It’s still about two months away from the release of the album, but today Nana Grizol bring us the second single from their second album Ruth. In true Nana Grizol fashion “Galaxies” highlights Theo Hilton’s voice and wonderful lyrics.  ”Galaxies” is almost minimalist in the sense that it starts with just guitar, minimal beats, and vocals but as the song continues the slow but incremental addition of different instruments brings the song around to show the collectivist elements that I associate with E6.  ”Galaxies” just hints at the subtleties that are to come from Ruth, and give us all a reason to be excited.  Nana Grizol  keeps with the same tradition that made me love them on Love It Love It!, but they are slowing down a bit and refining what they due, at least on some of the songs.  Don’t worry though the rocking punk aesthetic that was present though out Love it Love it is still there on Ruth.  Ruth will be out on January 12th on Orange Twin.

[mp3] Nana Grizol- “Galaxies”

Nana Grizol is still on tour too…catch them live:

Links:

• previous posted
  • [mp3] Nana Grizol-  ”For Things that Haven’t Come Yet”
• more on Nana Grizol here.
• more on Elephant Six here.
• buy Nana Grizol albums CD or digital here or on LP here..

As always The Creative Intersection is keeping me up to date with the Elephant Six news, and when this track popped up on my reader I just had to re-post it.

Nana Grizol are working on  a new album, and if Love It Love It is any indication this should be an indie pop gem.  I’ve said it before…this band reminds me a lot of music that I used to like college…up beat indie rock… but with really honest lyrics (which looking back on it probably wasn’t the case with a lot of the bands I liked in college), and a killer horn section (the remnants of Neutral Milk Hotel’s horn section actually).  Theo Hilton is an excellent song writer, and his music can really put you in a great mood.  I went through a phase toward the end of the summer where this band was all I wanted to listen too, and I’m glad to be hearing something new.

The first single from their to be released second album titled Ruth was just released through impose:

[mp3] Nana Grizol- “For things That Haven’t Come Yet”

Ruth will be out in January 2010 on Orange Twin Records.  But before that Nana Grizol is going on tour!  I’m very excited to see that they will be hitting up Cake Shop for a Sunday show early next month.

• 10/23/09 – Go Bar – Athens, GA
• 11/04/09 – NightLight – Chapel Hill, NC
• 11/05/09 – Saint Mary’s College – Saint Mary’s City, MD
• 11/06/09 – TBA – Washington, DC
• 11/07/09 – SUNY Purchase – Purchase, NY
• 11/08/09 – Cakeshop – New York, NY
• 11/09/09 – The Space – Hamden, CT
• 11/10/09 – Apohedion – Portland, ME
• 11/11/09 – TBA – Brattleboro, VT
• 11/13/09 – The Dakota – Toronto, ONTARIO
• 11/14/09 – Barn Show – Geneseo, NY – More Details Soon!
• 11/15/09 – Garfield Art Works – Pittsburgh, PA
• 11/17/09 – Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
• 12/03/09 – Caledonia Lounge – Athens, GA w/Madeline, HAM1

Links:

• more on Nana Grizol here.
• more on Elephant Six here.
• buy Nana Grizol’s Love It Love It on CD or digital here or on LP here.

This is Part II of my Going To XX Merge series, you can read the rest of the series here.

One of the most enchanting bands I have seen in recent years is The Music Tapes, and it is no surprise that they are coming out of the Elephant Six collective.

My first experience was at the Elephant Six Surprise Tour, which was a magical event that Julian Koster put together. It’s not that Elephant Six was dormant but it does appear The Music Tapes’ release of Music Tapes for  Clouds & Tornadoes brought a lively hood back to the Athens scene. Now we are getting an emergence of energy coming from them again, and this really excites me.

Jeff Mangum even played Neutral Milk Hotel songs at a handful of dates (very sad that this didn’t happen in NYC, but if it can happen anywhere else I assume it will be at XX Merge):

Neutral Milk Hotel- “The Fool” & “Engine” Live in Lexington, KT on October 23rd, 2008 at the Holiday Surprise Tour:

The Circulatory System is back, releasing an album in September titled Signal Morning. And the mp3s that have been floating around are wonderful:

[mp3] Circulatory System- “Overjoyed” (via Pitchfork)
[mp3] Circulatory System- “Rocks and Stones” (via No Conclusion)
[mp3] Circulatory System- “Signal Morning” (via No Conclusion)

All of these tracks are from Signal Morning. It will be available at Cloud Recordings on September 8th, 2009 ( many other E6 related releases are already available there). It’s rumored that Circulatory System has more than one album ready, and Will Cullen Hart has said that Olivia Tremor Control has been recording again! They are unsure what will come of this, but that’s ok…I’ll take what I can get.

Elephant Six will release their movie, Major Organ and the Adding Machine as a deluxe DVD/CD package as well. This film premiered at the Holiday Surprise Tour, and while Pitchfork doesn’t seem to be a fan…I am eagerly awaiting it’s release. It has been a long time coming, and I can’t wait to hear the expanded soundtrack (it’s hard to imagine that it can get better than it already is).

Here is the trailer:

Last but not least… I’m loving on some Nana Grizol the newest band to come out of E6. The play indie pop, and in the style that I liked in high school and college, but with lyrics that aren’t cheesy and trite.  It’s really nice to enjoy this style of music again with out cringing when you hear the words.  These are people that I would like to be friends with.  I think their Pink Couch session is a nice introduction.

