A few years back, Sufjan Stevens declared he was going to make fifty albums, all based on the fifty States of the USA. He promptly released 2003's Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State and 2005's legendary Illinois, and with an entire forty-eight records and States left, the man fell silent, instead working on and releasing this years The BQE, an album based on and inspired by the Brook...
Let’s start with a quote from Paste Magazine.“The whole premise was such a joke… and I think maybe I took it too seriously. I started to feel like I was becoming a cliché of myself.”That’s Sufjan Stevens on his 50 Albums/50 States project. It’s also Sufjan continuing his More >
Paste Magazine has published their list of the 50 Best Albums of the Decade (2000-2009) as voted by dozens of music critics.Leading the pack was Sufjan Steven's 2005 album Illinois followed by Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Arcade Fire's Funeral. You have to go all the way down to number 28 before you find the first album by an artist who has been recording for 25 years or more, Paul Westerb...
To coincide with the official release date of his multimedia project "The BQE", the album has been made available to stream on NME.com. Unfortunately for those of us that live outside of the UK, will only be able to stream 30-second clips of the tracks. You can stream the...Click the link to read more
The BQE is, arguably, Sufjans Stevens' most adventuraous projects to date. Not only does it involve a sensoral feast in the form of elaborately edited film imager, but it also includes an equally impressive and symphonic soundtrack. Later this month, Stevens will be presenting the film live in a limited NY engagement. The film itself will be released in a couple of different packaging option...
Photo via Trust Me On ThisA little over four years ago, I saw Sufjan Stevens perform at the Bowery Ballroom in New York the day after I moved to the city. It was certainly a different time then -- a little album called Illinois was still several weeks away from release, and Stevens treated a five night run at the Bowery as a rehearsal. Many of the things he'd come to be criticized for, like t...
Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Sufjan Stevens earned his most notable success through 2005's Illinois album. The 22-song ode to the Prairie State launched both Stevens and his "50 States Project" into the public eye. In 2006, he followed it up with The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album and a 5-disc box set of [...]
I rediscovered Seven Swans this week. The album is a beautiful collection of songs with Sufjan’s seemingly autobiographical, go-to themes of love and religion. However, the track which shares the record’s namesake is a step above every other track on the album.The track moves its way through its first half with the same delicate banjo [...]
On Saturday night, Sufjan Stevens returned to the site of his BQE suite -- the Brooklyn Academy of Music -- for the latest installment in the BAM Takeover series. Suf was listed only as event curator, selecting rising composer Nico Muhly and St. Vincent among others to regale an audience comprised of, as some attendees told me, "drunken hipsters." Sounds about right. My friend Kathryn twittered...
I rediscovered Seven Swans this week. The album is a beautiful collection of songs with Sufjan’s seemingly autobiographical, go-to themes of love and religion. However, the track which shares the record’s namesake is a step above every other track on the album.The track moves its way through its first half with the same delicate banjo [...]
Did you see the moon Friday night? It was the biggest, brightest full moon of the year. It was low in the sky as I was driving home from work and it was marvelously radiant. Kind of like how you'd picture it in The Night Before Christmas when it says: "the moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow gave the luster of mid-day to objects below."Sufjan Stevens --"The First Full Moon" mp3 off...
Aaron and Bryce Dessner of the National curated this amazing new compilation to benefit Red Hot, an organization to prevent AIDs. The compilation has everyone from the Arcade Fire and Decemberists to Kevin Drew and Grizzly Bear. I've heard the Feist Grizzly Bear team-up (it's awesome!) and can't wait to hear the rest. It'll [...]
Photo via Trust Me On ThisA little over four years ago, I saw Sufjan Stevens perform at the Bowery Ballroom in New York the day after I moved to the city. It was certainly a different time then -- a little album called Illinois was still several weeks away from release, and Stevens treated a five night run at the Bowery as a rehearsal. Many of the things he'd come to be criticized for, like t...