MP3: Sonny & the Sunsets – “Heart of Sadness”

I mentioned San Francisco’s most-excellent Sonny & the Sunsets back in October (mind-bogglingly, there are still copies of the vinyl available (& CD coming on 3/9)). And here’s another track to enjoy, this one from the fantastic new In A Cloud SF compilation from Secret Seven. It’s a vinyl-only comp, and sports tracks from Fresh & Onlys, Sandwitches, Thee Oh Sees (of course), Ty Segall and many more. The record’s out in March, but you can pre-order it now right here.

Buddyhead are being generous with the new Dios stuff! They’ve just followed up their recent free single with a brand new one, this one for “See How They Run” b/w “Feather In Yr Cap:”

Grab the tracks and don’t forget that the new Dios full-length, appropriately titled We Are Dios, is due out on 2/16 (pre-order here). And note too that, along with the album’s release also comes a big FREE release show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.

Through a gross oversight, I somehow neglected to mention last month that our ol’ pal Prairie Cat (aka Cary Pratt) just recently released his brand new album, It Began/Ended With Sparks, and you should absolutely, positively go buy it at once from the Fuzzy Logic shop.

MP3: Prairie Cat – “Given Up”

It is my true pleasure to inform y’all of the general internet population that Catbird’s Unbunny – Black Strawberries Kickstarter project finally manifested itself as a tangible real-world product a few short weeks ago. And I must say it turned out beautifully, both sonically and objet d’art-ily. But then, it’s hard to wrong with a nice, heavy-duty slab of 180-gram white vinyl…

The Kickstarter process itself was wonderful, and I offer huge thanks to them as well as all the great people who pledged to help make the project a reality.

All is not lost if you missed the pledge window, by the way! There are still some copies of this amazing LP remaining, and you can pick one up right here at Catbird Records. This was a pressing of only 300, so don’t dawdle if you want one.

I should probably note that the one thing you *can’t* still get is the Deluxe edition of the album that the $40+ level Kickstarter pledgers got. I won’t go into detail (just yet) about all the extras in their package, but I will say that I’m exceedingly proud of the results, and am honored by all the compliments that have come in, including “incredibly awesome,” “you’ve outdone yourself,” and of course “Just got the Deluxe Edition. Fuck… Me…”

MP3: Unbunny – “In A Way”

Buy the Unbunny Black Strawberries Ltd. Ed. LP @ Catbird Records →

Well, here she is: the last monthly mix of the year. This one, of course, is comprised of many of my favorite songs from 2009. If you want to listen to my other favorite songs from the year, you can go to 2009 Mix Archive page, where, for a limited time, I’m making all the year’s mixes available. Enjoy.

• Apollo Ghosts – “Dobermans”
• Apollo Ghosts – “Land of the Morning Calm”
• Micachu – “Lips”
• Micachu – “Golden Phone”
• Fergus & Geronimo – “Harder Than It’s Ever Been”
• Woods – “The Dark”
• Girls – “Lust For Life”
• Benjy Ferree – “Fear”
• Dirty Projectors – “Two Doves”
• Richard Swift – “The Atlantic Ocean”
• Richard Swift – “Lady Luck”

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This is an addendum to my post of earlier this week, wherein I mentioned five 2009 albums I enjoyed, including my #1 favorite of the year, Apollo Ghosts‘ Hastings Sunrise. I said there were 3 copies of the vinyl left. That is no longer true: it’s now in fact sold out.

This bit of info gets its own post simply because I think that selling nearly 500 copies of an LP is not too damn shabby for a band that has:

• NO PR
• NO publicity
• NO advertising
• NO (real*) label
• ALMOST NO coverage from the media or blogosphere
• and who have played barely a handful of shows outside of their hometown of Vancouver.

Well done, guys.

MP3: Apollo Ghosts – “Little Yokohama”

(*Catbird hardly counts as “real,” ha!)

These are 5 albums from 2009 that I listened to and enjoyed quite a lot.

Sharon Van Etten – Because I Was In Love
Language of Stone

I am absolutely thrilled to see praise for this album popping up on so many year-end wrap-ups already. I wasn’t expecting to see that, and it’s great that I’m not the only one who recognized that this record is one of the loveliest things you’re likely to hear all year.

MP3: Sharon Van Etten – “For You”
MP3: Sharon Van Etten – “Consolation Prize”
STREAM: Sharon Van Etten – Because I Was In Love via Listen@MBV
BUY IT: LP | CD | MP3

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
Domino

While I was familiar with Dirty Projectors, I’d never really spent a lot of quality listening-time with their earlier records, so it was with pretty fresh ears that I first heard Bitte Orca. So it’s fair to say I didn’t exactly know what to expect when I hit ‘Play,’ but then again, I doubt there was *anyone* out there who could have anticipated this unusual and sublime work. This was a polarizing record from a polarizing band, but you can plant me firmly in the “blown away by Bitte Orca” camp.

