Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox at Amazon.com

Stroke, the tribute & benefit album for Chris Knox of the Tall Dwarfs , is officially released today in the U.S. by Merge Records. (It was previously available as a digital release, and before that was issued–minus the Jeff Mangum track–in New Zealand.) Apart from Jeff Mangum, Red&Zeke (featuring Bill Doss and Neil Cleary), Portastic, Bill Callahan, Yo La Tengo, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Jay Reatard, and many others appear on the two-disc set, all covering the music of Knox.

Celebrating the release of Stroke, and also to benefit Chris Knox, Cloud Recordings is now offering their two Tall Dwarfs reissues (Weeville and Fork Songs) at a discounted price for a limited time.

The Apples in Stereo’s latest album, Travellers Through Space and Time, will be released by Yep Roc/Simian/Elephant 6 on April 20th.  In April & May, the band will be hitting the road in support of the album, accompanied by friends The Generationals (from New Orleans) and Laminated Cat (from Athens, and the young psych masters who recently released Umbrella Weather on Garden Gate Records). Below are the dates, along with the complete press release for the album.

04.16.10 Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlie’s
04.17.10 Morgantown, WV @ 123 Pleasant Street
04.18.10 Washington, DC @ The Rock and Roll Hotel
04.20.10 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
04.21.10 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
04.23.10 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Underground
04.24.10 Ithaca, NY @ Castaways
04.25.10 Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar
04.27.10 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
04.28.10 Pontiac, MI @ The Pike Room
04.30.10 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
05.01.10 St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
05.03.10 Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
05.04.10 St. Louis, MO @ Billiken Club

Travellers in Space and Time,
by The Apples in Stereo

1. The Code
2. Dream About the Future
3. Hey Elevator
4. Strange Solar System
5. Dance Floor
6. C.P.U.
7. No One in the World
8. Dignified Dignitary
9. No Vacation
10. Told You Once
11. It’s All Right
12. Next Year at About the Same Time
13. Floating in Space
14. Nobody But You
15. Wings Away
16. Time Pilot

Studio-obsessed indie rockers The Apples in stereo are celebrating the start of a new decade with the release of their seventh studio album, Travellers in Space and Time, their most hi-fi and hook-laden production to date. Described by frontman Robert Schneider as “retro-futuristic super-pop,” the album is the official follow-up to 2007’s New Magnetic Wonder, and the band’s second studio release for Elijah Wood’s Simian Records. The album will be released on April 20 via Yep Roc/Simian/Elephant 6.

Travellers contains sixteen piano-driven tracks, bubbling over with vocoder harmonies and sci-fi sound effects, like 70’s AM radio filtered through a UFO; including the robotic first single “Dance Floor”, the four-on-the-floor dream-scape “Hey Elevator”, the Hall and Oates-tinged “Told You Once”, and the epic, yearning “Dream About The Future,” among many instant hits. The musical theme heard in these songs is strung throughout Travellers: intense pop hooks and electronic sounds, mixed with a pumping, get-up-and-moonwalk beat.

“I wanted to make a futuristic pop record, to reach out to the kids of the future,” Schneider relates. “It is what I imagine their more highly-evolved pop might sound like: shiny soul music with robots and humans singing together, yet informed by the music of our time. So we are sending a pop music message through time, hoping they will decode it and be into it.”

It is the first studio album from The Apples in stereo to feature new drummer John Dufilho, lead singer of Dallas indie rockers The Deathray Davies; and sees Bill Doss (Olivia Tremor Control, Elephant 6) and John Ferguson (Ulysses, Big Fresh), longtime Schneider collaborators, as full-time keyboardists in the band, alongside veteran members John Hill (guitar) and Eric Allen (bass). Original drummer Hilarie Sidney left the band in 2006.

Anyone familiar with The Apples in stereo’s career will know Schneider’s ever-evolving production process is as intricate as the recordings he generates. Engaging the same primary engineering team used to record New Magnetic Wonder, most notably Bryce Goggin (Trout Recording’s vintage recording wizard), as well as many studio-savvy friends and cohorts, the band spent well over a year in the studio recasting their signature pop sounds in chrome-plated futurism, all while adding a dance-driven vibe channeling ELO, Barry Gibb, Wild Honey-era Beach Boys and Off The Wall-era Michael Jackson.

With Travellers in Space and Time, Schneider continues experimenting with his recent invention, the Non-Pythagorean musical scale based on the logarithm, a mathematical function. Schneider is a passionate student of mathematics, and recently composed music based on prime numbers for a play written by world-class mathematician Andrew Granville, performed at the hallowed Institute for Advanced Study (home of Albert Einstein) in Princeton, New Jersey. Travellers includes “C.P.U.,” the first pop song ever to incorporate this novel scale.

In addition, the album features songwriting contributions from all of the other Apples, including “Wings Away” (Bill Doss/John Ferguson), “Next Year At About The Same Time” (Eric Allen), “No Vacation” (John Ferguson/Robert Schneider), “Floating Away” (John Dufilho), and “Dignified Dignitary” (Robert Schneider/Bill Doss/John Hill).

