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Tiger Friends welcomes MOUNT SHOUT! We are excited to add Kristina Esfandiari and her incredible music to our offerings.
and Congratulations to LORI ANNA REID on her wedding! We look forward to her further work on her upcoming recording after the nuptual festivities ensue.
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ALAK
'ALAK' began in 2005 as the solo project of Jocelyn Noir originally under the moniker 'Alas, alak, Alaska!'. The project was based out of the forests of Pollock Pines in Northern California until 2007 when Jocelyn moved to Sacramento and new members joined, inclduding Jeannie Masterflash who has been the only other original member besides Jocelyn since then (the line-up has also included Genaro Ulloa of 'Sister Crayon', Elisabeth Wood of 'FANCIE', and Daniel Trudeau of 'Pregnant'). The band has toured nationally twice (sharing the bill with Adrian Orange, Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors), Stephen Steinbrink, Agent Ribbons, and What's Up), won a Sacramento SAMMIES 'Best Experimental Band' award in 2008 and was nominated again the next year, sharing the category with Pregnant, Dead Western, Art Lessing and The Flower Vato, The Ganglians and M.O.M. The latest and first actual full-length record 'Clarinettis Qoonotations: Too Many Notes; fucking preternatural and the golden weave of g-nashing teeth' was released on Kaleidoscope Records (UK) in the spring of 2009.
The sound has been described in many ways, Lauren Strain in the June 2009 issue of Plan B Magazine's interview with Jocelyn Noir described it as: " Sinister and vulnerable and unrepentant, Alak's notes are good and bad karma, pluck and luck and despair... a conspiratorial meeting of your inner voices in broad nightlight." It's definitely a project that conjures different emotions from each individual listener, which is the way the band likes it. There are upcoming releases in the works (including a split with Stephen Steinbrink on Gilgongo Records) and a new record 'GROUPS' set for release in 2010.
BRIANNA LEA PRUETT
Born and raised in Northern California, and a singer from her earliest days, Brianna's childhood musical education was
eclectic and varied, including music such as
The Chieftans, Emmylou Harris, Doc and Merle Watson, Bonnie Raitt, and Tom Waits, as well as a strong classical background.
Exposed to a wide selection of eighties rock and pop music through the music of U2, Sinead O Connor, Rush, Duran Duran, R.E.M., Siouxie and the Banshees, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, and Daniel Lanois, Brianna intertwined these various influences with folk songs from dust-bowl era Oklahoma, passed down through generations of migrant workers, sharecroppers, and porch singers.
During her teens Brianna published her original writing and poetry and sang both jazz and original material and performed poetry.
After her move to Los Angeles at 19 in 2002 she wrote her first record, Natural Fact, and worked with singer, lyricist and songwriter Jacob Golden, recording the album in his Portland home where he continued to produce and master the record following her return to L.A. After a move to Portland, Oregon, her second effort, Winter Apple, was written and recorded with percussionist and vocalist Gavin Bowes.
Pruett returned to Sacramento in 2005, continuing as ever to write songs, and played regularly up and down the west coast, sharing quiet stages with Jonah Matranga of Far and Gratitude, Jacob Golden, Sean Hayashi, Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon and Red House Painters, Two Sheds, Ruebi Lynn, Nick Jaina, Coal Beautiere, Karl Blau, Lady Lazarus, and others.
Most recently she is excited to have contributed support for Newfoundland -turned-Parisian singer Lori Anna Reid's upcoming record, tentatively titled The Tangled Garden. She is also co-producing and recording California based ALAK's upcoming release, Groups, and working on an album of old old Blues material.
Brianna is preparing to release her third record, The Stars, the Moon, the Owl, the Cougar, and You, recorded and produced by herself and Erik Woodard. She has begun the study of native american flute with 2-time Grammy award winning musician Mary Youngblood. She is looking forward to bringing her Cherokee heritage more into the spotlight with her work in the future.