VIDEO: Dirty Projectors – “Stillness Is The Move”
BUY IT: LP | CD | MP3 | Cassette

Death – …For The Whole World To See
Drag City

Massive props to Drag City for unearthing this one. These recordings sat in an attic for nearly 35 years and could easily have been lost to the ages, but thanks to DC, the magnificent Bad Brains-meets-Thin Lizzy tunes of Detroit’s Hackney brothers came into the spotlight this year, ahem, for the whole world to see.

MP3: Death – “Politicians In My Eyes”
BUY IT: LP | CD | MP3

Micachu & the Shapes – Jewellery
Beggars/Rough Trade

I seriously could not decide what to make of Micachu the first few times I listened to Jewellery– I’m not sure my brain knew exactly how to process young Mica Levi’s Partched Bone Machine‘d sounds. But my brain soon came around, and I realized what I was hearing were some really brilliant songs, deconstructed, reconstructed, and cut-and-pasted into something that actually sounded *new* to me. It sounded like the future.

MP3: Micachu – “Golden Phone”
MP3: Micachu – “Lips”
BUY IT: LP | CD | MP3

Apollo Ghosts – Hastings Sunrise
Self-Released/Catbird

I started the year gushing about Vancouver’s Apollo Ghosts, and continued to do so unrelentingly throughout the remainder of 2009 (Catbird was even lucky enough to have a hand in helping re-release the record). And the reason I have been such a vocal advocate for this band is quite simple: this album has consistently remained my favorite thing to listen to all throughout the year. Yes, it’s no contest, Hastings Sunrise is absolutely my favorite record of 2009. The band is currently in the studio with JC/DC recording LP #2, and though I am dumbfounded that all the labels out there are sleeping on this band, I fret not. Because regardless, 2010 is going to see album number #2 from Apollo Ghosts, and that makes me very, very happy.

MP3: Apollo Ghosts – “Dobermans”/”Land of the Morning Calm”
STREAM: Apollo Ghosts – Hastings Sunrise via Listen@MBV
BUY IT: LP (only 3 copies left) | CD | MP3

I was just perusing the respected Rough Trade Shops’ 2009 Albums of the Year List, and noticed something awesome: all of the Top 10 have RT-exclusive bonus CDs bundled with them. AND, I noticed something else awesome: in addition to some names you might expect to see in a Rough Trade Top 10 (The XX, Grizzly Bear, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart), there’s one I certainly didn’t expect to see:

(#9) Forest Fire – Survival

…which RT calls “an absolute revelation.”

To recap, Catbird released this album back in June, 2008 — on CD, on ridiculous “Giant Size CD”, and as a totally free 320kbps MP3 download. At the end of 2008, Survival had the honor of being crowned Le Blogotheque’s Album of the Year. In 2009, the record was picked up by the great French label Talitres (home to the National, Destroyer, & the Walkmen) for European release, and by Broken Sound for a UK one. Then in July ‘09 — almost exactly a year after we first released Survival — the record was graced with a full U.S. re-release, courtesy of Brooklyn’s own Infinite Best (which included a (yes!) limited-edition vinyl version (!). Cut to 5 months later and there’s Survival sitting comfortably in Rough Trade Shops’ 2009 Albums of the Year List.

In my eyes, that’s a hell of a long way to go for a record that started its life as a free download. It’s continued to go on, to keep rolling along and picking up new admirers, DESPITE being (even still) largely ignored right here in the US. And I’m so incredibly proud to have been part of it. Congratulations, Forest Fire!

MP3: Forest Fire – “I Make Windows”
STREAM: Survival at Catbird Records
BUY CD/LP (US): at Infinite Best
BUY CD (EUR): at Talitres
BUY CD (UK): at Broken Sound / at Rough Trade (w/bonus CD)

FWIW, Merriweather Post Pavilion made also Rough Trade’s 2009 List: it came eleventh.

MP3: Wolf People – “October Fires”

Intriguing stuff, from the forthcoming Tidings, a collection of early recordings by London’s Wolf People, Jagjaguwar’s new (and first) UK signing. The tunes seem to be a sort of awesome pastiche of old-school heavy ’70s vibes (think Faust et. al.), and I’m stoked to hear more from Tidings (it’s out 2/23)– although I’d wager that their proper debut LP, slated for release later in 2010, is gonna be the real slayer.

FYI: we’re going to stop taking orders for the new Catbird Records T-shirt at 5PM EST today, so get in there while the gettin’s good!