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Blog | Julian Koster

Win a Merge Holiday SuperBundle + The Singing Saw at Christmastime

December 17, 2012 – 12:29 pm

To kick off the last week of the year here at Merge HQ, we are giving away a Merge Holiday SuperBundle as well as a CD of Julian Koster’s The Singing Saw at Christmastime. To enter, send us a photo of your favorite holiday scene via Instagram (@MergeRecords) or email (merge@mergerecords.com). We’ll choose the winner on Friday, December 21st.

The Giveaway includes:
- Your choice of a CD or LP of She & Him’s A Very She & Him Christmas
- Your choice of a CD or LP of Tracey Thorn’s Tinsel and Lights
- a CD of Julian Koster’s The Singing Saw at Christmastime
- a She & Him floaty pen
- a set of five beautiful Tinsel and Lights notecards

Be sure to visit the Merge Holiday Store for our biggest sale of the year! Enter MERGEHOLIDAYS at checkout for 10% off all orders over $50—CDs, LPs, digital downloads, and Merge gear! All orders of $100 or more will receive a free Merge tote bag designed by Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner with help from Vic Chesnutt. Also, buy three or more LPs or preorder any of our 2013 releases on LP and receive a free Merge slipmat for your turntable!

All orders placed after 10 a.m. on December 21 will not ship until January 7, 2013. Pre-orders will ship to arrive on or around release date.

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The Music Tapes announce the first shows of “The Traveling Imaginary”

November 20, 2012 – 6:13 pm

In support of their new album, Mary’s Voice, The Music Tapes (Julian Koster, Robbie Cucchiaro, 7-Foot-Tall Metronome, a legion of singing saws, and friends) are embarking on a unique US tour. The band will be visiting towns and cities across the country as The Traveling Imaginary. They will pitch the circus tent home built especially for this tour and host an evening of songs, stories, games, movies, magic, amusements, and more.

The tent, which was funded by The Music Tapes’ wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, has been a longtime dream of Julian’s. On entering the completed structure for the very first time, he said, “If you made a circus tent out of blankets in your room when you were a little kid and then fell asleep, it’s like the dream you would have.”

The Music Tapes have announced the inaugural dates of The Traveling Imaginary, and would like you to invite them to visit your town!

To bring the Traveling Imaginary to YOUR art gallery, community center, warehouse, university, museum, performing arts center, studio space, loft, library, church, or barn this coming February and March, write TravelingImaginary@gmail.com for details. The show requires a clear interior space at least 26’ x 38’, with ceilings 10-feet or higher. Also, if you would like to volunteer for the traveling tent pitching crew please write Imaginarytentcrew@gmail.com for details.

The Music Tapes have a long history of hosting surreal tours since first emerging as part of the influential Elephant 6 Collective – including the annual Caroling and Lullaby tours that have brought them into over 500 homes across the country. The Traveling Imaginary is an extension of those shows on a more ambitious scale than anything The Music Tapes has ever done.

Watch the official trailer for The Traveling Imaginary

Mary’s Voice is available on CD, limited-edition pop-up LP and digital now in the Merge store. Also, just in time for the holidays, get Julian Koster’s The Singing Saw at Christmastime at a new special low price!

The Music Tapes Present: The Traveling Imaginary dates (more coming soon!):
Jan 23 Winston-Salem, NC  Krankies Coffee
Jan 25 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club (2 Shows This Night)
Jan 28 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle (2 Shows This Night)
Jan 29 Durham, NC Duke Coffeehouse
Jan 31 Washington, DC Rock & Roll Hotel
Feb 02 New York, NY Church For All Nations (2 Shows This Night)
Feb 04 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church – Basement

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The Music Tapes return with Mary’s Voice

June 14, 2012 – 1:49 pm

On September 4, The Music Tapes will release Mary’s Voice.

Mary’s Voice, The Music Tapes’ third full-length album, is the warmest and most accessible invitation yet into Julian Koster’s world—the culmination of a vision he has been realizing for over a decade.

That vision began taking shape in the ’90s, during which time Koster also became a key member of Neutral Milk Hotel and a contributor to The Olivia Tremor Control and other legendary members of the enormously influential Elephant 6 Collective. Since then, Koster (along with long-time collaborator Robbie Cucchiaro on horns) has pushed the boundaries of what audiences have come to expect from an “indie rock” band—staging unique caroling and lullaby tours, performing alongside mechanical contraptions like the 7-Foot-Tall Metronome, and displaying virtuosity on both the singing saw and orchestral banjo.

Mary’s Voice, the follow-up to 2008’s acclaimed Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes, is part one of a planned two-part album and inaugurates a newly active phase in The Music Tapes’ evolution—with plans to tour the world in a circus tent later this year and an NPR radio serial in the works. Recorded with The Music Tapes’ signature method of using recording machines of both past (early 1900s, ’30s, ’40s, ’60s) and present to achieve a timeless sound, the album is, in Koster’s own words, “a holiday from what is so often mistakenly called the ‘real world’… In music, time can disappear the way it does in long summer evenings when we’re allowed to go out and play as kids, or afterwards, when exhausted, we dream.”

Mary’s Voice track listing:

1.  The Dark Is Singing Songs (Sleepy Time Down South)
2.  Saw and Calliope Organ on Wire
3.  S’ Alive (Pt. 1)
4.  The Big Beautiful Shops (It’s Said That It Could Be Anyone)
5.  Spare the Dark Streets
6.  To All Who Say Goodnight
7.  Kolyada #3
8.  Playing “Evening”
9.  Go Home Again
10.  S’ Alive to Be Known (May We Starve)
11.  Untitled
12.  Takeshi and Elijah

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Julian Koster carols at NPR’s Tiny Desk

December 20, 2011 – 12:50 pm

Julian Koster created The Singing Saw at Christmastime in 2008 to share the carols of the Singing Saw with us, and this year NPR Music has invited Julian to their Tiny Desk for a special presentation. Watch the set at NPR Music now.

Bob Boilen writes:
Somewhere inside the body of Julian Koster — the Elephant 6 and Neutral Milk Hotel alumnus who once released an entire album of Christmas songs performed on a singing saw — lives a 13-year-old boy filled with wonder, imagination and a talent for spinning a good, quirky tale. Just in time for the holidays, and with the season in mind, Koster and his friends brought those wide-eyed songs and earnest spirit to the NPR Music offices for a joyful and strange Tiny Desk Concert performance.

Collectively known as The Music Tapes, they mixed bowed banjos and singing saws with tape machines, a chord organ and a crooning snowman to create a psychedelic holiday music pageant. Whether it’s the traditional “The First Noel” (scored here for two musical saws) or a reworking of Gavin Bryars’ avant garde piece “Jesus Blood,” or even their venture into Santa songs, there’s no one else playing holiday music quite like this. That is, unless you’re a band of 13-year-olds with very vivid imaginations.

Order The Singing Saw at Christmastime on CD, LP or digital download in the Merge Holiday store now. Orders over $50 save 10% through the end of December.

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Julian Koster announces 2011 Holiday Caroling route

November 29, 2011 – 2:35 pm

Since the release of the 2008 instant holiday classic The Singing Saw at Christmastime, Julian Koster and his singing saws have toured the country spreading holiday cheer to the over 450 homes to which they had been invited. We now have this year’s list of cities and proposed dates which begin tomorrow so get your invitations in now!

Several houses a night will be visited in each city. Houses welcoming outside guests in each area will be listed via email auto-reply two nights prior to the Music Tapes arrival. Write musictapescaroling2011@gmail.com to receive open house list or to make a last minute caroling invitation. Routes are only projected and may change so check often!

The Singing Saw at Christmastime is available now on CD, LP and digital download in the Merge Holiday store.

2011 Holiday Caroling tour:
NOV 30   Virginia
DEC 1     Raleigh/Chapel Hill, NC area
DEC 2     Charlotte, NC area
DEC 3     Athens, GA
DEC 4    Raleigh/Chapel Hill, NC area
DEC 5    NE Virginia/Washington DC area
DEC 6    Washington, DC
DEC 7    Eastern PA/Philadelphia, PA
Dec 8     Philadelphia/NYC
Dec 9     NYC
Dec 10   Upstate NY/Massachusetts
Dec 11   Rhode Island/Massachusetts/New England
Dec 12  Upstate NY/New England

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Merge presents our free Winter Sampler

November 21, 2011 – 6:00 pm

Stream and download the new Merge 2011-2012 free Winter Sampler now.

We have put together a collection of songs from late 2011 and a few glimpses of what is to come in 2012. Available as a stream and a download, our winter sampler will help you catch up on releases you might have missed, and alert you to what you should be pre-ordering now. Our 2011 holiday store will launch tomorrow, so listen now and prepare to take advantage of all of the great deals we have designed for you this year!

Merge 2011-2012 Winter Sampler
Hospitality – “Betty Wang”
Richard Buckner – “Traitor”
Lambchop – “If Not I’ll Just Die”
Crooked Fingers – “Bad Blood”
Superchunk – “Driveway to Driveway”
The Mountain Goats – “Estate Sale Sign”
Eleanor Friedberger – “My Mistakes”
Imperial Teen – “Runaway”
Archers of Loaf  – “Harnessed In Slums”
Wild Flag – “Romance”
Stephin Merritt – “Rot in the Sun”
The Rosebuds – “Go Ahead”

We have also included streams of songs from our two holiday albums: Julian Koster‘s The Singing Saw at Christmastime and She & Him‘s A Very She & Him Christmas.

Enjoy our new sampler and visit the Merge store for more from all of these artists!

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Julian Koster announces 2011 Caroling dates & releases new video from the Music Tapes

November 9, 2011 – 11:36 am

Since the release of the 2008 instant holiday classic The Singing Saw at Christmastime, Julian Koster and his singing saws have toured the country spreading holiday cheer to the over 450 homes to which they had been invited. Today, he has announced the dates and proposed route of his 6th Caroling excursion. Julian and his ambassadors will accept invitations to carol at homes along the east coast of the US and Canada from November 28 to December 12.

Sharing his excitement that his caroling trips have now become a grand tradition, Julian said, “We’d surely like to thank everybody for the extraordinarily magical times and adventures, and wonderful welcomes, and to thank you all for making them happen! As well as our selfless volunteer Caroling Ambassadors!”

They will choose a path visiting as many of the places possible along the east coast of the US and Canada between November 28 and December 12 from which come the warmest invitations. The final list of dates and path of the Caroling will be announced just prior to the commencement of the tour.

For more information about sending an invitation to host an evening of carols, games, stories and other holiday magic, email musictapescaroling2011@gmail.com.

Along with this announcement of a new caroling tour, we also have a new video from the Music Tapes to share! Set to the song “Nantasket” from the recently released digital EP “Purim’s Shadows (The Dark Tours the World),” the video showcases the Paragon Carousel as well as Julian’s whimsical drawings and footage of people having fun which is what the Music Tapes is all about!

Julian Koster’s The Singing Saw at Christmastime is available on CD, LP and digital download in the Merge store as well as the Music Tapes’ “Purim’s Shadows (The Dark Tours the World)” and the rest of the Music Tapes’ catalog.

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Julian Koster of the Music Tapes plays the Chicago streets

September 14, 2011 – 5:48 pm

Purim’s Shadows, the new digital EP from The Music Tapes, is available now in the Merge store and from all your favorite digital outlets. The kazoos have sold out in our store, but Julian will have some on tour with him. Stop by the merch table to pick one up!

The Music Tapes on tour:
All dates with The Olivia Tremor Control
Sep 14 Columbus, OH – Wexner Center for the Arts
Sep 15 Pittsburgh, PA – The Warhol at New Hazlett Theater
Sep 16 Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
Sep 17 Montréal, QC – Il Motore
Sep 19 Allston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
Sep 21 New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
Sep 23 Philadelphia, PA – UPenn Rotunda (SPEC Jazz & Grooves’ Fall Concert)

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The Music Tapes on tour with The Olivia Tremor Control!

August 29, 2011 – 11:09 am

The Music Tapes are currently opening for The Olivia Tremor Control! Don’t miss the live full-band Music Tapes experience!

Purim’s Shadows, the new digital EP from The Music Tapes, is available now in the Merge store and from all your favorite digital outlets. The kazoos have sold out in our store, but Julian will have some on tour with him. Stop by the merch table to pick one up!

The Music Tapes on tour:
All dates with The Olivia Tremor Control
Aug 31 Austin, TX – Mohawk
Sep 05 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Sep 08 Seattle, WA – The Vera Project
Sep 09 Portland, OR – MFNW – Someday Lounge
Sep 12 Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater
Sep 13 Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
Sep 14 Columbus, OH – Wexner Center for the Arts
Sep 15 Pittsburgh, PA – The Warhol at New Hazlett Theater
Sep 16 Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
Sep 17 Montréal, QC – Il Motore
Sep 19 Allston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
Sep 21 New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
Sep 23 Philadelphia, PA – UPenn Rotunda (SPEC Jazz & Grooves’ Fall Concert)

 

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The Music Tapes release Purim’s Shadows EP & limited-edition kazoo today!

June 14, 2011 – 10:36 am

Today, The Music Tapes’ new digital EP Purim’s Shadows is available in the Merge store and from all your favorite digital outlets. Also, exclusively in the Merge store, the Purim’s Shadows EP comes with a special limited-edition Music Tapes kazoo, a bonus track, and a special surprise from Julian Koster himself.

Julian shared some thoughts about Purim’s Shadows and The Music Tapes with us:

Purim’s Shadows is a very small entrance into a vast landscape that is both auditory and imaginary and from which will come two full-length albums that I’m very excited about. The first will be Mary’s Voice, which we are finishing up now and will comprise the first half of Imaginary Symphony No. 3.

The Music Tapes, to me, is a sort of living dream that illustrates the continual process of how dreams become real. For example, when the 7-Foot-Tall Metronome sprang from my imagination, it was to be The Music Tapes’ primary rhythm instrument, and although it existed only as a drawing in a notebook, imagining it delighted and inspired me. My friends (Scott Spillane, Terry Rowlette, Robbie Cucchiaro, Laura Carter, Eric Harris, and others) saw the drawing and, in a flurry of excited activity, made it real. And thus the real world became different: it had a 7-foot-tall metronome in it.

Many of the basic tenants of The Music Tapes’ world are found on Purim’s Shadows, including the 7-Foot-Tall Metronome which provides the primary rhythm for “A Lightning’s Cheeks.” Also featured are the Orchestral Banjo and the Singing Saws. The Orchestral Banjo is played with a violin bow, producing a sound that I love very much; it’s like having at your command ghostly orchestras from crackly old records. And Saws, of course, sound to me like angels. This recording marks the first time a Singing Saw solo was encouraged (played) by someone other than me on a Music Tapes record: the solo at the end of “Night and Day” is the work of Ian Ludders, a great encourager of Saws, and I am honored to have had him play with us. Robbie Cucchiaro, The Music Tapes’ co-founding member, supplied horns and his signature euphonium. And finally, the most important contributors to this recording, and central to The Music Tapes’ sound, are the Webster Chicago wire recorder, RCA DX44 ribbon mic, and The Music Tapes’ array of antique and modern recording machinery and field recorders.

Without state-of-the-art machinery, The Music Tapes’ recordings would be next to impossible. But, of course, the past is where the future comes from. What often makes something new is not a loyal adherence to the trends and technologies of the moment but rather a loving interaction with the rich inheritance that makes our moment in time the most unique of all. All that has come before us has been left for us to find, dusty and often without any context to distract from its pure magic. It is my happiness to endeavor to make brand-new sorts of things in which all that I love most about the world will have a home, just as my friends meaningfully and lovingly set out to make a 7-foot-tall metronome exist, giving their love and friendship a large, loud wooden form that can march forward in time.

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The Music Tapes visit the AV Club’s Holiday Undercover!

January 4, 2011 – 6:57 pm

In case you missed this over the holidays, Julian & friends visited the round room at The Onion AV Club offices in Chicago and played “Let it Snow” and “‘Zat You, Santa Claus?” Pretty awesome!
The Music Tapes cover “Let It Snow”/”Zat You, Santa Claus?”

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The Music Tapes announce Lullabye tour dates & towns!

October 28, 2010 – 4:30 pm

This November and December, The Music Tapes will be bringing a comforting, enchanting, and very special evening of Music Tapes’ dreamlike songs, stories and games for sleepover parties to ordinary homes across the land (US and Canada).  The Music Tapes are now accepting invitations, and plan to visit over 200 homes! As with the Music Tapes’ caroling and lullaby travels of years past, they will stop at several houses a night in each city visiting also far off out of the way places most tours never get to go.

The Lullaby evenings with include songs from the Music Tapes forthcoming 2011 record, as well as from Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes, The 1st Imaginary Symphony for Nomad, and The Singing Saw at Christmastime, along with new Music Tapes games and stories. The entertainment, though sometimes more exciting than lulling, are all in honor of the comforting moments directly preceding and following sleep when we find ourselves happily unsure of whether we are awake or are dreaming.

For more information and to find out where the tour is stopping in your town, write lullabyedeliveries@gmail.com to receive an automatic reply and as always visit The Music Tapes’ online home at orbitinghumancircus.com. Dates may shift around a little bit, so be sure to check the website and email often.

Also, the St.Nikolai Game will be played in select cities at a location to be revealed via the email autoreply. All who wish to play must bring a candle 10 or 12 inches tall!

Lullabye tour path:

November 4th: Nashville, TN
November 5th: Mountain Home, AR
November 6th: Memphis, TN
November 7th: Baton Rouge, LA
November 8th: Houston, TX
November 10th: Austin, TX
November 11th: Austin, TX (St. Nikolai Game)
November 12th: Dallas & Denton, TX
November 13th: West Texas
November 14th: Albuquerque & Santa Fe, NM
November 15th: Flagstaff, AZ
November 16th: Phoenix, AZ
November 18th: Los Angeles, CA
November 19th: Los Angeles, CA (St. Nikolai Game)
November 20th: Wrightwood, CA (and area)
November 21st: San Francisco, CA
November 22nd: San Francisco, CA
November 23rd: Davis, CA
November 24th: Chico, CA and Eugene, OR
November 25th: Portland, OR
November 26th: Portland, OR (St. Nikolai Game)
November 27th: Olympia, WA
November 28th: Seattle, WA
November 29th: Idaho / Montana
November 30th: Utah / Wyoming
December 1st: Denver, CO
December 2nd: Columbus, NB
December 3rd: Omaha, NB
December 4th: Minneapolis, MN
December 5th: Maquoketa, IA
December 6th: Chicago, IL
December 7th: Chicago, IL (St. Nikolai Game)
December 8th: Cleveland, OH
December 9th: Buffalo, NY (area)
December 10th: Rochester, NY
December 11th: Ithaca, NY
December 12th: Syracuse, NY
December 13th: Northampton & Amherst, MA
December 14th: Williamstown, MA
December 15th: Tivoli, NY
December 16th: Poughkeepsie, NY
December 17th: Marlborough, NY
December 18th: Philadelphia, PA
December 19th: NYC
December 20th: NYC
December 21st: Worcester, MA
December 29th: Winterport, ME
December 30th: Brattleboro & Saxtons River, VT
December 31st: Henniker, NH
January 1st: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
January 2nd: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
January 3rd: Detroit, MI & environs
January 4th: Bloomington / Indianapolis, IN
January 5th: Pittsburgh, PA
January 6th: Baltimore, MD
January 7th: Washington, DC
January 8th: Richmond, VA
January 9th: Raleigh, NC
January 10th: Asheville, NC
January 11th: Atlanta, GA
January 13th: Athens, GA
January 14th: Athens, GA
January 15th: Athens, GA

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