Chicago indie rock warhorses The Sea And Cake are set to release a new six-track album, titled The Moonlight Butterfly, this May 10 on local imprint Thrill Jockey.
“Up On The North Shore” is an airy, summery piece of music that really showcases The Sea And Cake’s subtle nuances and craftsmanship. Built on a bouncy clean guitar riff, the song features some low-key yet earnest vocals from lead singer Sam Prekop. The track as a whole has got a real mid-90′s FM radio vibe to it but in a totally good way. Check it out below:
Dig it? Then go ahead and pre-order The Moonlight Butterfly at ThrillJockey.com right now.
The album series, titled Solos, consists of six releases, each of which finds Friedberger playing one instrument and singing. The second release in the Solos serious is Meet Me in Miramas, the guitar record, and we have the title track for your listening pleasure. “Meet Me In Miramas” is a pretty, uh, whacky tune – specifically in the vocals of “Damn,” “Duh,” and “Rama-dama Ding Dong.” The guitar works ranges from muted strummed to weird, overdriven freak outs. Listen to “Meet Me In Miramas” below:
Does the song tickle your fancy? You can still buy subscriptions to Friedberger Solos series at Thrilljockey.com.
Back in August, we gave you the scoop on the new solo album from The Sea And Cake’s Sam Prekop. Titled Old Punch Card, the album, which was release in September, was very much a departure from his previous solo material and main project and instead focused on electronic and avant garde compositions. Well, late last month, a video was released for the Old Punch Card track “The Silhouettes” that’s a warmly animated affair directed and partly animated by Yo Gabba Gabba! and Tom Goes to the Mayor animator Jordan Kim. Check out the impressive looking clip below:
Oak Park’s own Matthew Friedberger, better known as half of the Brooklyn-via-Chicago art rock duo The Fiery Furnaces with sister Eleanor, will be pretty busy in 2011 as he plans on releasing an eight vinyl-only solo albums as part of a subscription series titled Solos via local imprint Thrill Jockey.
Solos will be sold as a subscription series, and the eight albums will be released every two months beginning in January 2011. The series will see Matthew playing on a single given instrument per album, but not necessarily the same exact individual instrument, and, according to the Thrill Jockey press release, “is designed to illustrate the following Cretan-Lacedaemonian principle.” Yeah.
That album art to the upper left is for the first Solos release, the piano-featuring Napoleonette. Download and listen to the track “Shirley” from Napoleonette right here: Matthew Friedberger – “Shirley”.
Sam Prekop, guitarist, bassist and vocalist for Chicago’s The Sea And Cake, is releasing a new solo effort on September 7 titled Old Punch Card.
According to a press release from local imprint Thrill Jockey, Old Punch Card is not only a departure from Prekop’s previous solo material but from his main band The Sea And Cake as well. The album is said to be influenced by early electronic music as well as avant garde compositions as it’s composed entirely of modular synthesizers with no vocals, no beats and only one instance of guitar.
If this sounds like something right up your alley, good news! Download the Old Punch Card track “The Silhouettes” right here. The song is definitely composed entirely of synthesizers with whirling blips and buzzes, but it is highly melodic, which is very promising for the rest of the album.
Thrill Jockey released a new video today for Chicago progressive electro-rockers Lazer Crystal. The clip is for the track “Love Rhombus” from their album MCMLXXX, which hits stores next week and features some really cool visuals that will cause you to reminisce about the days when videotape was king. You can catch Lazer Crystal tomorrow at the May Day Party at Co-Prosperity Sphere (3219 S Morgan) for Version Fest. On with the clip:
Chicago indie rock warhorses The Sea And Cake are set to release a new six-track album, titled The Moonlight Butterfly, this May 10 on local imprint Thrill Jockey.
Oak Park’s own Matthew Friedberger, better known as half of the Brooklyn-via-Chicago art rock duo 
For the second year in a row, Chicago imprint 
