Axl Rose of Guns 'N' Roses.

Change is difficult.

Artists often have the hardest time with change because they can be so driven by principle. The rockstar-poet is the clearest example of this. You know the type – one or even a couple of great albums that receive major critical acclaim (whether under or above ground) and then the world moves on and they just can’t seem to understand why their message doesn’t seem to be getting through anymore.

“My songs haven’t changed, so the people must have. The world is clearly going to hell.”

Or worse, the would-be rockstar-poet. That’s the guy (or girl) who’s message is so personal, obscure or ‘deep’ that no one gets it in the first place.

“I’m so misunderstood… The world isn’t worthy of my Rock.”

Axl Rose and ‘Chinese Democracy’

Speaking of the former, however, there was an entertaining bit in a recent Lefsetz letter that I wanted to share. Lefsetz shared an email that he received in response to something he had written about the latest Guns N’ Roses album ‘Chinese Democracy.’

If you’re unfamiliar with the album, here’s what Lefsetz wrote on it originally:

What album’s got a title YEARS before release? Isn’t the title usually the last thing?

Axl would have been better off saying he shelved that record, making it an unreleased legend like “Smile”, and then cutting another (or releasing the same damn work under a different name). Because by time it was finally released, people expected something in the neighborhood of “Appetite”, and that was impossible.

But it was impossible for any new work to have the momentum and impact of “Appetite”. It was twenty years later. MTV, the centralizing force, was dead. Radio was calcified. And the audience…was in its forties and had jobs and kids and couldn’t stay at home all afternoon getting high to new music.

Times changed, but W. Axl Rose did not change with them.

That pretty much sums it up. Here was one reader’s response:

When a track from Chinese Democracy (“Better”) leaked in 2006 – the radio stations that were playing it received Cease and Desist orders from Axl’s attorneys.

When Axl tried releasing the same song as a single 2 years later – the radio stations ignored it.

You reap what you sow.

This is a great example of somebody who just doesn’t seem to get it anymore.

Back in the day.

First of all, why was ‘Chinese Democracy’ allowed to sit around for 2 years after that track leaked? The full album should have been sent out that afternoon, as far as I’m concerned. You can do that now thanks to a little device called the ‘internet.’

Instead, Axl held the album close for 2 more years. Perhaps he (or more likely someone working for him) eventually realized that if ‘Better’ had gotten airplay without the record company even trying, it should probably be the re-released as the album’s first single.

Too little, too late.

The damage had already been done and the world had yet again moved on. What’s more, the radio stations had been snubbed. They were eager to promote the track when they first got wind of it, but Axl told them to stop. Two years later that eagerness had long since faded. Maybe they were holding a grudge, or maybe the world had just had enough time to realize that the album wasn’t all that great anyway.

Humility and Flexibility

The lesson here? The world doesn’t owe you anything. The record industry, the broadcasting and the television industries don’t owe you anything. Most importantly, the listeners don’t owe you anything.

If your music, or your business, or your way of doing things don’t lead to the kind of success you want to achieve…. you may not be as good as you think you are. And when you do find your groove and the successes start rolling in, remember – the world spins very quickly these days.

The key is to stay humble, and to stay flexible. Humility allows us to make an honest assessment of what we have, or don’t have to offer. Flexibility allows us to change in mid-course if need be to adapt to the changing marketplace, or the changing creative landscape.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here is Mr. Axl Rose, Slash and an entire Wal-Mart’s worth of hairspray. Please enjoy – at least until Axl’s attorneys make me take it down.

Tales from the Crypt

The following is a post from Rich Huxley of the UK band Hope and Social. Rich will be contributing a monthly series giving insight into his experiences as an independent artist. 

Following on from my first guest post here on Creative Deconstruction, I wanted to focus on the wider implications of one of the special events I talked about there, and the release that followed; to expand on the financial viability of the event/the release and the other reasons why this special box-set and concert package are proving valuable for the band.

The Deal

On the 17th October 2009 Hope and Social held a special concert in our studio ; the ticket-price was also to include a box-set (band blogs about the event and the box set here). Exclusively limited to 110 places, and priced at £25 ($40), we asked our fans to join withus in the place that gave birth to our debut album, to bring themselves in good voice, to bring a candle to light the way to the studio and a piece of writing for use by the band, and to help us make an artifact, a work of art and a record of the night. Strong advocates of the Pay What You Want model, we made this one-off event and it’s accompanying box set our first ever minimum price package.

