Good Weather For Airstrikes

UPDATE: I Guess I’m Floating, who are tearing up the blog scene now, has a new Sufjan song, from the upcoming Kill Rock Stars The Sound The Hare Heard compilation, which focuses exclusively on singer/songwriters. “Adlai Stevenson” is typical Sufjan flawlessness, and is one of the tracks slated for the upcoming The Avalanche b-side compilation, so head over there and grab it while it’s hot.

This is easily the most exciting thing I’ve heard in a while: Sufjan Stevens will be releasing a new album on July 25th, a collection of songs originally cut from Illinoise titled The Avalanche: Outtakes & Extras From The Illinoise Album. Seriously, how wet-your-pants-exciting is that? Here’s the backstory direct from the Asthmatic Kitty website:

The little secret behind the Illinois record is that it was originally conceived as a double album, culminating in a musical collage of nearly 50 songs. But as the project began to develop into an unwieldy epic, common sense weighed in—as did the opinions of others—and the project was cut in half… Sufjan gleaned 21 useable tracks from the abandoned material, including three alternate versions of Chicago. Some songs were in finished form, others were merely outlines, gesture drawings, or musical scribbles mumbled on a hand-held tape recorder… As an illustration, the avalanche refers to the snow and rubble that falls off the side of a mountain, or, in this case, the musical debris generously chucked from an abundant epic.

Seriously, three alternate versions of Chicago? I’m pretty sure that’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever heard. Head over to the Asthmatic Kitty website to view the full tracklisting, available here. Also, Rosie Thomas is not carrying Sufjan’s baby, so ladies, you may now get back to drawing pictures of Sufjan and writing “Mrs. Stevens” all over your Geography binder.

Finally, I’ve included two MP3s, title-track “The Avalanche” and a live acoustic version of “Chicago” (as heard on M3 Volume 7), below, in case you weren’t already in a fit of spasmic anticipation.

MP3s:
“The Avalanche” - Sufjan Stevens [highly recommended]
“Chicago” (Acoustic) - Sufjan Stevens

Bonus Video:

This entry was posted on Friday, April 7th, 2006 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.