Christina Antipa was a classical oboist who studied and performed in various groups and settings throughout California. She had a passion for classic rock, folk, pop, and experimental music, and before long had transferred her energy to guitar and songwriting, coming out with her first album in 2003. The album was a starkly simple collection of low-fi 4-track recordings entitled Goodbye Different Oceans, and was later picked up for distribution by french label Waterhouse Records.
Christina Antipa relocated to Seattle, Washington in 2004, and came out with her second album, Everything Starts to Sing, in 2006. This album was also a self-recorded, low-fidelity, experimental work, and was created during one dreary Seattle winter when the singer was experiencing a bout of what she explains as "mind-numbing seasonal depression, unemployment, romantic disillusionment and general malaise". It's no wonder that fans have referred to Antipa's music as "sad-core". Everything Starts To Sing is distributed by Bicycle Records.
Christina Antipa's third album, The Royal We, was her first excursion into the world of digital recording, and the contrast between The Royal We and earlier albums is audible. Antipa invited a number of talented guest musicians and friends from the Seattle area to participate musically in the recording process, as a way of commemorating her final northwestern album before returning to her home state of California at the end of 2009. The Royal We was a very interesting experimental work. It still featured Antipa's trademark mellifluous, island of the lotus-eaters vocal sonority, but the segue into digital recording meant that some songs were plain, traditional folk, while others were modern, electronic concoctions. The rest fell into a pleasantly original intersection in between, and lent a startlingly eclectic quality to the album as a whole.
When asked to describe her "genre", Antipa says, "I remember letting a friend (another musician) listen to some tapes I made back in 1999. 'Wow, this is really great,' he said. 'You should sell it with a package of razor blades or something so your audience can kill themselves after listening to it.'"
Christina Antipa will tour the United States and Europe in the coming year, while simultaneously cultivating a new name under which to release future recordings. Look for more dulcet, depressing anthems coming out under the title, "Songs For Animals".
COAL BEAUTIERE
If you would like our album Fight Your Broken Heart and Fly, it is available through CD Baby at this link
Currently we are working on a new album, In The Wake Of ESP, to be released this Halloween (sorry we know it's been pushed back like 10,000 times but we have been having a little TOO much fun)!.
We live in the mountains of California, and can feel the old rowdy ghosts of miners creeping through the streets at night. I try to write fragments of the heart of the Golden West into our songs. But I also write with my obsessions for all things weird and mysterious, magic, Louisiana swampness, swimming and runnin' through the wild, true love, and my total gratitude for being alive. I started playing piano at age 6, and through my teen years I performed in many musicals. But it took years to figure out the courage to get on the stage with MY OWN music and lyrics, it's the fucking scariest thing I ever did, but now I'm over it (or pretend to be).....Growing up I listened to all different kinds of music. And I still do. Basically, I just like MUSIC. I don't think one kind is way better than another. OK- maybe monster ballads and guitar solos and new wave songs from the 80's are actually radder than everything else. ....... but seriously, I am sick of musical isolation, where groups of people are completely narrowminded to any other kind of music but one or two. Yeah, not into that. Not into being super-cool hipster type....AT ALL. People are amazing. We need to be kind to each other. Very very kind. Art and I have played in Coal Beautiere since 2006. Then we got married. We met in Nevada City in 2004 and Art was completely encouraging of my scrappy ragtime-ish ghost jingles. I needed a hand on stage. Hence, our little duo was born.
Thanks for the true hearts who use kindness daily. Coal Beautiere (the name) has it's origins from a road trip to the truth of Lafayette, Louisiana and means "TREASURE ONLY WHAT IS REAL AND CAN WITHSTAND TIME". We know, despite the cynics, that we WILL change the world by increasing our love. Love conquers all. And so it goes.
On more important notes, some quotes by some smarty-pants people like-
Tom Waits:
Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.
Edward Abbey:
Our job is to record, each in his own way, this world of light and shadow and time that will never come again exactly as it is today.
Us nature mystics got to stick together.
A pessimist is simply an optimist in full possession of the facts.
There has never been a day in my life when I was not in love.