The box set

What you got:

1. A ticket to the “Be the Architect” show at our studio “The Crypt”; a two hour performance.

2. A leatherette (woo, posh!) box containing:

• Two CDs: a 68 minute live recording of the night’s performance “Be The Architect” and the band’s debut album Architect of this Church (the architect of the church is buried within the crypt. The wall bears a plaque, which is where the name of our album came from) with accompanying download.
• An 80 page book containing photos of the night, and the writings of all the attendees (we asked that everyone bring a piece of writing, a hope, a though, a wish, or, seeing as we’re in a crypt, a “prayer”).
• A brand new Hope and Social song with lyrics made up of people’s “prayers”, on download.
• A 139 page PDF photo slideshow of the event.
• A credit on the album for your part in its creation.

The Benefits

Community

It’s very important to us that our fans have a sense of community. We have a great time with audience participation and want people to feel like they’re a part of this thing, and that everyone matters.

This sense of community is our key currency as artists in the new music landscape. Attention and love are just as important as having great music that people want to consume. If the band did one thing on this night it was to make our fans feel special, like we’re all in this together.

It’s worth mentioning that this single event has done more to bring our fans together than anything else we’ve done. It gave our fans the opportunity to connect not only with the band, but also with each other. And while the vast majority of those who came to the Be The Architect Crypt Gig were existing fans, the reach to new fans has been wide and far, and continues.

The Internets

The internet footprint for this show and for the box-set has by far surpassed any single event we’vedone before, even including our Glastonbury shows.

The twitter hashtag #cryptgigwas very well populated before, during and after the event. On the day of the show in particular fans, helpers and band alike were uploading pics of the venue as we set up, audioboo-ing, tweeting their geographical progress on their way to the show, uploading twitpics during the show and generally spreading good vibes for the band and the event. More recently, as people havebeen receiving their box-set, #bethearchitecthas been spreading the news of the lovely artifact.

"Community is our key currency as artists in the new music landscape."

Even more pronounced however has been the blog footprint. Not only have we featured in fan’s blogs, but the box-set has created enough of a storm for being a beautifully crafted and crowd sourced artifact that it’s been featured on new music blogs like newmusicalorder.com and included on the bandcamp blog about physical releases. There have been photo blogs about the event, as well as the box-set, and the band’s facebook pageis still pickingup comments around the release. Our blog page for the release is populated with comments and flickrand facebook photos again are spreading our word for us.

A video made by Phil Barber, photographer for the night is now up on Vimeo, again it’s something that our community can share. This feeds back into the community aspect again as now we’ve made the connection with Phil. He wants to work with us again and make a video for a new track.

The Money

We had 110 people at the show which brought in £2750-00 ($4,400.00) and after expenses and the manufacture of 200 of the box sets, we’d slightly overspent. We spent £3,000-00 ($4,800-00), so as we are selling the set for £35 (£56) after the fact, we actually needed to sell another 8 sets to break even (bit of an error of planning but hey, that’s being in a band so far as I can tell).

Fortunately, the day the box-set went on sale we sold 12 units, so we were straight into the black, every box we sell now, online or more likely at shows is pure  profit… I say profit – this doesn’t account for any time put in by band members, probably in the region of 300 man hours pulling this together. We don’t get paid as such. What’s interesting to me is that really supports Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 True Fans“. If we were selling 1,000 box-sets, then we’re making £30,000-00 ($48,000-00); that would pay for a quarter of the bands year to live and be able to work on music. Hopefully, we’re getting there.

The Invisible Benefits

Something that people never seem to talk about in new music industry blogs is that there are some people that you just can’t reach online. Additionally, they leave no internet footprint. There is no blog to follow an event or a release, there’s no twitter feed, flickr pics, facebook page comments, this is stuff that’s not trackable and not online.

What’s more, it’s probably the majority of people, even ardent music fans may not be active as a force for artists on the internet. I can’t count the times (certainly up until this year) where I’ve bought a CD or a download or went to a great gig, and didn’t talk about it online… what I would do though is talk about it with friends, play them the music, recommend going to a gig. These are invisible benefits.

