikini, Toulouse, France
Mar 24 Rock School Barbey, Bordeaux, France
Mar 26 AB Main Hall , Brussels, Belgium
Mar 28 Grünspan, Hamburg, Germany
Mar 29 Postbahnhof, Berlin, Germany
Apr 01 Tradgar’n (Sweden), Gothenburg, Sweden
Apr 02 Rockefeller, Oslo, Norway
Apr 03 Debaser, Stockholm, Sweden
Apr 05 Tavastia Club, Helsinki, Finland
Apr 19 930 Club, Washington, DC
Apr 20 Starlight Ballroom, Philadelphia, PA
Apr 21 Webster Hall, New York City, NY
Apr 22 Webster Hall, New York City, NY
Apr 23 Paradise (MA), Boston, MA
Apr 25 Olympia De Montreal, Montreal, Canada
Apr 26 Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, Canada
Apr 27 Mr. Smalls, Pittsburgh, PA
Apr 28 St. Andrew’s Hall, Detroit, MI
Apr 29 Metro, Chicago, IL
Apr 30 Slowdown, Omaha, NE
May 02 Bluebird Theater – (CO), Denver, CO
May 03 In The Venue, Salt Lake City, UT
May 05 Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR
May 06 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Canada
May 07 Showbox (@ the Market), Seattle, WA
May 09 Regency Ballroom (SF), San Francisco, CA
May 10 Mayan Theater, Los Angeles, CA
May 11 Belly Up, Solana Beach, CA
May 13 Sunshine Theater, Albuquerque, NM
May 15 Granada Theater (TX), Dallas, TX
May 16 Stubb’s BBQ, Austin, TX
May 17 Warehouse Live – Ballroom (TX), Houston, TX
May 19 Workplay, Birmingham, AL
May 20 Center Stage (ATL), Atlanta, GA
Before we go, you have both downloads that we’ve offered from Mogwai too, right? Just in case, they are still available for download over on Sub Pop’s SoundCloud page: San Pedro Rano Pano
After enjoying this excellent playlist, we invite you to look to our artist pages for more information (and incidentally, products available for purchase) for all these fine musicians.
