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Blog Archives

June 2011

David Kilgour & the Heavy Eights perform “Left by Soft” live in New Zealand

David shares some details about the video and his one-of-a-kind guitar:

“We were playing at the Empire in Dunedin, an old bar that only holds abut 140 people and was made famous by the old Dunedin Sound-ers. The guitar I’m playing is a hybrid—the neck is off an oldish Epiphone acoustic, and the body was made by a guitar dude called Rob Scott. One weird thing about it is that the pickups sit on rails, so I can move them to whatever position/sound I want. It has the sound of mountains collapsing, especially at volume.”

Left by Soft is available on CD and digital download in the Merge store.

David Kilgour & Richard Buckner on tour:

Aug 16 Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg Theater
Aug 17 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Aug 19 Portland, OR – Bunk Bar
Aug 20 Seattle, WA – The Triple Door
Aug 23 Atlanta, GA – Smith’s Olde Bar
Aug 24 Chapel Hill, NC – The ArtsCenter
Aug 25 Arlington, VA – IOTA Club & Café
Aug 27 Brooklyn, NY – The Bell House
Aug 28 Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall

Let’s Wrestle’s Wesley Patrick Gonzalez unveils art blog!

Let’s Wrestle frontman Wesley Patrick Gonzalez has shown his prowess on the art front by the witty and unusual album and single artwork for the bands’ releases as well as Home, the original comic book he created for the release of their new album Nursing Home.

Gonzalez has now created a website to collect and showcase all of his drawings and paintings. Visit WesleyPatrickGonzalez.tumblr.com now to check it out!

Watch Let’s Wrestle’s latest video for “In Dreams Part II” and find their new album Nursing Home on CD, LP and digital download in the Merge store.

Archers of Loaf “Harnessed in Slums” & “Wrong” on Jimmy Fallon!

Dinosaur Jr. live from the “Bug” Tour

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Read the live review of last night’s Dinosaur Jr. show at Terminal 5 at the Village Voice’s Sound of the City blog & see the setlist and great photos at BrooklynVegan. Details on our Dinosaur Jr. Bug contest can be found at Jay’s Corner.

Bug is available along with reissues of Dinosaur and You’re Living All Over Me on CD and digital download now in the Merge store.

Dinosaur Jr. Bug tour dates:
Jun 24 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
Jun 25 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Jun 26 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
Jun 27 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle

Pre-order Richard Buckner’s ‘Our Blood’ & receive a bumper sticker!

Richard Buckner‘s long-awaited new album Our Blood will be in stores on August 2. Pre-order Our Blood now on CD or LP in the Merge store to receive a limited-edition “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Richard Buckner” bumper sticker!

Be the envy of your friends and all who drive behind you with this pledge of support to our favorite road warrior, Richard Buckner.

Richard Buckner premiered “Escape” from Our Blood and talked about the making of the new record on IFC.com. Listen and read here.

Richard Buckner on tour:
July 29 Chicago, IL Schuba’s
July 30 Milwaukee, WI WMSE 3rd Annual Radio Summer Camp
July 31 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock Social Club

Amor de Días – “Wild Winter Trees”

Street of the Love of Days is available now on CD, LP and digital download in the Merge store.

SIGNED DINOSAUR JR LP JACKETS / New in the Merge Web Store

Merge's dynamic customer service duoGreetings internet,

Please consider this your first update from Jay and Madonna in the Merge Records basement! We’re happy to be serving you wonderful people.

First things first: to celebrate Dinosaur Jr’s Bug tour, we’re giving away five signed, Bug LP jackets. Comment on this post with your favorite song from the album or your favorite Dinosaur Jr show moment and retweet this blog post with the hashtag #mergebuggiveaway to win! Five winners will be chosen by a panel of experts and contacted by 6/30 when the tour is over.

In addition to the Wild Flag preorder that just went live (oh lawd there are so many of you people that want this album), we’ve got Stephin Merritt’s Obscurities (also, 69 Love Songs, its 33 1/3 book, and the Strange Powers documentary about Stephin himself), an Archers of Loaf re-issue of Icky Mettle, from Arcade Fire, The Suburbs Deluxe, and a brand new full-length record from long time Merger, Richard Buckner. Our Blood is the first time he’s ever released vinyl!

Just because a band has graduated from Merge doesn’t mean that we’re not interested in helping them sell more records; we’ve got The Cakekitchen’s Kangaroos in my Top Paddock LPs for sale, but only a few (less than 10). Merge staffers have snapped the first few of these up, so get yours from us before we don’t have any more!

In case you missed them…we’ve got wonderfully soft and lightweight Merge Records tee shirts back in stock, in light blue. Printed on 50/50 Royal Apparel heather tees, these will keep you cool in more ways than one this summer. Be sure to admire Reed, our model / intern.

