And the big news announcements roll on! On August 23rd Sims and Astronautalis will join forces for the second annual #ASTROSIMS show in the First Avenue Mainroom! SO PUMPED. Get your tickets HERE.
If you were there last year, then you have know how special this night will be. Sims and Astronautalis on stage together for a mega set of old classics and brand new material. Here’s a great recap from last year’s show to freshen your memory.
Again, you can get all the sweet deetz and ticket info right HERE. Not to be missed. Both of these guys have been in the studio over the past couple weeks working on new solo projects, and everything I’ve heard so far has completely ruled. I’m sure they’ll each be debuting a bunch of new tunes at this show. For proof, here’s Sims knocking out seven new solo tracks just two days after finishing up all his vocals on the next Doomtree crew record.
Speaking of the Doomtree crew record (SEGUE SEGUE SEGUE), things have ramped up tenfold as far as studio stuff goes. These past two weeks have been the craziest and most jam-packed recording sessions that I’ve ever been a part of, but we’re making some serious progress. We brought in some incredible session players to add a little more oomph to the beats, and things couldn’t have gone better. Here’s Jake Hanson (AKA #ItsMeJake420) and his monster pedal board.
This dude knocked out 14 songs in like five hours, and then crushed a Wyclef Jean/Slash guitar solo at the very end just for fun. I was inspired (see below).
Here’s the ever mysterious Adam Hurlburt (Solid Gold, Year of the Horse) laying down some major bass lines. So good.
After we got the initial players on board it was time to dig into the sequence and structure of these songs. Five different voices is a lot to put on a track, and our biggest goal as producers is always to try and have the beats change up and fit each emcee’s part so things don’t get too boring within the music. After two mammoth 14 hour days of wrangling we got enough accomplished to safely move this project into the mixing stage! SO RELIEVED. Here’s Cecil, Stef, and I feeling a little crazed after editing and bouncing out the last session.
That’s the latest as far as crew album updates. For everybody who’s been asking when the pre-order will start or when the album is dropping, we’re still a long ways away from any of that. There’s a lot more work to be done, and we tend to take our time with big records like this to make sure everything rolls out right, and not just musically (videos/publicity/radio/artwork/packaging/etc). The good news is that pretty incredible progress is being made, and getting to the mixing stage is a huuuuuuge step in the right direction (it means we actually have real songs, haha). I’ll definitely make sure to keep you posted though as we continue to hone this thing in throughout the summer.
Alright, it’s Bonus Jam time. I’m excited to kick things off today with a brand new remix from our very own Paper Tiger! Papes recently worked on a remix EP from cool local band Sun Gods to Gamma Rays, and his version of “You Thought You Had It All” is truly excellent. Click the Bandcamp player below to check out the remix, followed by the original album version underneath that for context, and grab the entire new remix EP right HERE.
Up next is a sweet collaboration between two of our great friends, Adam Garcia and Medium Zach. Adam has done a ton of great work for us over the years (Bad Time Zoo and countless other DT artwork) and his design crew The Pressure recently put on their first big solo exhibition titled Artifacts of the Gemira Commision. They asked Medium Zach to create a musical score that could be played throughout the exhibition based off of the story, visuals, and characters they created for the project, and lucky for us all he obliged. Check out Zach’s entire 11-track score on the Soundcloud player below, and then watch the recap video of all the work that went into getting The Pressure to opening night. Really cool stuff from really cool people.
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[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/99379676[/vimeo]
Next we have a new video from DJ Snuggles and Sean Anonymous off of Snuggles’ upcoming That Beat EP. I really like this song, plus there’s tons of familiar faces throughout the video. Big Cats on the beat!
The young gunner deM atlaS just dropped a video off from his Chrle Brwn project in between legs on the North of Hell Tour with Prof and Atmosphere. Check out “Lucille” below and get excited for the new music this dude has been working on as of late.
Allan Kingdom dropped his Future Memoirs tape a few weeks back, and now we have a cool visual for standout track “Souls.” Check it out below and grab Future Memoirs right HERE.
Acclaimed director Lance Bangs recently teamed up with VICE to make a mini documentary about the musical history of our fine city of Minneapolis, and he chose to interview hometown heroes like Tommy Stinson of The Replacements, Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü, Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, Lori Barbero of Babes In Toyland, aaaaaaaaand LIZZO!!!! Not bad company to be in if I do say so myself. Check out Made in Minnesota below.
And speaking of cool short music docs, Merge Records recently celebrated their 25th anniversary as one of the best labels in the game, and Google Play decided to interview a bunch of the staff there to commemorate the occasion and tell their story. Merge and Matador were by far my favorite labels growing up as an indie rock kid, and they both really inspired me and my friends at a young age to play and release music on our own (shouts to our makeshift high school label Pretentious Records!). So happy to watch Merge’s insane rise to the top over the past decade. This documentary is a really succinct snapshot of how to build something great from the ground up the right way. Might have to dust off my old Butterglory and Spent albums after watching this. Check out the whole thing below!
OK, that does if for Bonus Jams this week. I’ll leave you with a couple Bonus Penny Pics. She’s been having a little bit of a rough go as of late adjusting to all the new kids in the house, as well as starting daycare a couple days a week, but she’s still the sweetest thing in the world. Here she is enjoying one of her favorite pasttimes: Chewing on an entire roll of dental floss. Hey, get em started young, right?
And here’s P throwing her modeling hat in the ring yet again, this time for future Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover star. She’s been totally loving these nice days outside, and can’t get enough of the pool by our house.
Alright, that does it for this post. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Make sure to grab your tickets to the second annual #ASTROSIMS show HERE while you still can. Last year sold out and this year is only going to get better. See you next Tuesday for another round of TWL!
— Beak
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