Inertia

I find it particularly interesting with Be The Architect, that people are actually sharingtheir own work, their own writings and pictures of themselves. Whether traceable or invisible, the sharingof the “Be The Architect” night and box set is all the more because it’s much more than just a gig and a box-set; it was a unique experience for band and audience alike, and that the fans made this happen with us seems to make them all the more passionate about sharing.

There’s a number of reasons why the band I’m in are called Hope and Social. We’ve always been sociable people, always wanted our shows to feel like it’s a gang of us, like we’re all in this together, a community. Also, we’re optimists. We believe that people are generally good, and that most people want good things for all human beings. We hope that if we invite people into our world for a few hours at a show, for an hour on a record that we can connect with and lift people a little, make people forget the humdrum, and see beauty. We hope that our sociable tendencies are a force for good. (Also, there’s a great record called Hope and Adams by a band called Wheat that’s just incredible, so we stole shared in that idea a little bit.)

It’s through this that everyone who worked on the Crypt Gig with us was willing to work for free, from lighting to the bar, from manning the door to baking brownies and refreshments to sell. It’s because of this that many of our fans will go to the ends of the earth for us, and it’s this passion that gives the band energy and inertia to move forward.

October has been a big month for Sufjan Stevens (who I wrote about yesterday, if you missed it.) Run Rabbit Run dropped on the 6th, and today brings us the release of another Sufjan Stevens project - The BQE. Much like Run Rabbit Run, which is a chamber music re-imagining of Sufjan’s electronic sophomore album Enjoy Your Rabbit, The BQE is more of an interesting digression than a conventional album. Unlike Rabbit, this one actually sounds like a Sufjan Stevens record.

The BQE, which Stevens’ label describes as “a cinematic suite inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Hula-Hoop” was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The piece was originally performed at the in the Howard Gilman Opera House in October of 2007. Accompanying the musical score was an original film that spanned three separate screens and depicted the expressway, as well as a troupe of live hoola hoop girls called the Hooper Heroes.

Two years after its original performance, Stevens has adapted the work for a double disc format which includes both the soundtrack and the film. I will only be reviewing the musical portion because I haven’t had a chance to view the film.

Sufjan’s work has always featured complex, occasionally classically inspired arrangements. This time he goes all out, crafting a pseudo-classical symphony inspired by folk-pop, jazz, Philip Glass and 70′s era film score. It is certainly his most expansive project to date. Excluding the film, the choreography, the comic book (yes, the special edition version comes with a 40 page Hooper Heroes comic book) there are seven movements, a prelude, an introductory fanfare for the Hooper Heroes, and a postlude.

Sufjan performing The BQE

In many ways The BQE marks the return of Steven’s signature arranging style, relying heavily on brass and woodwinds and quirky, sentimental melodic themes. Run Rabbit Run was a significant departure, being performed exclusively by strings. Still conspicuously absent, however, is Stevens’ voice.  Sufjan is a gifted storyteller, and is no stranger to highly conceptual projects such as The BQE. We’re talking about the guy who once planned to write an album for each of the fifty American states. Yet, whether it was a requirement of the commission or a personal choice, Sufjan tells the tale of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway entirely through music and multi-media, rather than through words. And while part of me can’t help but feel disappointed, the result is undeniably a remarkable piece of music.

As a piece of classical music The BQE is a solid effort. He leans on many familiar conventions while sprinkling a decent helping of his own clever twists. Movement II – Sleeping Invader, for example, depicts the late night ambiance of car horns and squealing brakes by pairing the quiet rise and fall of strings with the distant rat-a-tat dissonance of a blatting trumpet. The fourth movement’s swirling synthesizers and manic dance-floor beat cut the album in half, providing a prolonged electronic interlude depicting the chaos of rush hour traffic.

At a few points it may become clear to the more discerning ear that this is Sufjan’s first foray into the classical realm. Thankfully, I am in no way a classical music aficionado (although I do love the work of Stravinsky, and more recently Philip Glass. My wife and I almost walked down the aisle to Glass’s Clouds.) I had no qualms about his handling of the genre.

