Piney Gir "Every Day's a Holiday" music video

From 'Festivus' (Highline Records):

ENCHANTING SUSAN MCKEOWN PERFORMANCE & INTERVIEW SEGMENT TO AIR ON WFUV DEC. 30, PREVIEWING JAN. 5 92Y TRIBECA CONCERT

"A REALLY FINE ALBUM" – JOHN PLATT

Susan McKeown and her band recorded a session and interview with WFUV's John Platt to air December 30 on Sunday Breakfast, which airs from 8am to 11am. She played enchanting renditions of "On the Bridge To Williamsburg," "The Cure For Me," "Everything We Had Was Good" (as a duet featuring NYC singer-songwriter Warren Malone), and "No Jericho" from her new album 'Belong' (Hibernian Music). The segment will preview her January 5 show at 92Y Tribeca. Platt called 'Belong' "a really fine album."

PRI Bob Edwards Show interview w/ Susan McKeown

 This interview aired on SIRIUS XM November 19 and on PRI the weekend of December 1-2.

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN PLANS 30TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT JAN. 19 AT NYC'S STAGE 48 IN DOUBLE BILL WITH CRACKER

FIRST STUDIO ALBUM IN NINE YEARS, 'LA COSTA PERDIDA' OUT JAN 22 ON 429 RECORDS

THREE NPR TAPINGS FOR CVB IN JANUARY

Camper Van Beethoven -- one of the bands that founded the indie rock genre – will celebrate its 30^th anniversary and new album 'La Costa Perdida' (January 22 / 429 Records) its first in nine years, with a concert January 19 at Stage 48. The anniversary and new release has captured the attention of Brooklyn Vegan, among others.

On the tour, the band will also tape sessions with NPR's World Café and NPR's Mountain Stage and an interview with NPR Here & Now in January.

WHO: Camper Van Beethoven

WHAT: 30^th anniversary concert and celebration of 'La Costa Perdida'

WHEN: 8pm, Saturday, January 19

WHERE: 605 W. 48th St., NYC

TICKETS: $20 in advance or $25 day of show via Stage 48 box office

The band's peers are also toasting Camper Van Beethoven's 30^th anniversary. Built To Spill's Doug Martsch said, "Each member of Camper is a thoughtful songwriter, and a master of his instrument, with a totally unique vision, and together they have a balanced, egoless, and dynamic chemistry that's created many of my favorite songs."

Bob Nastanovich of Pavement said, "Camper Van Beethoven, very much an essential '80s band traveling on their own arc, punctuated the beginning of my college career. They served it up with panache. 'Sometimes,' 'I Don't See You,' 'Ambiguity Song,' 'Circles,' 'Dustpan,' 'The History of Utah,' 'Still Wishing to Course'--all songs that ended up on assorted song cassette tapes in vain attempts to increase overall coolness. They made California cool to a Virginian. It was some good, reliable shit. As they wandered east, they backed it up with great live action. They were good musicians. That was weird. They were sarcastic. That was appealing."

JOHN MURRY'S 'THE GRACELESS AGE' ONE OF 2012'S BEST-REVIEWED ALBUMS IN THE UK, OUT APRIL 2 IN THE U.S. ON EVANGLINE RECORDING CO.

ONE OF EIGHT FINALISTS FOR UNCUT MUSIC AWARD ALONGSIDE FATHER JOHN MISTY, BOB DYLAN, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

British press has unequivocally raved about John Murry's 'The Graceless Age,' which made UNCUT's final eight list for 2012 UNCUT Music Award album of the year alongside names like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Father John Misty. In fact, UNCUT's Allan Jones ranked it second only to Dylan in his personal list of the top twenty albums of the year. A full interview with Uncut can be read here: http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/uncut-editors-diary/interview-john-murry

Murry's debut album, coproduced by Tim Mooney of Sun Kil Moon, will see US release April 2 on Evangeline Recording Co. Here's what's being said across the pond:

