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hazey
05-25-2005, 09:13 PM
July 5th!

Good heavens! Ambitious indeed.


Sufjan Stevens Album Details Announced

Rob Kleckner reports:
Sufjan Stevens is going to be a very, very old man when he completes his ambitious "50 States" project. He released the first entry in the series in 2003, Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State, and next comes Illinois, on July 5. At this pace, with 50 states and one state/album every two years...well, you do the math. I'm just glad he got to my home state of Illinois in my lifetime. Here's the epic track list:

01 Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL
02 The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience But You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, "I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them until they are off our lands!"
03 Come on! Feel the Illinoise!
-Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition
-Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream
04 John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
05 Jacksonville
06 A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But for Very Good Reasons
07 Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step Mother!
08 One Last "Woo-hoo!" for the Pullman
09 Chicago
10 Casimir Pulaski Day
11 To the Workers of the Rockford River Valley Region, I have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament, and it involves shoe string, a lavender garland, and twelve strong women
12 The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
13 Prairie Fire That Wanders About
14 A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze
15 The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
16 They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhhh!
17 Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell
18 In This Temple, as in the Hearts of Man, for Whom He Saved the Earth
19 The Seer's Tower
20 The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders
-Part I: The Great Frontier
-Part II: Come to Me Only With Playthings Now
21 Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few
22 Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I shake the dirt from my sandals as I run

The album will be available in both CD and vinyl formats. The vinyl will be a 2xLP set with a triple gatefold sleeve and an additional track, "The Avalanche". The CD will have a running time of 74 minutes and the LP will be 80 minutes. Epic indeed.

marloes
05-25-2005, 10:30 PM
ooooh, I've actually had the album for about a month now, and it's growing on me. It's wonderfully kitschy and basically a continuation of the Michigan sound and 7 Swans (to a lesser extent) It's a bit too long, I've never been able to finish it in 1 listen, but there are some great songs on it. And great song titles, when I first read them on Pitchfork I couldn't stop laughing:smiley36:

hazey
05-26-2005, 06:07 AM
Yeah, got it now myself (gracias, Soulseek!). The song titles are ace, to say the least. It's all very, very admirable. If he actually succeeds in completing all 50 albums before he dies, I'd be the first in line (will by then be an old granny myself, if I'm lucky) to personally congratulate him and shake his old shrivelled hand. And maybe get him to sign my 50 states CD collection. Of course, by then CDs will be obsolete and music will be recorded and stored by some other means.

I'm really curious about the Hawaii one. I'd be extremely cool if he blended what he already does with traditional Hawaiian sounds (I'm sure he plays the ukulele too), and maybe the sounds of the ocean, seagulls, dolphins, mermaids, etc... oh, I'm just so excited!

cille
05-26-2005, 04:24 PM
ooh, hadn't heard about this, gotta get it asap! getting excited too.. (and not due to any fondling, haze...:smiley17: )

hazey
05-26-2005, 08:28 PM
Ok, been listening to Illinois since last night, and I must say, it is a lovely album. Albeit somewhat of a continuation of Michigan and Swans, like Marloes said. The John Wayne Gacy, Jr. song is equally sad and beautiful as it scares the bejesus out of me (for those not in the know: Gacy was a serial killer). It'd be really something if he got to finish them all.


getting excited too.. (and not due to any fondling, haze...:smiley17: )

That's too bad, I'm pretty psyched about it. :smiley17:

Angela
07-15-2005, 01:58 PM
Sufjan played a session at KCRW in Santa Monica yesterday. You can watch the video here (http://www.kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?show_code=mb&air_date=7/14/05&tmplt_type=show).