2006 is proving to be a milestone year in the life of Texas artist and musician Daniel Johnston.

After 23 years as a struggling musician and visual artist, things are finally falling into place for Johnston. March 31 marked the opening of The Devil and Daniel Johnston, a Sony Pictures Classics film about Johnston’s life story and his continuing struggle with manic depression. The film has received rave reviews thus far, Ebert & Roeper even gave it two thumbs up. Earlier this year, Johnston’s artwork was included in the Whitney Muesum’s Biennial exhibit in New York. The Clementine Gallery in New York curated its own Johnston retrospective titled The Story of an Artist: Daniel Johnston.

As you read this, Johnston is on a flight to London where he will attend and perform at a tribute concert in his honor at the Barbican Hall, featuring Teenage Fanclub, Vic Chesnutt, Jason Pierce of Spiritualized, James Yorkston and Howe Gelb.

On May 4, Johnston will perform in Los Angeles for the first time in over five years with a special intimate concert at Spaceland. While in LA he’ll also tape a performance for The Henry Rollins Show which airs on the IFC channel.

All of this activity is leading up to the release of Welcome To My World, the first greatest hits collection from Daniel Johnston, which is being released via the Johnston family’s own Eternal Yip Eye Music label on April 18. The release features tracks from Johnston’s vast catalogue of cassette, LP and CD releases and spans all eras of his career. Several of these songs have never been released on CD before.

Welcome To My World Track List:

1 Peek A Boo
2 Casper The Friendly Ghost
3 Some Things Last A Long Time
4 Walking The Cow
5 I’m Nervous
6 Man Obsessed
7 Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Your
Grievances
8 Never Before, Never Again
9 The Sun Shines Down On Me
10 Chord Organ Blues
11 Living Life
12 Speeding Motorcycle
13 True Love Will Find You In The End
14 Never Relaxed
15 Sorry Entertainer
16 Ain’t No Woman Gonna Make A
George Jones Outta Me
17 The Lennon Song
18 Devil Town
19 Laurie
20 Story Of An Artist
21 Funeral Home

for more info:

www.hihowareyou.com

www.barbican.org.uk
www.clubspaceland.com

Narnack Records announced today plans to release Double Death, a combined CD/DVD set on May 23, 2006 from the San Francisco band Coachwhips, who broke up last year.

In some parts of the world, it’s been said that attending a performance of the late, great Coachwhips was not unlike that of a religious experience; the blind begin to see, the deaf begin to hear, water turns to wine. It’s as if time stood still for the 30 + minutes and there wasn’t anyone else on the entire galaxy but John Dwyer, his band and a few hundred electrified sweaty kids having the longest orgasm on record. It’s impossible to dispute this, trust us.

Coachwhips combined the bite of six thrash bands playing simultaneously with an uppercut of 60’s garage rock melody. A sound so furious and yet oh-so incredibly pop-laced, the second it punctures your eardrum you’ll want to tackle and French kiss the Earth’s entire population. If you never had the chance to attend one of their shows, Double Death is the set for you. The DVD features previously unseen footage chronicling the band’s short but magnificent career; from their house party days to their sticky final show in front of trillions. The CD showcases 47 minutes of rare B-sides and cover tunes that were virtually impossible to find prior to this release.

Since the demise of the Coachwhips, frontman John Dwyer has been focusing on his other band The Ohsees (formerly OCS) and has just completed a new record with Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio at the helm, titled The Cool Death of the Island Raiders which will see the light of day on June 13, 2006 via Narnack. Along with Dwyer’s distant vocals and guitar, The Ohsees features Patrick Mullins (Burmese) on percussion and newcomer, Brigid Dawson, a UK native who adds loads of soft and delightful backing vocals to the band’s signature hushed, mushed sound. It’s as if they threw a sheet of fresh, pathological playfulness over a dusty loft mattress, creating by far thee best goo-rock, bedroom folk our world has ever heard.

Coachwhips Double Death CD track list:

1. Mr. Hyde
2. My Job at the Hive
3. Prisoner 119
4. I Don’t Need You
5. ATM
6. We Are In Love
7. Mid-tempo Violent Dancer
8. Hands On…
9. Hey Fanny
10. He-C-She
11. Brains Out
12. Ringing the Chowbell
13. Fight With My Heart
14. Ghost of a Chance
15. I Don’t Know
16. Deathmachine
BONUS COVER TRACKS!
17. Boom Pow Awesome (The Traps)
18. Guess I’m Falling In Love (The Velvets)
19. Drowning (Gories)
20. I Gotta Move (Kinks)
21. Pigs (Icky Boyfriends)
22. Only Inch Of My Heart (Horrors)
23. Pay-N-Pac (Icky Boyfriends)
24. Whip In My Valise (Adam Ant)
25. The Witch (The Sonics)

The Ohsees The Cool Death of the Island Raiders track list:

1.The Gilded Cunt
2.The Dumb Drums
3.Turn Off
4.Losers in the Sun
5.Drone Number One
6.Island Raiders
7.Cool Death
8.Broken Stems
9.We Are Free
10.Drone Number Two
11.You Oughtta Go Home

Asthmatic Kitty Records has announced plans to release a new collection of songs from Sufjan Stevens, titled The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album which will hit shelves on July 11, 2006.

The little secret behind the Illinois record is that it was originally conceived as a double album, culminating in a musical collage of nearly 50 songs. But as the project began to develop into an unwieldy epic, common sense weighed in—as did the opinions of others—and the project was cut in half. But as 2005 came to a close, Sufjan returned to the old, forsaken songs on his 8-track like a grandfather remembering his youth, indulging in old journals and newspaper clippings. What he uncovered went beyond the merits of nostalgia; it was more like an ensemble of capricious friends and old acquaintances wearing party outfits, waiting to be let in at the front door, for warm drinks and interesting conversation. Among them were Saul Bellow, Ann Landers, Adlai Stevenson, and a brief cameo from Henry Darger’s Vivian Girls. The gathering that followed would become the setting for the songs on The Avalanche.