"A dark, festering masterpiece....guitars crackle throughout like static, dissonant transmissions from the rim of things, sonic squall and ruptures.  The effect is often always symphonic..."
9/10 'Album Of Month' UNCUT

"Like Father John Misty, Mark Lanegan and Josh T Pearson rolled into one really broken dream..."
4**** Q Magazine

"Occasionally an album comes out of nowhere that completely blows your mind. Like this one...
5***** THE SUN

"This dark, brooding second album delivers some gently mesmerising meditations...."
THE MIRROR

"As brown as the Mississippi and as fraught with undercurrents..."
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

"A genuine American masterpiece...."
R2 MAGAZINE

"This is an album that fearlessly exposes his dark past through songs that are powerful and healing. A remarkable album..."
ELECTRIC GHOST

""A dark cousin to Brian Wilsons' California dreaming perhaps, with the dense and elaborate Southern Sky a contender for song of the year as it pounds and insinuates its way into the listener's brain."
BLABBER & SMOKE

""Astonishingly complex sounds woven together here that will take a long time to reveal all the secrets of their making."
FLYING SHOES

"A true classic in every way and one that is destined to be heard through the ages. Album of the year, without a doubt."
ECHOES & DUST

John Murry photos

Click for high res versions, please.

Credit for above: Amoreena Berg

Tim Mooney pictured in mirror.
Credit: Jude Mooney

 above by Dara Munnis

 above by Dara Munnis

above by Dara Munnis

AFTER FIRESTORM OF U.K. RAVES AND UNCUT MUSIC AWARD NOMINATION, U.S. RELEASE CONFIRMED MARCH 5 FOR JOHN MURRY'S 'THE GRACELESS AGE' ON EVANGELINE RECORDING CO.

LAST ALBUM PRODUCED BY TIM MOONEY (SUN KIL MOON, AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB)

"LIKE FATHER JOHN MISTY, MARK LANEGAN, AND JOSH T PEARSON ROLLED INTO ONE REALLY BROKEN DREAM." – Q MAGAZINE

After a firestorm of U.K. raves, John Murry's 'The Graceless Age' has been confirmed for April 2 on Evangeline Recording Co. It's the last album co-produced by Tim Mooney of American Music Club and Sun Kil Moon before his death June 13, in collaboration with Murry.

Check out the embeddable "California" music video, dedicated to Mooney.

'The Graceless age' is one of eight albums nominated for an UNCUT Music Award and praise has been effusive on the other side of the pond, where Murry is launching a winter tour shortly. MOJO is planning a feature. The Sun gave it 5 stars out of 5, saying, "Occasionally, an album comes out of nowhere that completely blows your mind. Like this one… A genuine tour de force." In another 5 star (out of 5) review, R2 called it "a genuine American masterpiece." In a 9 star (out of 10) review, UNCUT  described the "deeply textured… ruined grandeur," continuing, "This is what 'The Graceless Age' as a whole does so unforgettably, beating honest witness to a burning world."

The album brings together organic and synthetic elements to create its own despairing, lush soundscape from female vocals cradling the ashes of John's cigarette-stained drawl to loops of electric guitar feedback over his howl; from an answering machine message to insistent, creeping synthesizer; from CB radio samples to a violin; and from an alarm's swells to a warm acoustic guitar. Moments on 'The Graceless Age' can be compared to eels, Sparklehorse, and Beck's 'Sea Change' but these stories burn true in Murry's own writing and singing.

Now based in Oakland, CA, John Murry has lived many lives. He grew up in Elvis' hometown of Tupelo, MS and there's a photo of Elvis in concert that shows his mother reaching out to touch his hand. He was a junkie after he left Memphis to go to that den of iniquity, California. He wrote for the Village Voice for a time. He is William Faulkner's second cousin and friends have described him as lost in the worlds of southern literature. He has seen death in an alley and managed to stumble back from it. These identities come together in 'The Graceless Age.'