That’s gonna wrap it up!

~Jay & Madonna, your Merge Records Web store customer service team. Keepers of the flame.

The Rosebuds “Woods” video & interview!

Directed by Steve Choo, who also directed the title track from 2007′s Life Like, “Woods” premiered on Pitchfork today! Kelly & Ivan are currently on the road in support of Loud Planes Fly Low, and recently chatted with Lingua Musica.

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The Rosebuds on tour:
$ with Other Lives
# with Bon Iver
Jun 17 Oxford MS Proud Larry’s $
Jun 18 Birmingham AL The Bottletree $
Jun 19 Little Rock AR Sticky Fingerz Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicken Shack $
Jun 21 Baton Rouge LA Spanish Moon $
Jun 23 Dallas TX Club DaDa $
Jun 24 Austin TX The Parish $
Jun 25 Houston TX Fitzgerald’s Downstairs $
Jun 28 Santa Fe NM Santa Fe Brewing Company $
Jun 29 Tucson AZ Solar Culture $
Jun 30 San Diego CA The Casbah $
Jul 1 Los Angeles CA The Satellite $
Jul 2 Visalia CA Cellar Door $
Jul 5 Santa Barbara CA SoHo Music Club $
Jul 6 San Francisco CA The Independent $
Jul 8 Portland OR Mississippi Studios $
Jul 9 Seattle WA Tractor Tavern $
Jul 10 Bellingham WA The Shakedown $
Jul 12 Vancouver Media Club $
Jul 14 Boise ID The Neurolux $
Jul 15 Salt Lake City UT Urban Lounge $
Jul 16 Denver CO Hi-Dive $
Jul 19 Minneapolis MN 7th Street Entry $
Jul 20 Eau Claire WI House of Rock $
Jul 21 Madison WI UW Union Terrace $
Jul 22 Milwaukee WI Riverside Theater #
Jul 23 Milwaukee WI Riverside Theater #
Jul 24 Chicago IL Chicago Theatre #
Jul 25 Indianapolis IN Murat Theatre #
Jul 27 Nashville TN Ryman Auditorium #
Jul 28 Atlanta GA Cobb Energy PAC #
Jul 29 Raleigh NC Raleigh Amphitheater #
Jul 30 Richmond VA The National #
Aug 1 Washington DC 9:30 Club #
Aug 2 Washington DC 9:30 Club #
Aug 3 Upper Darby PA Tower Theatre #
Aug 5 Boston MA House of Blues #
Aug 6 Holyoke MA Mountain Park #
Aug 8 Toronto ON The Sound Academy #
Aug 9 New York NY United Palace Theatre #
Aug 10 Brooklyn NY Celebrate Brooklyn! #

Wild Flag “Romance” to debut on WFMU Saturday, June 18!

On Saturday, June 18, Terre T and WFMU will debut the first track from Wild Flag’s self-titled debut album! Tune in to the Cherry Blossom Clinic on WFMU between 3-6pm Eastern to hear the worldwide premiere of “Romance” in its entirety.

You can listen to the Cherry Blossom Clinic live online at WFMU.org or the show’s archive at any point after Saturday at 3pm. If you’re in the New York area, you can listen on the radio at 91.1FM, and at 90.1FM in the Hudson Valley.

Wild Flag is available for pre-order in the Merge Store now on CD & LP.

Arcade Fire perform new arrangements of “We Used to Wait” and “Sprawl II” on Sound Opinions

 

Sound Opinions will air the full acoustic session from Arcade Fire beginning tomorrow. Visit SoundOpinions.org for more information.

The Suburbs Deluxe is available for preorder on CD + DVD in the Merge store, and The Suburbs is available now on CD, LP and digital download.

Eleanor Friedberger “My Mistakes” video

Last Summer is available for pre-order in the Merge Store now!

Pre-order Eleanor Friedberger’s “Last Summer” in the Merge store and get a notepad!

Eleanor Friedberger is not just the enigmatic mouthpiece of The Fiery Furnaces, one of music’s most interesting, dynamic and constantly exciting bands. In fact, Eleanor Friedberger is an exceptional songwriter herself, playing a variety of instruments and crafting the very sorts of choruses that made you fall in love with The Fiery Furnaces in the first place. She’s a lover of Led Zeppelin and Jorge Ben; she’s a fearless performer, as comfortable fronting a band as she is playing alone on a stage with an acoustic guitar; and she’s one of the sweetest alto voices in music.

Nowhere is all of this more apparent than on her very first solo album, Last Summer, out on Merge Records on July 12, 2011.

Pre-order Last Summer on CD or LP now in the Merge store to receive a limited “From the Desk of Eleanor Friedberger” notepad!

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