Optical Atlas

Julian Koster’s house-to-house Christmas caroling tour is currently scheduled to hit the following cities on these dates:

Confirmed Caroling Path:
12/5 – Atlanta / Rome, GA
12/6 – Nashville, TN (early) / Louisville, KY
12/7 – Indianapolis, IN (early) / Champaign, IL
12/8 – Chicago, IL
12/9 – Kalamazoo, MI (early) / Detroit, MI (and area)
12/10 – Toledo, OH (early) / Cleveland, OH
12/11 – Buffalo, NY (early) / Geneseo, NY
12/12 – Ithaca, NY (early) / Monterrey, MA / Easthampton & Northampton, MA (late-night)
12/13 – Boston, MA (and area)
12/14 – Providence, RI (and area)
12/15 – Riverside, CT / Purchase, NY / Marlboro, NY
12/16 – New York City, NY
12/17 – New York City, NY (and area)
12/18 – Manalapan, NJ (early) / Philadelphia, PA
12/19 – Baltimore, MD (early) / Washington, DC
12/20 – Eagle Rock, VA (early) / Lynchburg, VA
12/21 – Chapel Hill, NC / Raleigh, NC
12/22 – Athens, GA

Merge says: To find out the address of one of the homes in your area who will be hosting the carolers, please email musictapescaroling@gmail.com for the address and general time of the performance. Invitations are still being accepted at musictapescaroling@gmail.com for Nashville, Louisville, Indianapolis, Champaign, Cleveland, Providence, Baltimore, D.C., and Chapel Hill/Durham.

Merge Records has made available for download Julian Koster’s performance of ”White Christmas” from last year’s Singing Saw at Christmastime:

MP3: Julian Koster – White Christmas

And courtesy the Merge Records blog, here is Julian performing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”:

Not personal enough? Not enough about you? Invite Julian and the singing saw to your home for Christmas caroling! Details here, and projected dates below:

December 7th, 8th, 9th: Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana & Lower Half of Illinois
December 10th, 11th, 12th: Chicago, Illinois, Michigan
December 13th, 14th, 15th: Ohio, Pittsburgh, Western NY
December 16th, 17th, 18th: Upstate NY, New England (CT, RI, VT etc)
December 19th, 20th, 21st: Philadelphia, NYC, Baltimore, DC, Chapel Hill

Last year saw one of the coolest little events in Elephant 6 history, as Julian Koster of The Music Tapes took Badger the Singing Saw (and his dog, and a friend) on a cross-country trip Christmas caroling from house to house. 

December 2009 will see round two. 

A tentative schedule has been posted at OrbitingHumanCircus.com.  Details as to how to get Julian to come to your home are posted therein as well.  (Thanks to David for the link.) Tour organizer Grant adds, “As a side note to everyone, if you would like to attend a caroling but cannot host yourself, still write in to musictapescaroling@gmail.com so that you’ll be informed of caroling houses in your town!”

If you’re not in this vicinity – or outside the U.S. – then I can only suggest picking up his holiday album, The Singing Saw at Christmastime, released last year on Merge Records and which inspired this rather wonderful event…

Merge Records has just reissued both of Neutral Milk Hotel’s classic albums, On Avery Island and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, on 180-gram vinyl. Each order also comes with a free digital download of the album (which implies, improbably, that you don’t have these already). You can order them here.

In other NMH news, according to Merge, Julian Koster of The Music Tapes (and Neutral Milk Hotel) will be undertaking another Christmas carol tour this year.  More details will be announced soon!

The new Music Tapes song “For the Planet Pluto 3″ recently made its debut via Merge Records.  (I posted the video back in August.)  Now Merge is making the song available for download.  Click here and enjoy.

Merge Records continues celebrating their 20th anniversary with The Merge Records Companion, a 350-page book collecting cover art and images from every one of their releases.  Includes essays by Merge founders Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, and celebrity hand models!  All proceeds go to charities selected by the SCORE! box set curators.  You can pre-order here, with copies shipping on November 3rd.

Pitchfork has posted the latest video from The Music Tapes, a brand new song entitled “For the Planet Pluto 3.” This flat-out made my summer. I submit:

P.S. Leave comments if you approve…

Edit: Thanks to Matt for dropping a line about the video too.

The Elephant 6 Townhall has assembled an album of covers of E6 songs, from of Montreal through Major Organ and the Adding Machine, Elf Power, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and more.  You can download Elephant 6 Fanfare through this thread.  Thanks to lenn9o9n for assembling the project, and everyone who contributed.