AMERICANA'S "STAR ON THE RISE" (BOSTON HERALD) AMY BLACK TO RECORD LIVE ALBUM WITH FULL BAND AT JOHNNY D'S JANUARY 4

SINGER-SONGWRITER TO APPEAR ON WUMB EARLIER THAT DAY

FAN PHOTO FROM THE SHOW WILL BE INCLUDED IN ALBUM ARTWORK

WITH SPECIAL GUEST ON VOCALS, WARD HAYDEN FROM BOSTON MUSIC AWARD-WINNING BAND GIRLS GUNS & GLORY

Fresh from a national tour and performing at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville, TN, singer-songwriter Amy Black will be recording a live album at Johnny D's, around the corner from her Davis Square apartment, on January 4 with her band. The Boston Globe has called her music "deeply felt," continuing, "From steely murder ballads to tender love songs that evoke bedrock country tropes, the record is Americana in its broadest definition. It's rooted in folk and country but with tinges of Southern soul and blues."

Ward Hayden from the Boston Music Award-winning band Girls Guns & Glory will sit in on the set. The band is made up of top shelf Boston-area musicians: Jim Scoppa (Duke Robillard), electric guitar, Russell Chudnofsky (Lori McKenna, Sara Borges), rhythm guitar; Lorne Entress (producer of Black's stellar album 'One Time' and drummer for Ronnie Earl), drums; John Styklunas, bass. Tom Dube of Front Of House Sound, who has worked with Rosanne Cash, Jackson Browne, Richard Thompson, and Kathleen Edwards, will engineer the live album.

The audience will have the opportunity to advance purchase the album (both CD and a download before it's even released) for $5. A group photo of all who come out will be included in the artwork for the album. Black plans to release it in the spring and mount a tour behind it.

Black will also appear live on WUMB 91.9FM at noon on January 4.

Correatown - "Christmastime is Here" music video

From 'Festivus' on Highline Records:

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN IN SURREPTITIOUS ROLE IN NEW JUDD APATOW FILM "THIS IS 40": ON PAUL RUDD'S CHEST

STAR WEARS HIS OWN VINTAGE CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN T-SHIRT

Amid news that Camper Van Beethoven is on the verge of the release of 'La Costa Perdida,' (January 22 / 429 Records) its first new album in nine years, comes attention from an A-list movie star. Paul Rudd recently told Rolling Stone that he wears a vintage Camper Van Beethoven shirt from his own collection in the new Judd Apatow film "This Is 40."

Here's a photo of Rudd wearing the shirt.

Rudd also wears vintage Bob Mould and Pavement shirts in the film.

CVB will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary in 2013.

NPR PROFILES PINEY GIR "FROM THE MUPPETS TO 'GERONIMO!'" AS SHE EARNS RAVES, COMPARISONS TO THE VIVIAN GIRLS, THE SHANGRI-LAS, THE TROGGS, AND BEST COAST

NEW EMBEDDABLE MUSIC VIDEO FOR "OUTTA SIGHT" POSTED

NPR Weekend Edition recently profiled indie pop starlet Piney Gir. She talks about keeping the songs short and sweet in "perfectly formed bursts of pop music" (her words), recording live as a band in one room,  growing up in a fundamentalist Pentecostal household with "happy clappy Jesus music" (also her words), how the muppets introduced her to pop music, recording with Tom Benelick who played on 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,' her part Native American ancestry, and recording in Los Angeles with producer Rob Campanella of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Scott Simon says, "Her sound has been compared to Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline, but on her latest album, Geronimo, Gir sometimes seems to be conjuring up '60s pop from girl groups to The Troggs."

Here's a brand-new video of the song "Outta Sight," featuring sock puppets playing a dating gameshow.