The 2007 hit album, New Magnetic Wonder, spawned late night performances on Conan and Colbert, commercial placements for The Apples‘ music (Pepsi, New Balance, Samsung, and numerous others), invitations to perform at many prestigious festivals and venues (All Tomorrows Parties, Pitchfork, Primavera Sound, R.E.M. Charity Tribute Concert at Carnegie Hall), and a world tour that took the band as far away as Taiwan – not to mention a polished performance of their hit song “Energy” by the contestants on American Idol.

Since then, the band has been increasingly busy, gaining ownership of their spinART Records back catalog and readying the albums for re-release, compiling the best-of #1 Hits Explosion, and releasing Electronic Projects for Musicians, an album of rarities. Schneider also made his children’s music debut with 2009’s Robbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine (Little Monster Records), which made it to many Year-End Best Of lists; made numerous mathematics convention appearances; released Buddha Electrostorm (Garden Gate Records), an album of lo-fi garage-psych recorded with his brother-in-law Craig Morris (who played and engineered on Travellers) under the name Thee American Revolution; and topped it all off with his featured keynote talk and Australian debut performance at the Big Sound Music Conference, where he was featured alongside many musical luminaries, including noted Brian Wilson collaborator (and one of Schneider’s heroes), Van Dyke Parks… and all of this while hard at work on The Apples‘ most ambitious studio production yet.

First of all, if you haven’t done so already, head over to Merge Records and preorder the Chris Knox tribute album Stroke (due out in physical form on Feb. 23).  But somewhat overlooked in all the (deserved) hullabaloo over Jeff Mangum’s contribution to the album is the fact that it also marks the debut of a new project by he of The Olivia Tremor Control and The Sunshine Fix, Bill Doss.  Note that it’s been five years (almost six) since Bill released a record, although he has been recording steadily in the interim, and assisting friends like The Apples in Stereo (of which he’s a member), Circulatory System, Thee American Revolution, and Fabulous Bird, as well as participating in last year’s Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour.  Now he’s back with Red&Zeke, first with the Tall Dwarfs cover “Bodies” on the Stroke album, and soon with a full-length.

Bill writes Optical Atlas, “I have teamed up with my old friend Neil Cleary, a musician currently residing in Boston, who has not only done some damn fine solo work but also played drums in The Essex Green as well as having been in The Sunshine Fix from time to time, to form Red&Zeke.  Neil and I share an affinity for Appalachian music and have been long-jawing for quite some time about making such a record. So, earlier this year, he came to Athens where we recorded a batch of cover tunes, exploring a mix of the modern and traditional, all in the Appalachian style. The bones of the songs were played and sung live and tracked at Bel-Air Studios a la Jason NeSmith, of Casper and the Cookies fame, with minimal overdubs added afterward. By chance, we happened to cover the song ‘Bodies’ by the aforementioned Mr. Knox. We finished with the mixing and mastering, fortunately just in time to make the Stroke LP, and hope to have our record, tentatively titled Old Man From Indie Rock Mountain, released in the Spring of 2010.”

One can assume Bill is “Red.”  (’Burns would have been a good nickname too.)  I’ll give more details as they arrive, but here’s one to look forward to in the new year.

It has now been officially announced (via Wilson at Merge Records) that Jeff Mangum has contributed a track to the U.S. version of the Chris Knox tribute album Stroke.  The song, “Sign the Dotted Line,” is a cover of the Tall Dwarfs track.   In addition, Bill Doss & Neil Cleary form Red & Zeke for the cover of the Tall Dwarfs‘  ”Bodies.”  You can read Bill Doss’ thoughts on the Tall Dwarfs here.

You can preorder the double-CD set which will ship on or around February 23 by visiting this page at Merge Records.  Preorders receive an immediate digital download of the album.  You can also purchase the MP3s a la carte or as a bundle.  The New Zealand version of the album, which is available now at Chris Knox’s website, does not feature the Jeff Mangum track.

In June, Chris Knox of the Tall Dwarfs suffered a stroke in Grey Lynn, New Zealand.  The Tall Dwarfs have had a tremendous influence on Elephant 6, and it was Chris Knox who invited Jeff Mangum to give a performance in 2001 in New Zealand.  The Tall Dwarfs also toured with Olivia Tremor Control on the 2005 reunion tour. The Stroke benefit album also features contributions from Yo La Tengo, Jay Reatard, Stephin Merritt, Bill Callahan, Will Oldham, and many more.

Brian Heater has written an insightful article at New York Press on Will Cullen Hart, his MS, the reasons for the breakup and reunion of Olivia Tremor Control, and the comeback of Signal Morning.  The title, “Inside Views,” is a wink-wink reference to the Circulatory System remix CD-R that came out in 2001.  Both Will and Bill Doss are interviewed for the piece:

New York Press: Circulatory System – Inside Views