News Archive (October 19, 2005 - November 2003)

Starting today, Insound has the Tiny Cities pre-order for only $11.99 until November 1. And of course, enter coupon code tinycities15 at checkout to get an additional 15% off!

As mentioned on the official site, Mark is auctioning 2 guitars on eBay and all proceeds go to the American Red Cross. All the details are here.

Tiny Cities CD pre-orders:

Insound.com (and use coupon code tinycities15 for 15% off!)

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

from 4AD.com:

4AD - 1980 Forward - 25 Years Of 4AD

This November, 4AD celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Starting on 17th of November, there will be a series of live performances spread over 10 nights. Highlights include : TV On The Radio playing their only UK show of the year at London's Scala; The Breeders, performing in the beautiful surroundings of Blackheath Halls; Kristin Hersh playing two contrasting shows; and appearances by artists new to the label which are yet to be announced. Tickets for all shows are on sale now.

The full list of shows is :

November
17 - TV On The Radio plus special guests (The Scala)
18 - Minotaur Shock & Magnetophone plus special guests (The Luminaire)
19 - The Breeders plus special guests (Blackheath Halls)
20 - The Breeders plus special guests (Blackheath Halls)
21 - Kristin Hersh performing the songs of Throwing Muses (The Scala)
22 - Kristin Hersh performing songs from Hips And Makers onwards (The Scala)
23 - The Mountain Goats plus special guests (Bush Hall)
24 - Celebration plus special guests (The Water Rats)
25 - Mojave 3 & Mark Kozelek (Conway Hall)
27 - Blonde Redhead & Johann Johannsson (The Scala)

To coincide with the shows, 4AD will release a compilation that explores the highways and byways of the label's 25 year history.

Other celebratory projects include a deluxe Cocteau Twins 4 CD box set, and an intriguing release from the label's founder Ivo Watts-Russell, operating under his Hope Blister guise. More details on these soon.

There's a lo-fi 30-second snippet of Tiny Cities Made of Ashes over on the Red Eye site, as well as the fancy PDF 1-sheet. The direct link is here, but it doesn't like Firefox. :( Should go straight into iTunes if you have a Mac, and works fine on Internet Explorer.

Just a reminder that tonight's show in Houston is now at the Proletariat, not Mary Jane's Fat cat.

There's an all-Flash sunkilmoon.com up now, complete with annoying discography and press photo navigation. Also, caldoverderecords.com is up.

Here's the official press release for Tiny Cities:

MARK KOZELEK'S SUN KIL MOON TO RELEASE TINY CITIES
FULL CD OF REINTERPRETED MODEST MOUSE SONGS

Sun Kil Moon, the latest project by Red House Painters' Mark Kozelek, will release a new album on November 1st on Kozelek's own Caldo Verde Records in the U.S. and on Rough Trade Records for the rest of the world. The album, Tiny Cities, finds Kozelek covering 11 songs by Modest Mouse. As anyone who has followed Mark's career would expect, the songs are vastly reworked, and offer listeners a new look at the unorthodox songwriting of Isaac Brock.

Recorded at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco in early 2005, Tiny Cities is the second Sun Kil Moon release. The 2003 debut Ghosts of the Great Highway was one of Kozelek's greatest commercial and critical successes, lauded by Rolling Stone as "elegant beauty." For Tiny Cities, Sun Kil Moon reunites for more of the slow, gorgeous musicianship fans have come to expect.

Mark Kozelek first began performing Modest Mouse songs after seeing a show at the Fillmore Auditorium in 2003. Intrigued with Brock's lyrics and vocal delivery, Kozelek first added a few of Brock's songs to his live sets, and then, eventually took them to the studio for what became this full-length recording.

Not new to the world of covers, Kozelek has reinterpreted, recorded and performed materials by a diverse array of artists including AC/DC, Kiss, John Denver, Simon & Garfunkel and more. In addition to this new recording, Kozelek recently recorded Neil Diamond's "Kentucky Woman" for the Songs from the Brown Hotel charity compilation EP, organized by Cameron Crowe to coincide with his new film Elizabethtown. Kozelek also appears in the upcoming Steve Martin produced Shopgirl. In September, he joins Alan Sparhawk's Retribution Gospel Choir as guest guitarist for several U.S. tour dates.

Here's the sleeve:

Well it has been confirmed by Billboard, and picked up by Pitchfork.

Here's the tracklist for the new Sun Kil Moon album of Modest Mouse covers called Tiny Cities:

01 Exit Does Not Exist
02 Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
03 Neverending Math Equation
04 Space Travel Is Boring
05 Dramamine
06 Jesus Christ Was an Only Child
07 Four Fingered Fisherman
08 Grey Ice Water
09 Convenient Parking
10 Trucker's Atlas
11 Ocean Breathes Salty
12 Exit Does Not Exist (alternate version on the vinyl version on Cameron Crowe's label Vinyl Films)

Caldo Verde also appears to be Mark's own imprint.

from sunkilmoon.com:

New Orleans is a city that is very close to Mark's heart, as it is to many. Upon Mark's return from the RGC tour in mid September, he will sell a few of his favorite guitars online to benefit those in need on the Gulf Coast. All proceeds will go to a relief organization to be determined soon.

Forum member Shivan found something interesting on CD Unviverse's site: a listing for a new CD from Sun Kil Moon called Tiny Cities, which may be an album of Modest Mouse covers (they have a song called "Tiny Cities Made of Ashe," and Mark has been doing several Modest Mouse covers live for a while now).

After a little Google searching, I found that it's on the Caldo Verde label, and is being distributed by Red Eye in the USA. Here's the direct page to all the information on it, which isn't much. Release date tentative for November 1. I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it on the official site.