More recent praise for 'Geronimo!,' out now on Highline Records:

"Sun-faded retro pop [and] all out go go boots… if Piney Gir's buzzing electric guitars and relentlessly charming vocals were enough to brighten up the UK, we gotta think they'll be enough to make us Americans cheery." – Baeble Music

"Unabashedly catchy." - Hitfix

"Pop gems." – Philadelphia Inquirer

"Piney Gir performs a brand of upbeat indie-pop sure to delight fans of the Vivian Girls and Best Coast." – Pop Matters

"A bit Shangri-Las, a bit Vivian Girls, and a bit Jenny Lewis." – Blurt Magazine

John Murry 'The Graceless Age' bio

The way to beat fundamentalism is to find yourself interred at a fundamentalist drug rehabilitation facility for eighteen months as a teenager. “I was only on pills for half as long,” says John Murry about the pharmaceutical speed he was given as a “slow” student at his Mississippi high school. “They gave me the pills and then they locked me up when I took them. I trafficked in righteous indignation when they let me out, but god damn it, it turned out they were right.” Years later, dead from heroin, San Francisco’s first responders showed him how Lazarus felt. A few times. Not born again, but not dead either.

The way to Catholicism if you’re John Murry is through Graham Greene and Walker Percy. Literature goes a long way for some people – the people who read it without prejudice and don’t parade their reading list around in place of personal substance. It’s in John Murry’s blood. He’s William Faulkner’s grandson. Or nephew. “I got all the way to being his son, once.” It depends whom you ask or who’s doing the talking. But John Murry can tell you which of his cousins or uncles came to find himself transmogrified into fictional characters in Faulkner’s novels. There’s no separation of fiction and reality in John Murry’s lineage. It’s all reality, just like Graham Greene’s Monsignor Quixote. When asked what he liked to read, Faulkner always answered, “I read Don Quixote and The Bible every year.” The quote is different if you read it in the biographies. But that’s how it’s told in the Murry family and that’s how John Murry remembers it and John Murry doesn’t ever forget anything.

Tupelo, Mississippi is John Murry’s hometown. He immigrated to Oakland, California seven years ago for the Mexican Coca-Cola. “If you eat the rust off the bottleneck, it keeps you healthy. I learned that in England.” England because that’s where he goes to perform the death ballads he writes and records with Bob Frank. Rolling Stone’s Senior Editor David Fricke wrote of their World Without End “all bullets, blades and guilt without end…. With his low, hanging-judge drawl, Murry sounds as severe and modern as Leonard Cohen.... production here [Tim Mooney and John Murry] is as antique as a sepia print — but also as immediate as the anguish made elsewhere by the two.” Allan Jones of UNCUT Magazine called it a “dazzling collection of blasted country folk and grimly haunting murder ballads, shot through with harrowing images of death, damnation and eternal suffering...” People like to talk about what Jim Dickinson said. About John Murry’s records with Bob Frank, Jim Dickinson said, “The lost cry out in song. Cold as an assassin's blade. Burning with the heat of a pistol's breath. Dark and deep as the grave. This recording is timeless as death. It will haunt your dreams and follow you down the shadow-filled street just out of sight."

John Murry began recording The Graceless Age (produced by Murry, Tim Mooney, and Kevin Cubbins) four years ago in San Francisco. From there, he brought the tapes to Memphis and back again, adding layers of sound as thick as, what? San Francisco fog? Mississippi mud? No. That’s fucking ridiculous. As John Murry says, “No matter how many fuzz pedals I use, no matter how many synths, they’re always going to say ‘Mississippi’ and ‘southern rock.’” Of course territory figures into the songs of The Graceless Age, but good luck pigeonholing.

It’s a big sound at times – backup singers, panoramic guitar noise, sweet piano melodies, an orchestra of strings, bells, horns… – but no matter how ethereal or expansive, at the heart of each song is something simple maybe written on an acoustic guitar or upright piano about loss and solitude and bad fucking-up, not always with a guilty conscience. Listen to “California” with its mechanical loops over a constant, hypnotic guitar line. It’s pretty. It’s also easy to imagine riding alone over the Bay Bridge from San Francisco to Oakland, generally disgusted with the scenery, as though it’s the scenery’s fault. Listen to “Little Colored Balloons” – sparse with piano, cello, mournful backup singing, and John Murry’s hoarse voice protesting too much. Drugs, bad choices, melody and countermelody.