The BQE is a great addition to the Sufjan Stevens catalogue, not simply for its novelty, but for its quality as well. It isn’t likely to satiate fans’ hunger for a true Illinoise follow-up, however. In the same interview I commented on yesterday, Sufjan says this in reference to The BQE:

I feel that The BQE is not really a song, it’s not really a movie, it’s not really just a soundtrack. It’s so ambiguous and diversified, it seems to lack shape. And the expressway itself lacks shape, so I feel like it’s all related to this existential crisis: Me versus the BQE, or me versus my work, y’know? And I don’t think I can win; I feel like it’s a losing battle…

Hopefully the songwriter’s existential crisis will come to a resolution soon so that the world will continue to benefit from his creations.

Listen to The BQE: Movement VI – Isorhythmic Night Dance with Interchanges

Buy The BQE on Amazon.

The album has reigned as the prince of popular music formats for nearly a century. Yet, it’s become unclear how long this reign will last. Digital technology has transformed the way many listeners experience music and fueled a resurgence of the short-form single.

For the past several years bloggers, critics, industry pros and consumers have contributed to countless articles and comments discussing the merits of this transformation. Most of these discussions have revolved around business models and economics. If the album becomes obsolete, what will it do to industry profits? How will artists continue to make money? Conspicuously missing is any thought given to how all of this will effect music as an art-form.

I recently stumbled across an interview between Exclaim’s Vish Khanna and songwriter Sufjan Stevens that approaches the issue from a very different perspective.

For many years Sufjan Stevens was known for his prolific songwriting and ambitious projects. Between 2000 and 2006 Stevens released seven expansive albums. This month he will release two new projects, Run Rabbit Run which dropped on the 6th and multimedia set the BQEwhich will be released on the 20th. However, the last conventional album he released was back in 2005 with Come on Feel the Illinoise.

Many of his numerous fans have been wondering what’s up, and speculation came to a head a couple of weeks ago when Stevens made some comments that some took as an  announcement of retirement.

When Vish Khanna asks Stevens to clarify he quickly dispels any rumors that he is calling it quits, but he goes on to give some insight into why he has waited so long to put out a true follow-up to Illinoise.

I definitely feel like ‘What is the point? What’s the point of making music anymore?’ I feel that the album no longer has a stronghold or has any real bearing anymore. The physical format itself is obsolete; the CD is obsolete and the LP is kinda nostalgic. So, I think the album is suffering and that’s how I’ve always created—I work with these conceptual albums in the long-form. And I’m wondering, what’s the value of my work once these forms are obsolete and everyone’s just downloading music?

What does an artist do when his medium suddenly becomes irrelevant? The pundits are usually quick to urge the artist to simply switch to a new medium, because their concerns are typically focused on the business aspect. Other artists and die-hard fans will generally encourage the artist to stick to his convictions and forget about what the rest of the world is doing.

The pundits are obviously missing an important point, which is that music is not simply another product to be bought and sold. It’s an art, and the album is an art-form. The artists – and especially the fans – often forget that music is also a business and that the artist has to make money if he’s to continue making art.

So what’s a guy like Sufjan Stevens to do?

First of all, the album isn’t dead, nor is it likely to be anytime soon. Blogger hyperbole and personal existential crises aside, nobody ever said Stevens can’t continue putting out full-length conceptual epics for the remainder of his career.

It can be easy to look at the current state of the industry as a whole with all of its transitions and tribulations and lose sight of the fact that each artist and each fan’s experience is different. Just because the market is moving away from a particular format doesn’t mean everybody needs to abandon it immediately or risk becoming obsolete.

Sufjan Stevens’ fans love his work largely because of the way he has used the album format to communicate his artistic vision. If he continues to release in the album format his fans are likely to continue buying and listening to his music that way.

The same goes for any artist. Don’t get so wrapped up in the latest fashions and buzz-words that you lose sight of your own unique offering. If an established career artist like Sufjan Stevens isn’t immune to this I would imagine that many more new artists stumble get caught up in it all the time. You want to put out nothing but epic concept albums? If you can find the audience then I say go for it. You want to write 90 second musical haiku and release it in bundles of 20? If that’s what you’re passionate about and you can find a way to make it work financially, who has any right to stand in your way?