Sufjan gleaned 21 useable tracks from the abandoned material, including three alternate versions of Chicago. Some songs were in finished form, others were merely outlines, gesture drawings, or musical scribbles mumbled on a hand-held tape recorder. Most of the material required substantial editing, new arrangements or vocals. Much of the work was done at the end of 2005 or in January the following year. Sufjan invited many of the original Illinoisemakers to fill in the edges: drums, trumpet, a choir of singers. The centerpiece, of course, was the title track—”The Avalanche”—a song intended for the leading role on the Illinois album but eventually cut and placed as a bonus track on the vinyl release (also on iTunes). In his rummaging through old musical memorabilia, Sufjan began to use this song as a meditation on the editorial process, returning to old forms, knee-deep in debris, sifting rocks and river water for an occasional glint of gold. “I call ye cabin neighbors,” the song bemuses, “I call you once my friends.” And like an avid social organizer, Sufjan took in all the odd musical misfits and gathered them together for a party of their own, like good friends.

A careful listener may uncover the obvious trend on this record: almost every song on the Illinois album has a counterpart on the outtakes. Carl Sandburg arm-wrestles Saul Bellow. The aliens landing near Highland salute Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto. The loneliness of “Casimir Pulaski Day” deepens even further in the foreboding soundtrack to “Pittsfield.” At its best, The Avalanche is an exercise in form, revealing the working habits of one of the most productive songwriters today. As an illustration, the avalanche refers to the snow and rubble that falls off the side of a mountain, or, in this case, the musical debris generously chucked from an abundant epic. It’s unlikely you’ll find a mountain in the Prairie State so the metaphor will have to do. Also, Sufjan has still not made an official decision on the next state he’ll tackle in his epic 50 States project, but we will definitely keep you posted.

TRACK LIST:

1. The Avalanche (3:14)
2. Dear Mr Supercomputer (4:40)
3. Adlai Stevenson (2:34)
4. The Vivian Girls Are Visited In the Night by Saint Dargarius and his
Squadron of Benevolent Butterflies (1:49)
5. Chicago (acoustic version) (4:40)
6. The Henney Buggy Band (3:16)
7. Saul Bellow (2:53)
8. Carlyle Lake (3:15)
9. Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in his Hair (4:17)
10. The Mistress Witch from McClure (or, The Mind That Knows Itself) (3:24)
11. Kaskaskia River (2:15)
12. Chicago (adult contemporary easy listening version) (6:06)
13. Inaugural Pop Music for Jane Margaret Byrne (1:25)
14.No Man’s Land (4:45)
15. The Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake (1:38)
16. The Pick-up (3:23)
17. The Perpetual Self, or “What Would Saul Alinsky Do?” (2:24)
18. For Clyde Tombaugh (3:43)
19. Chicago (Multiple Personality Disorder version) (4:35)
20. Pittsfield (6:41)
21. The Undivided Self (for Eppie and Popo) (4:59)

(Total 75:55)

Asthmatic Kitty Records announced today that it has signed the
Victoria / Vancouver band Shapes and Sizes, and will release the
band’s self-titled debut full-length on July 25, 2006.

From Canada’s misty Pacific Southwest emerges Shapes and Sizes,
fully formed and self-defined, yet redolent with future promise. Shapes
and Sizes’ melodic pop inhabits a world of beauty, noise, whispers,
and elusive, contradictory moods, where the dynamic of a steam
piston gives way to elegiac understatement, often within one song.
With three of its four members writing for the band, their repertoire is
one of constant surprise, often going out on a limb, but never
falling off.

From Victoria, British Columbia, but soon to call Vancouver home,
Caila Thompson-Hannant, Rory Seydel, Jon Crellin and Nathan Gage
sent an unsolicited demo to Asthmatic Kitty, which was received and
loved, but it was their passionate live show and humble charisma that
sold Asthmatic Kitty’s A&R trio (Sufjan Stevens, Lowell Brams, and
Michael Kaufmann) in the end.

Thompson-Hannant commands vocal range and control uncommon
in the world of indie-rock, a purity perfectly balanced by Rory Seydel’s
raw, emotional voice. The quartet is rounded off by the drums and
bass of Crellin and Gage, long time professional musicians whose
experience brings elements of textural complexity to a band that
can build castles in the air and reduce them to atoms. For their
self-titled debut, Shapes and Sizes teamed up with long time Frog
Eyes engineer and local hero, Toland McNeil, and enlisted a gang of
saxophones, trumpets, vibraphones, and violas to further their cause.

Track list:

1.Islands Gone Bad
2.Weekends at a Time
3.I Am Cold
4.Northern Lights
5.Wilderness
6.Goldendhead
7.Topsy Turvey
8.Oh, No, Oh Boy
9.Rory’s Bleeding
10.Boy, You Shouldn’t Have

http://www.asthmatickitty.com
http://www.shapesandsizes.ca/

Tour Dates:

Wed. April 5: London, ONT Alex P. Keaton
Mon. April 10: Thunder Bay, ONT The Apollo
Tue. April 11: Winnipeg, MB Times Changed
Wed. April 12: Saskatoon, SK The Bassment
Thu. April 13: Edmonton, AB Sidewalk Cafe
Fri. April 14: Calgary, AB Palomino Social Club
Sat. April 15: Nelson, BC The Royal
Fri. April 21: Victoria, BC Logan’s Pub