John Murry knows what it sounds like to be Elvis, alone in Memphis, bloated with pills and mistakes, about to hit the floor. There’s a gospel choir and backwards guitar.

--Creston Lea, Author of "Wild Punch"
Burlington, Vermont, October 2010

John Murry - "California" music video

MEMBERS OF R.E.M, PAVEMENT, BUILT TO SPILL, THE DECEMBERISTS, DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, AND OTHERS LAVISH PRAISE FOR CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY

CVB COVERED BY DIVINE FITS

As Camper Van Beethoven plans to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2013, many of the band's peers and members of R.E.M., Pavement, Built To Spill, Drive-By Truckers, Meat Puppets, Widespread Panic, Minus 5, The Nerves, and Elf Power spoke about CVB's influence, its pioneering role in creating the genre of indie rock, and their love for the band.

In addition, Britt Daniel's Divine Fits have recently covered CVB's "I Was Born In a Laundromat" both in concert and as a b-side to a recent single.

"The first time we heard CVB, we knew they were destined for greatness."
- R.E.M.

"Each member of Camper is a thoughtful songwriter, and a master of his instrument, with a totally unique vision, and together they have a balanced, egoless, and dynamic chemistry that's created many of my favorite songs."
- Doug Martsch (Built To Spill)

"Camper Van Beethoven, very much an essential '80s band traveling on their own arc, punctuated the beginning of my college career. They served it up with panache. 'Sometimes,' 'I Don't See You,' 'Ambiguity Song,' 'Circles,' 'Dustpan,' 'The History of Utah,' 'Still Wishing to Course'--all songs that ended up on assorted song cassette tapes in vain attempts to increase overall coolness. They made California cool to a Virginian. It was some good, reliable shit. As they wandered east, they backed it up with great live action. They were good musicians. That was weird. They were sarcastic. That was appealing."
- Bob Nastanovich (Pavement)

"I've kind of come back to a lot of the more American music that got me going in the first place – R.E.M. and Camper Van Beethoven and all these bands that borrowed from more American traditions like Neil Young and the Byrds."
- Colin Meloy (The Decemberists)

"I've been a Camper Van Beethoven fan since the mid 80's. 'Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart' is actually one of my very favorite albums of that era and one that I still pull out now. I'm thrilled to hear that they are finally making a new album (la costa perdida) and I can't wait to crank it up. I know this one will be a keeper"
- Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers)

"Camper Van Beethoven caught my ear. It was psychedelic on one hand, innovative folk-spirited on the other. 'I Saw Jerry's Daughter' is the sort of song that makes you smile a knowing smile. Their clever and innovative mix of instrumentation and style made them a breath of fresh air in the down and dirty punk scene that we were growing up in."
- Curt Kirkwood, Meat Puppets

"Part of the soundtrack of my life. A uniquely American band with wonderful songs. I'm always happy when they put out a new album."
- Dave Schools, Widespread Panic

"I was already a fan of CVB when they came to Seattle and played the Fabulous Rainbow Tavern. The show was amazing. I remember besides all the great songs from their first album, that they played the 'Theme From S.W.A.T.' too, with Jonathan playing the melody on a tiny Casio. Their songwriting and production skills started at great, and got even better with 'Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart' and 'Key Lime Pie.' When I saw them in Portland a few years ago the spark was still there -- a fantastic show."
- Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5, R.E.M., Baseball Project, etc.)

"The only band i know that can mix elements as diverse as folk, punk, gypsy music, ska, and psychedelic rock together into a wonderful stew, and make it sound completely natural."
- Andrew Rieger (Elf Power)

"Camper Van Beethoven are giants. I've been in love with the band since I first heard them. Like Tom Waits only different, they put an original spin on every kind of rebel music there is. All their records are great. Dig it."
- Peter David Case (The Plimsouls, The Nerves)

Skiffle and The Piffles - "Just Because It's Christmas" music video

From 'Festivus' on Highline Records: