Optical Atlas

Just a reminder that the AUX 2 experimental music festival is this weekend in Athens, featuring Black Swan Network, Lorkakar, Dixie Blood Moustache, Dark Meat, Howling Jelly (Andrew Rieger from Elf Power and Mark Tissenbaum), Eyes and Arms of Smoke (members of Von Hemmling, Ulysses, and Hair Police), and more. The event will be held on Saturday, February 23rd, across three venues: Cine, Little Kings, and Flicker.

Pitchfork is reporting that the latest issue of Yeti (#5) will feature a compilation CD with four songs “hand-selected by Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum and literally culled from the man’s personal collection of rare 78s–Mangum actually sent his old records to the Yeti crew for digitizing.”  He also is contributing visual art of some sort or another. 

If that isn’t enough to make the magazine worth tracking down, the comp also features Mangum’s friends A Hawk and a Hacksaw with a rare live track (recorded with the Hun Hangar Ensemble), and plenty more.  Also on the comp are Deerhoof, Iron and Wine, Atlas Sound, and many more.

The issue is on sale March 7.  You can pre-order it for $11.95 US, $19.95 international at the Yeti publishing website. 

Here’s the track listing per Pitchfork:

Yeti #5 CD

01 Spiritualaires: “Be Ready When He Comes”
02 Sadoum Ouled Aida: “Untitled”
03 Phoaming Edison: “Sheba”
04 Radio Sumatra: “Outtake #1″
05 Atlas Sound: “It’s Fair Fair Game Inside”
06 Dean & Britta: “Tugboat (live)”
07 Akron/Family: “Small Shape (live)”
08 Anglin Brothers: “It’s an Unfriendly World”
09 Deerhoof: “Forbidden Fruits (live)”
10 Radio Sumatra: “Outtake #2″
11 Triptych Myth/Cooper-Moore: “Distance”
12 Marika Papagika: “Sometime You Might Love Me”
13 Alexandra Potskhershvili: “Suliko”
14 Unknown: “?”
15 Marika Papagika: “I Want to Hold You Tight in My Arms”
16 Radio Sumatra: “Outtake #3″
17 D+: “Clever Knot”
18 Mount Eerie: “Blue Light (instrumental)”
19 A Hawk and a Hacksaw With the Hun Hangar Ensemble: “Vereb / The Sparrow (live)”
20 Iron and Wine: “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog) (live)”
21 Radio Sumatra: “Outtake #4″
22 Shawn David McMillen: “Texarkana 1971″
23 AC & Blind Mamie Forehand: “Honey in the Rock”
24 Mary Price: “Dark Was the Night”
25 Blind Willie Johnson: “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground”

WGSU’s “The Elephant 6 Show” is back for a second semester’s worth of broadcasts, and Optical Atlas will be hosting each and every one of them, barring any technical mishaps. The first installment, from February 17, is now available – grab it here. A big thanks to DJs Becky Lovell and Dave Kent for doing the show and making them available for the Optical Atlas archives.

Austinist scribe (and erstwhile Optical Atlas contributor) Adam Schragin has an interview with Elf Power up at the site.  Andrew Rieger discusses the new album, working with Vic Chesnutt, and Orange Twin Records.  Check it out here.

I’ve just posted new reviews of the two latest albums by Folklore, The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman and Carpenter’s Falls. You can read the reviews here. The first album is available now from BumbleBEAR Records; the second doesn’t have a label yet, but will be made available by the band for their upcoming Carpenter’s Falls Tour – dates below. It should be noted that they’ve added a date in Champaign, IL, since last we posted these, and might add a performance in Lexington on the 8th. They’ll also be taping performances for Daytrotter and The Optical Atlas Show.

Folklore – Carpenter’s Falls Tour

02.28.08 Athens, GA @ 40 Watt (BumbleBEAR Records showcase, w/Titans of Filth, Quiet Hooves, Christopher’s Liver, My Unborn Children, Big Gray, Gemini Cricket, French Toasts)
02.29.08 Charlotte, NC @ The Milestone w/Beat the Devil and LA Tool & Die
03.01.08 Toledo, OH @ Frankie’s w/The Championship and Homeville Circle
03.02.08 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom w/Dreadful Yawns
03.03.08 Champaign, IL @ Mike ‘N Molly’s
03.04.08 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon w/August Teens (early show – 5pm!)
03.05.08 Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews w/By the Beard Of Zeus, The Chinchillas, and Arise, Devilfish
03.06.08 Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen w/David Singer and Crooks and Children
03.07.08 Bloomington, IN @ Art Hospital w/Arrah and the Ferns

Travelling troubadors A Hawk and a Hacksaw continue to share their postmodern immigrant music through the winter and spring of 2008. Here are the latest dates:

02.20.08 Perth, Western Australia @ Perth International Arts Festival
02.23.08 Wellington, New Zealand @ New Zealand International Arts Festival
02.25.08 Wellington, New Zealand @ New Zealand International Arts Festival
03.26.08 Oporto, Portugal @ Oporto Coliseum
03.27.08 Lisboa, Portugal @ Lisboa Coliseum
03.30.08 Milano, Italy @ Alcatraz
03.31.08 Florence, Italy @ Florence Sashall
04.09.08 Manchester, England @ Manchester Apollo
04.10.08 London, England @ Hammersmith Apollo
04.11.08 Lancaster, England @ Yorkshire House
04.12.08 Edinburgh, Scotland @ Corn Exchange
04.13.08 Wolverhampton, England @ The Civic
04.14.08 Birmingham, England @ The Glee Club
05.09.08 Belfast, Ireland @ Belfast Arts Festival
05.10.08 Cork, Ireland @ Cyprus Avenue
05.11.08 Dublin, Ireland @ Boom Boom Room
05.12.08 Aberdeen, Scotland @ The Tunnels
05.13.08 Glasgow, Scotland @ The Arches
03.14.08 Leeds, England @ Hi Fi Club
03.15.08 Bristol, England @ Thekla
03.16.08 Minehead, England @ All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival
06.18.08 Zaragoza, Spain @ Zaragoza Expo

The Apples in Stereo have announced that the first 200 people to pre-order their new album Electronic Projects for Musicians will get a copy autographed by Robert Schneider. You also can stream the full album at Yep Roc’s website (direct link here). Pre-order EPFM , in either CD or limited-edition vinyl, here. (Note that vinyl orders come with a free digital download of the album.) The release date is April 1st.

The Apples in Stereo: Electronic Projects for Musicians

1. Shine (in Your Mind)
2. Thank You Very Much
3. Onto Something
4. Man You Gotta Get Up
5. The Golden Flower
6. Avril En Mai
7. Hold On To This Day
8. The Oasis
9. On Your Own
10. Other
11. So Far Away
12. The Apples Theme Song
13. Stephen, Stephen
14. Dreams

Pitchfork has reprinted the 1997 interview with Jeff Mangum that ran in Puncture Magazine. (We used to host scans of the article at the old Optical Atlas site, but I never did put them back up again.) You can read the interview here.

UPDATE: Pitchfork has also posted a collection of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea appreciations by of Montreal, Caribou, Cursive, The Evangelicals, No Age, No Kids, Ola Podrida, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Snowglobe, David Vandervelde, and Christopher Willits.