I have come to advocate a model of continual creative output where an artist releases a song or two at a time in shorter intervals for the purpose of increased fan engagement. I feel strongly about this type of release strategy because I believe it gives emerging artists the best opportunity to cultivate a strong base of core fans and keep them connected. I’m not alone in that opinion – the concept has begun to really catch on recently. But don’t confuse any one model’s acceptance with the idea that you have to give up your own vision. Maybe Sufjan Stevens would find success in smaller, more frequent releases. Or maybe he’ll come up with something completely new. But if you can’t really get behind it as an artistic form then it likely won’t work well for you anyway.

Write great music and present it in the way that best expresses what you’re trying to say. If you start there and you are serious about building your career the business models and economics will fall into place over time. Read everything you can about what is working for others and incorporate what you feel will make you successful. But don’t lose sight of your own vision and your own style in the process or you’ll risk stalling your career, in some cases before it really begins.

The new Arctic Monkeys video is an entertaining exercise in tongue in cheek minimalism. Its three minutes and twenty five seconds feature nothing but Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, an old-school cassette deck and a blank white wall.

Turner, clad in headphones and red sweater, croons at the camera while casually acting out the lyrics of the song in what has to be some of best choreography of the year. More proof that you don’t need a budget to be interesting.

Directed by Richard Ayoyade taking his third turn at the helm for the Arctic Monkeys.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIQz6zZi7R0

Buy this track on iTunes.

There’s a world of quirky indie-folk out there, and Sufjan Stevens is its king. His ‘wunderkind’ status may be a stretch – the guy is in his thirties, after all – but there is no question about Sufjan’s skill and creativity as a songwriter. Diverse arrangements, complex characters and themes of spirituality and Americana are the common threads that run through the majority of his seven studio albums.

The glaring exception was Sufjan’s sophomore release Enjoy Your Rabbit. Enjoy Your Rabbit is fully instrumental, fully electronic and a complete departure from the Gaelic-inspired folk rock of his debut A Sun Came.

In the words of his recent press release:

Enjoy Your Rabbit seemed less like a sophomore slump or a sophomore smash than an entertaining divergence. It was not, however, what you might call a good career move. Not that Sufjan had a music career at all.

Now, eight years later, Sufjan has revisited this strange-cousin record with his upcoming release Run Rabbit Run.

Run Rabbit Run is a complete re-arranging and re-imagining of its electronic predecessor for performance by the string quartet Osso. Sufjan commissioned a series of composers to write new arrangements for the fourteen songs of the original album (minus ‘Year of the Asthmatic Cat.’) Each song was then tweaked and modified by the players – electronic clicks, beats and noise were interpreted with scrapes of the bow or clicking tongues.

The result is pretty surprising.

Sufjan Stevens at the Independent Music Awards

I’ve been a fan of Sufjan Stevens since first experiencing Seven Swans for the first time in 2004. Since then I have worn out my copies of Welcome to Michigan and Come on Feel the Illinoise. Nevertheless, when I first got wind of his plans for Run Rabbit Run I was skeptical, at best. The move seemed pretentious – like he had lost touch a little bit. I thought perhaps it was just filler until he released a real record.

When I finally got to hear it for myself I was instantly drawn in. This album is every bit as incongruent as its predecessor. It’s unusual textures and effects weave an engaging experience that is sometimes beautiful, sometimes playful, and often downright strange.

The shadow of electronica can still be felt throughout the arrangements, such as in the jarring transitions of ‘Year of the Tiger’ and the club-synth-cum-violin of ‘Year of the Dog.’

The effect is more than a little reminiscent of the work of Philip Glass (in fact, one of the album’s many contributing composers is Nico Muhly, who has worked extensively with Glass on past projects.)

Members of Osso

Osso approaches the material with capable hands and a sense of humor that seems to ground the album. The ensemble is no stranger to unique challenges, having collaborated with a variety of artists including Jay-Z, The New Pornographers, The National and Kanye West.

Sufjan Stevens’ influence is not absent of course, thought it is obscured a bit by the nature of the project. I for one associate Sufjan much more with woodwinds and brass than with strings. ‘Year of the Dog,’ which I mentioned earlier, is by far the most Sufjan-esque. It may have even sounded at home as one the extras on Avalanche.

Some will likely pass off Run Rabbit Run as simply a diversion to hold fans over until The BQE (also set to be released in October.) But I think it’s quite a bit more than that – it’s an engaging and often beautiful collection of music from the minds and hands of a host of talented musicians.

Listen to ‘Enjoy Your Rabbit’ from Run Rabbit Run.

Run Rabbit Run is set to be released on October 6, 2009 by Asthmatic Kitty Records.

Sufjan photo by Zach Klein.

I’ve been a fan of Kings of Convenience ever since hearing ‘I’d Rather Dance’ in a cafe a few years ago. They play a kind of subtle folk-pop, often encroaching on tongue-in-cheek.

It’s been about 5 years since their last album Riot in the Empty Streets, but a follow-up is finally set to be released on October 2nd. The new album is called Declaration of Dependence, and ‘Boat Behind’ is the first single.

This simple video captures band’s quirky laid-back style perfectly with a quiet, sun-drenched road trip through the country. The duo’s tiny hatchback soon begins to fill up with a few conveniently female hitch-hikers with surprisingly large carry-ons. Mellow harmonies and jazzy acoustic guitars seem to float along with the car.

The songs first lyrics seem to acknowledge the band’s extended hiatus:

“So we meet again
After several years
Several years of separation.”

‘Boat Behind’ seemed like the perfect video for a Friday afternoon in late September. Let me know what you think.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=df2K91QSqJE

New artwork included with the announcement.

Billy Corgan announced Wednesday that recording has begun on a new 44 track album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which he will release as a series of free downloads.

In a statement made on the Pumpkins’ website Corgan said that he hopes ”to release a song at a time beginning around Halloween of this year, with each new release coming shortly after until all 44 are out.” The band is currently in the studio recording the first four of these new songs. According to Corgan all 44 songs will be made available for free. ”There will be no strings attached. Free will mean free, which means you won’t have to sign up for anything, give an email address, or jump through a hoop. You will be able to go and take the song or songs as you wish, as many times as you wish.”

He goes on to say that limited edition EPs will be made available for sale at some point, likely containing 4 songs apiece. “The EP’s will be more like collectors items for the discerning fan who will want the art itself, along with the highest possible audio quality available.” Although the details have yet to be worked out, he expects the physical releases to be “more like mini-box sets rather than your normal cd single.”

The final step will be to compile the 44 songs together into a deluxe box set after all of them have been completed and released. According to Corgan the EPs and the box set will not overlap in content. ”Those who have bought the EP’s need not worry, as the box set will not be a recompilation of the limited edition pieces.”

This is a huge undertaking. Corgan is no stranger to big releases - remember the double disc Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness? Still, 44 songs, 11 EPs and a massive deluxe box set makes that album look tiny in comparison. Prince is the only one I can think of to tackle a project of this scope. Corgan addresses that concern as well, saying, “I already have 53 songs written for the record, so I am quite confident that I already have much of the material that I would need to undertake such an extensive project. I am very committed to seeing this album through to its completion and very, very excited about the prospect of delivering new Smashing Pumpkins music to you in a unique and exciting way.”

Corgan also hints at what fans can expect in terms of content: “The music of ‘Teargarden by Kaleidyscope‘ harkens back to the original psychedelic roots of The Smashing Pumpkins: atmospheric, melodic, heavy, and pretty.”

The album will also apparently feature a consistent story line throughout, “breaking down the journey of our life here into four phases as made by these different characters; the Child, the Fool, the Skeptic, and the Mystic.” Sounds pretty Smashing Pumpkins to me.

Some fans have reported that Corgan has already debuted some of this new material live while touring as Spirits in the Sky this past August.

I was skeptical when I first heard that the Billy Corgan was reforming the Smashing Pumpkins without any of the original band members. It’s always a dangerous thing to risk the legacy of a band as influential as the Pumpkins were in their heyday. Jumping back into the game with a huge project like this is also a pretty gutsy move. On the one hand, Billy Corgan and the new band will need to make quite a splash to prevent potential media backlash. Teargarden could be exactly the kind of buzz-builder they need. Still, tying up so many resources – not only financials but time and creative energy as well – could prove disastrous if it falls flat once it begins to roll out to listeners.

I do appreciate that Corgan is trying something new. His plan seems to reveal that he’s been paying attention to the changing market, at the very least. This should be an interesting story to watch as it develops over the coming months.

Texas Rose, the Thaw and the Beasts is Castanets’ biggest and most ambitious work to date, featuring a full band and bringing to the table a brand new appetite for the epic. It’s a challenging, but oddly accessible collection of music.

The album is something of an enigma – rooted in rustic country-folk, yet twisted and bent through the lens of dark, tripped-out electronica. Its mere 39 minutes are filled with a shifting cast of slide guitars, gospel choirs, drum machines and retro synths. When it builds to the unexpectedly rock and roll climax of ‘Down the Line, Love’ or dissolves into the incoherent string-scraping of ‘Thaw and the Beasts,’ neither seem out of place.

Frontman Ray Raposa’s quivering, Dylan-esque vocals weave an uncompromisingly honest tapestry of love, loneliness and disappointment. His grit and sincerity provide an anchor for the songs’ frequent musical tangents, whether drenched in cavernous reverb or up close and personal.

The diverse arrangements of Texas Rose are highlighted in the atmospheric ‘On Beginning,’ and the horror-film blues of ‘No Trouble.’ It’s strangest moments come in ‘Worn From the Fight (With Fireworks)’ with its clicking drum loops, echoey vocals and funky bass lines that border on the whimsical.

‘Dance, Dance’ strips away the the synthesizers and samples and delivers what I found to be the highlight of the album.

So she says, “come in from the rain”
Well, hell, I came in from the rain
It was cold she had room
Hell, I suppose I’m not averse to being tamed.

Raposa tells the story of love and the disappointment when it doesn’t work out quite the way you thought it would.

It was a love so bitter, so taxing, so sad
it was alarming
And then even the good neighbors kids
they seemed more vicious than charming.

The picture he paints is stark and at times harsh, and he does so matter-of-factly and without apology.

No more a mole in the ground or a bear in the winter
Let it be broken glass and bones
Let it be scratches and stitches and splinters.

Yet, it isn’t without a sense of redemption.

Its a long difficult dance
but I think maybe it’s still good
Even though we all dance sometimes
to a song we don’t love like we should.

The story is almost cinematic in scope – as the song ends and the music fades out it feels a little like watching the credits of a film. It had me wondering if all the avant-garde trappings and electronic indulgences up to that point were really necessary. Perhaps they’re really a kind of subconscious diversion to give Raposa’s soul-bearing something to hide behind.

Texas Rose, The Thaw, and the Beasts isn’t going to be for everyone. But that’s alright. It may be the most accessible Castanets album to date, but in the end I don’t think ‘everyone’ isn’t who it’s made for.

Listen to Worn From the Fight (With Fireworks)

Castanets: Texas Rose, The Thaw, and the Beasts is scheduled to be released Sept. 29, 2009 on Asthmatic Kitty Records.

It’s incredible how quickly news bunches up these days thanks to the social web. Seems like only a week or two ago that the online music community was all a twitter about the leak of Radiohead’s new single These are My Twisted Words.This week Jay-Z’s new album Blueprint 3 was rushed out a week ahead schedule due to a full-length leak that has spread like wildfire. Then, just this morning I got word that the new one from Muse has now leaked in full as well. Leaks are the new reality, folks.

Initially, Jay-Z shrugged off the reports that his album had leaked, calling it a “preview.”

“I’m excited for people to hear the album,” he told MTV News last week, ”I’m very proud of the work I’ve done, so enjoy it.”

Based on the new release date it looks like Jay-Z has reassessed his approach. Not a big surprise – according to TorrentFreak the Blueprint 3 leak has been downloaded by “some 400,000 people on BitTorrent alone in the past days, making it last week’s most pirated music album.” Musformation.com reports another 100k+ copies being shared on filesharing sites, Usenet, and AIM. Those numbers must have had him very worried about lost sales. The original September 11 US release date was chosen because it would have been exactly eight years after the release of the original Blueprint in 2001.

Radiohead, on the other hand, turned out to be the source of their leak. They released an mp3 of These are my Twisted Words anonymously to drive buzz. It worked wonderfully as fans, bloggers and even some news organizations quickly picked up the story.

I have not seen any official reaction from Muse regarding the leak of their upcoming album The Resistance, but if you follow me on Twitter I’ll make sure to post something on it when I know.

Unauthorized (and authorized) leaks appear to be here to stay - we’d all better get used to them quickly.