And Jack Kerouac: The only ones for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time.....
Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.
And by us, the infamous coal beautiere:
There's pretty much, like, NO good luck in life....it's all sweaty ass hard work that gets ye anywhere.
Make art that saves people from hopelessness and fear.
Grandparents had another think coming.
GO WATCH TIM AND ERIC on ADULT SWIM!
Treat others with honor and respect, all others, the earth, all life.
FREE CHOIR
Free Choir is a no-tryout, all-ages community choir based in Portland, OR, U.S.
The choir is a place to come together and sing without any pressure or fear around being "good at it". We rehearse, record and perform, and anyone of anyone can join us, regardless of their background with singing. Every voice is welcome in this group.
We sing mostly pop songs and have found treasure in the music of independent artists such as Coal Beautiere, Jonah Matranga, Brianna Lea Pruett and Jackpot. Occasionally, we do bust out a big hit or two. Just because John Fogerty is a genius.
The choir was born in 2007 out of the open curriculum of The Village Free School and this bunch of us love to sing together when we're not too busy sewing, skateboarding, dreaming, taking classes, drawing pictures of rain, or running the dang school!! The choir donates its proceeds from concerts and record sales to VFS, which is a 501(c)3 non-profit.
The Village Free School serves kids aged 5-18 and is one of a growing number of Free Schools in the world in which young people are free from an imposed, mandatory curriculum and are instead challenged organically to learn, live with others and come to know themselves. The central tenets of the school are trust, free choice, and a democratic process that gives everyone in the community a voice, whether they are 5 years old or 50.
Contact us for bookings, hellos or anything else at freechoir_gmail.com, or here at myspace.
Love,
Free Choir
p.s.
Free Choir does not officially represent The Village Free School. Anything related to the choir, found on this site or elsewhere, should not be taken as speaking for the school. Have a beautiful day!
JACOB MINGLE/ TREESUS/ LOTUS EATER
Songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist Jacob Mingle has traveled his musical path with many names. The following is excerpted from a Tiger Friends interview.
I got my first guitar when I was ten, but didn't really play it until I was 19 or so....it was then that I really started to spend time with my guitar and figure it out. When I was real young I loved The Beatles and Beach Boys, then it grew into Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, and Pavement in my later teens. Early 20's until now I've been really into Will Oldham (bonnie "prince" billy), Jason Molina (magnolia electric co.), Phil Elvrum (the Microphones, and Thee Silver Mt Zion.
Music was a big part of my family growing up, my dad plays, my uncles play, we were always listening to it, we were surrounded by it, and it shows, everyone in the family has a natural gift with music.
Lotus Eater has an album (dormir) coming out in may of 2010 on Klang Association. Tom from Klang did an amazing job mastering all the songs, and decided to release it, on his new up and coming label/collective. Los Webelos has couple of albums floating around still trying to figure out what to do with them, and I self-released two Treesus albums.
I feel that there's a separation of sorts happening between analog and digital.....I think that the analog and vinyl movement is very exciting, record labels like Constellation releasing just about every album on vinyl (as well as C.D.) I think that's the most exciting thing and I'd like to see more of it.
LADY LAZARUS
About Lady Lazarus:
"Gonna grow my hair in homage to the ghost / this is my long forgotten Nazarite oath."
-from "Nazarite Oath" off of Lady Lazarus upcoming LP, Mantic
Lady Lazarus is the music project of Melissa Ann Sweat--a poet, writer, and artist--born & residing in San Jose, Calif. who began teaching herself keyboard, piano, and writing songs not long ago. While living in San Francisco in 2008, Melissa took her initial turn at writing and recording music on a four-track tape recorder in her studio apartment; a year later she self-released these first songs on a handmade EP, Home Recordings, through her appropriately named Apartment Life Records. She has since been playing live in and around Northern California, the LA region, and Arizona.
This Spring/Summer 2010, Melissa plans to release Lady Lazarus first full-length album, Mantic, for which she has just completed a 14-song demo. Recently, Pitchfork wrote a favorable review for "The Eye in the Eye of the Storm," a track to be appearing on Mantic: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/11765-the-eye-in-the-eye-of-the-storm/.
Melissa is mostly a self-taught musician who credits her background in poetry and literature as an influence in her songwriting. She approaches music making with an intuitive mindset that she feels has lent itself to Lady Lazarus' naturally experimental compositions and spirited style.
Musical influences include Experimental and Minimalist artists such as Smog, Mount Eerie / The Microphones, and Cat Power, as well as the unique styles of Joanna Newsom, Tom Waits, Vashti Bunyan, Nina Simone, Dirty Three, Sparklehorse, Guided by Voices, Pavement and others. Increasingly, Melissa finds herself becoming interested in more Experimental Classical/Avant-Garde musicians such as Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and Brian Eno's Ambient work.
More information on Lady Lazarus, show news, music, videos, and more are available at: http://www.myspace.com/ladylazarusintheory.
Purchase Home Recordings EP at:
http://www.cdbaby.com/llazarus.
LORI ANNA REID
"Redemptive, soulful, narrative and touching"
~ Douglas Romanow
"Hauntingly beautiful"
~ Daniel Lanois
Lori Anna Reid bridges the gap between world music, folk and jazz. Ancient Celtic melodies rise out of her Newfoundland heritage, align with alluring, improvisational elements of jazz and are infused with the refinement of chamber music. Her work offers the elegance of classical music without the ivory tower, the risk taking of jazz, and the deep simplicity of ancient folk songs. Melodies that emanate from the collective consciousness are always moving and changing, always relevant and their themes, timeless. The style matters less to Reid than that they come from her Celtic heart.
Her many years of studying the classical repertoire as a soprano and as a professional alto with Canada's pre eminent chamber choir The Elmer Iseler Singers combine with her passion for folk songs thanks to her Newfoundland upbringing. As well, Reid's extensive experience singing with the likes of iconic rock/roots producer Daniel Lanois, and Canada's darling troubadour, Lennie Gallant, as well as country music superstar Michelle Wright illustrate her rare and distinctive versatility. She is a generous collaborative musician who serves, above all else, the song.
For anyone this might seem an unachievable undertaking, but for this artist it makes perfect sense. Born in Newfoundland, the daughter of a military medic and a nurse, whose family were fishermen and carpenters; Lori Anna absorbed the traditional melodies that permeate her culture. Still, a love of ballet and classical music prompted her to pursue classical training at Memorial University on a scholarship and later to earn her degree in performance at the University of Toronto. She has sung as a mezzo soprano with orchestras all over Canada, notably Massey Hall with conductors such as Bramwell Tovey, Helmut Rilling and Frank MacNamara; has earned a Juno for her a capella singing in a movie score for Saint Monica written by Carlos Lopes and was a featured soloist on the premiere recording of Bramwell Tovey's Requiem for a Charred Skull which also won a Juno award.
Lori Anna Reid's craft continued to develop and expand when she was invited to sing with rock producer and roots musician Daniel Lanois. With Lanois she has performed on the stages of the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto and New York's Carnegie Hall among many others across Canada, the United States and Europe. A highlight has been the joy of singing with Lanois, Bono and The Edge of U2 fame in Dublin and London. Reid and Lanois continue to share musical ideas: her suggestion to Lanois of a favourite hymn melody was used on U2's most recent recording in the song White as Snow. She also played piano on Lanois recent Omni Series.
It was not long after this, however, that Lori Anna responded to a strong desire to return to her roots and she recorded a very personal a cappella rendition of favourite folk melodies and hymns, many of which were songs her father had sung to her as a child. One of these was Willie McBride also known as The Green Fields of France by folk icon Eric Bogle. This particular piece caught the attention of Irish conductor Frank MacNamara who invited her to be a soloist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. Her interpretation also deeply moved General Rick Hillier when she sang it during a 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge gala event, resulting in a personal invitation to sing for his troops in Afghanistan. Of his classic anti-war song, Eric Bogle himself has stated that her arrangement is the most original and moving version I have ever heard....it reminds me of why I originally wrote it."
These days what excites Reid musically is experimenting with a new hatas collaborative songwriter. Her current band is one that includes core members George Koller, Mike Janzen and Greg Hawco, as well as Rob Piltch, Jorn Anderson and Christine Bougie. The core band has been doing concerts in Ontario and Newfoundland and, with them, she has opened up new avenues of creative expression that incorporate considerable improvisational elements. Using the voice as an instrument, her plaintive strains weave through Koller's innovative upright bass, Janzen's intuitive piano and Hawco's earthy percussion. Their present recording project will combine Lori Annas influences and ideas under the producing guidance of the extraordinary George Koller. Some of the symphonic vocal melodies have been written especially for her by Daniel Lanois who will also produce some of the recordings.
Like the country of Canada, this project is a mosaic of many cultural elements: Newfoundland Folk; Jazz; French (Camille Claudel and la Tempête); and Aboriginal (Avalon and Miq Maq Honour Song). It is a rich and moving tapestry, one that Lori Anna Reid likes to call The Tangled Garden.
MOUNT SHOUT
kristina esfandiari was born in the year of '88. she should have died ten thousand times & four was her favorite age.
an incredibly spacey & gravely quiet middle child raised by a spiritual serbian disco queen & a rebellious persian rocker, she has most likely been singing ever since she was conceived & writing songs since the closing of 2008.
carrying a thorough voice & pointed lyricism which has transformed her into the mystical being that goes by the name of MOUNTSHOUT.
finding a generous amount of fulfilment in sharing her work with the public, she released her very first EP "the last book" in february of 2010.
kristina is now recording a full-length album at Tiger Friends studio. release date and label are to be announced.
MOUNT SHOUT on myspace
Miracle Chyldren
PREGNANT
Pregnant is Daniel Trudeau. A visual and performance artist from Placerville, CA.
He grew up listening to little or no music of value at all with the exception of popular music like Steely Dan or Whitney Houston, etc etc. There is really very little to be said. No family background of musicians, NOTHING. But, influenced by a culmination of (nearby) Sacramento bands and the likes of local (Placerville) musicians such as Micheal Saalman, Jocelyn Noir, Darin Coelho, and many others, became almost instantly immersed in love for all kinds of music.
"I started writing music on a guitar, learning fun little plucking things and strums. Then started a band with more dexterous people (such as my brother, Matthew) and realized how incredibly easy these formulas were. I told myself, "wow, anyone can do this, and its brilliant and powerful and something i want to do with the rest of my life!"
"Then, later on, I discovered the delay pedal and it made this whole formula much easier but at the same time versitile. So here I am using these tools (Reason, Delay pedals, and other various trinkets) and i like the way im doing it and its GREAT!"
" Thats all i can really say about it. Its fun and easy and makes me happy, and i hope that it has that effect on others that listen to it because thats really what i aim to do is have people bobbing their heads one minute and then staring blankly into the distance the next."
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Price:15
lady lazarus debut release.
Price:9
brianna lea pruett - first release - 2003
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coal beautiere
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Plan B Magazine Interview
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Exposing oneself to ALAK's black cauldron for forty-two minutes proves to be a more than satisfying proposition."
---- http://www.textura.org
" Each song is unique in its implementation and the lyrics filter through like the lines of a spoken word poem... Alak's melodious and experimental combinations make the album rather beautiful and accessible. I highly recommend that you pick it up and get cozy."
----Clinton Gibson/KDVS
California has always been a hot bed of experimental musicians that harness the suns energy to create something bizarre, mental and often life affirming.
Jocelyn Noir, aka Alak, is pretty good at projecting all three of those elements and that's why she's getting The 405 Radar service this week.
From Radiohead style drama to the experimental bent of Animal Collective (minus the fanfare), Jocelyn Noir and her band of merry men are bringing psych to the folk table and leaving with a plate of noise apples.
----Oliver Primus/www.thefourohfive.com