The Music Tapes will be preforming two times at XX Merge…one at the Cat’s Cradle, and an outdoor show at the Orange County Social Club on the Saturday of the festival. Needless to say they will be one of the highlights of the festival for me (which is less than two weeks away).  With that, I will leave you with this:

The Music Tapes- “Majesty”

The Music Tapes-”Minister of Longitude”

Support the Artists:

• Buy Music Tapes releases here.
• Buy OTC releases here or here.
• Buy Circulatory System releases here or here.
• Buy Neutral Milk Hotel releases here.
• Buy Nana Grizol releases here.

I would like to apologize to my long time readers for re-posting some of these videos, but I truly love them.

Additional Info About this post:

• Photo Credit: Music Tapes tattoo via Daniella Maria Khomuz’s flickr
  • I do not know this person, but they have a rad tattoo.

• More one Elephant Six related musing (including Music Tapes and Dark Meat pictures) here.

• This post is basically a Thank you Julian, for re-lighting this fire in Athens!

Last night Music Tapes, Nana Grizol, and Brian Dewan played a very intimate show at the Bell House.

Nana Grizol

Music Tapes

Julian then asked everyone to write down their most favorite memory, put it into a camel, and then took everyone outside to burn the memories and jump over the fire.

After this Julian took everyone back inside, played one or two more songs by himself, and the full band finished with a cover(?) of the Major Organ and the Adding Machine song “Life Form (Transmission Received).”

for more pictures of the show go here.

for more info about the bands go here.

Julian Koster put together the best tour of 2008:  The Elephant Six Holiday Surprise Tour.  This show was basically The Music Tapes, Olivia Tremor Control, Circulatory System, Elf Power, The Gerbils, and Nana Grizol doing a round robin switching off songs, and giving the performance of the year.  Everyone was in good spirits, and looked truly happy to be making music.  It was a magical event, and it was preceded by a showing of the Elephant Six movie: Major Organ and the Adding Machine (see trailer below).  I didn’t have the most ideal location for the screening of the movie, but what I was able to see was great…and I have been listening to the sound track ever since.  Jeff Mangum was even at the show, sang back up on a couple songs, was too shy to come out and sing a Neutral Milk Hotel song when Julian played it, and started a beard grabbing fight over a microphone with the singer of the Gerbils during an Olivia Tremor Control song (I assume this was all in good fun).  It was a pretty phenomenal night.

Julian then did a Christmas Caroling tour, where he played peoples houses and the location was only announced to people that contacted Julian directly.  This sounded wonderful, but I didn’t get to see the show.

Now Julian and his Music Tapes are going on tour again (third tour since last fall)…and instead of bringing some new upcoming band on tour with them…they are bringing the newish upcoming Elephant Six band Nana Grizol on tour with them!

For anyone unfamiliar with the Music Tapes it is Julian Koster (who played in Neutral Milk Hotel), a 7-foot-tall metronome, Static the Television (yes, a talking television), the Clapping Hands Machine, and other creations and people making wonderful pop music based around the singing saw and banjo.

When I saw the Elephant Six Surprise Tour there was one guy, he was cute with curly dark hair, and he sang one of the last songs that they played at the Knitting Factory…I went to the merch table and was asking about the records.  Typically the person at the merch table doesn’t know a whole lot about the what they are selling, but this woman knew about all of the records, and pointed me toward the Nana Grizol record!

The cute boy with curly dark hair was Theo Hilton, the front man for Nana Grizol.  The rest of Nana Grizol is a revolving cast of Elephant Six musicians.  If I would have known that their album Love It, Love It came out in 2008 it probably would have made my best of list (it’s too late now for revisions), but when I bought the record I thought I was behind the times and didn’t even think that it could be new (until writing this post).  Nana Grizol make fun indie rock, and they do it better than a lot of the better known acts out there.  Theo’s backing horn section is comprised of Laura Carter and Robbie Cucchiaro, both of whom also played with Neutral Milk Hotel.  Nana Grizol also helps run Orange Twin Records.

Music Tapes and Nana Grizol will also be accompanied by Brain Dewan (musician and artists).  Dewan has worked with many people over the years (Seasame Street, Music Tapes, They Might be Giants) and created album art for They Might be Giants and David Byrne among others.  There is a video of Dewan and Koster playing together below.

Music Tapes, Nana Grizol and Brian Dewan will be playing at the Bell House on Tuesday March 3rd, 2009 (more tour dates below).  Get Tickets for the Bell House show here!

Trailer for Major Organ and the Adding Machine

The Music Tapes- “Majesty”

The Music Tapes-”Minister of Longitude”

Nana Grizol’s Pink Couch Session

Rumpelstiltskin played by Brian Dewan & Julian Koster (thanks to Lucy Ross for the link)

The Music Tapes w/ Nana Grizol and Brian Dewan – Tour Dates for 2009
2/10 Austin, TX Mohawk
2/11 Norman, OK The Opolis
2/13 Tucson, AZ Solar Culture Gallery
2/15 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex
2/17 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill
2/19 Seattle, WA The Vera Project
2/20 Anacortes, WA Department of Safety
2/21 Portland, OR Backspace
2/24 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry
2/25 Chicago, IL AV-aerie
2/26 Ann Arbor, MI The B-side
2/27 Toronto, ON Lee’s Palace
2/28 Buffalo, NY Big Orbit’s Soundlab
3/1 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell’s
3/2 Cambridge, MA Middle East Upstairs
3/3 Brooklyn, NY The Bellhouse
3/4 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church – Basement
3/5 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle
3/7 Athens, GA 40 Watt

Photo of Static the Television via Decider Chicago

also Music Tapes made one of my favorite albums of 2008.