Archive for the 'sufjan stevens' Category

Sufjan Stevens Apparently Not Dead and Still Somewhat Interested in Music : I Think

Published
by
billy
on May 4, 2009
in asthmatic kitty, indie, mp3, music, sofia coppola and sufjan stevens
. 2 Comments

So a few weeks after I wrote a rambling letter imploring Sufjan Stevens to return to his fans and release a new album he has sorta, kinda, maybe responded by teasing us a little bit.  On his blog {which is really just a slice of his label’s website, Asthmatic Kitty}, he occaisionally drops a stream of consciousness post about his past.  On August 24th he talked about his name, how he tried to change it when he was young, and how as an  undergrad at university he wrote an entire album about names.  Apparently the other day he stumbled upon some old recordings and he graciously decided to allow us to hear a track he penned about Sofia Coppola.  Although it’s not technically new music from Sufjan it is new to all of us.  Enjoy.

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Sofia’s Song

And who knows, maybe if I keep writing open letters on the internet we might see a new album before 2012.  Which would be good, because that’s when the world ends.

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To Sufjan Stevens : We, Your Faithful Fans Miss You, Please Come Back To Us

Published
by
billy
on April 7, 2009
in indie, letter, mp3, music, open letter, plea and sufjan stevens
. 17 Comments

Dear Sufjan Stevens,

Every single day that I am at work I find a way to listen to music.  Some days I find myself drifting along to whatever John Richards of KEXP has to offer, other days I browse random websites, myspace pages, and other forms of online media like youtube, and on a few days each month I dive into old albums and songs that I’ve always loved.  I love music and I love to hear random tracks, brilliant live covers, and new music from artists that I genuinely appreciate.

Today at work I received an email that had a link to a youtube video.  It was an artistic piece filled with clips of World War II stock footage and it was set to one of your songs.  I immediately fell in love with the track and began to search, in earnest, for what the track was called and upon what album I could purchase it.  In all honesty this song is quite brilliant.  I went to your website, I visited your label’s website, I spent part of my lunch hour googling your name and reading every abstract blog post containing the words Sufjan or Stevens that I could find.

And I finally found the song.  It was from a performance you did awhile back at PENultimate Lit and the song has never been properly recorded or released.  The bigger issue, though, is where I found the track in question.  You see I found it on my very own blog.  From a post I made almost a full year ago.  It has been so long since I last listened to this random collection of rare Sufjan Steven’s tracks that I literally forgot that I had already posted the song Barn Owl, Night Killer.  It has been this long because you, my friend, have disappeared.

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Barn Owl, Night Killer (Live at PENultimate Lit)

You have disappeared and we, your faithful fans, don’t know where to go to find you again.  We miss your voice and your clever storytelling.  We want another album, or even a live show for which we can purchase tickets.  We would even settle for a rumour that you’re again in the studio working on something that might, possibly, become a song.

I was inspired by you five years ago and it is largely your music that first made me interested in blogging.  I remember how torrents and peer to peer file sharing networks didn’t have your music but there were blogs all over the world that were infatuated with your trademark sound.  They trolled through hours of live recordings to find the newest rare Sufjan track and they cleaned it the best they could before releasing it onto the hungry masses.  I remember checking almost daily on hype and elbows to see if there were any new songs of yours that I could listen to; and I remember being rewarded for that persistence.

At one time I believed that you might yet fulfill the dream of releasing a full album for each of the fifty states.  When other people claimed that the Fifty States Project was too much for any one man to handle I promptly and disdainfully retorted “obviously you don’t know how prolific Sufjan really is.”  I mean you’re the man who created Illinoise and then realized you had cut enough amazing material from that already sprawling epic album that you dropped another full album, The Avalanche, that was filled with just your leftover genius.

But where have you gone?  Where have you disappeared to?  I loved the BQE, and I know you were busy composing, recording, performing, and filming that entire process.  I was overjoyed when I heard you were putting a new song on the compilation the boys from The National cobbled together.  But there is only so long a man can sustain himself on mere scraps that fall from the master’s table.

So I ask you this.  Please let us know that you’re working on a new album and that a massive national tour will follow.  We all miss you.  We are your faithful fans.  Please come back to us.

Sincerely,

Billy
www.theworldforgot.com

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Sufjan Stevens - Best Seasonal Song of All Time?

Published
by
billy
on December 18, 2008
in indie, mp3, music and sufjan stevens
. 9 Comments

When dear Sufjan will you release something new to win our hearts and awake once again the great creative spirit you once stirred in all of us?  When dear Sufjan will you admit that maybe, possibly, you’ve abandoned the idea that each and every state will eventually be blessed by your musical musings?  When dear Sufjan will we ever hear anything new from you?  Will you even tour again?

I bring you this song today for a multitude of reasons.  The first is that I quite honestly think this track, Sister Winter, might be the best seasonal song ever recorded.  There is a sense of winter, of desolate snow filled afternoons, of cold bitter winds, and the loss or death oft associated with this cold season, that permeates every layer of this song.  In the vocals, in the harmony, in the string section, and the lyrics; winter is there.  In the crescendo of the bridge there is a brief hope for spring and the new year that this blustery affair so casually ushers into our lives.  There is Christmas, happiness, and sleigh bells and yet even they serve as but a brief reprieve in the middle of a long, cold, perfect winter.

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Sister Winter

There are three other reasons I’m dropping this song today.  The first is that in all my moving around over the past three weeks I left my external hard drive back where I used to live.  It’s hard to upload tracks and review new albums when they’re all sitting trapped on a drive three hours away {don’t worry, I’ll be getting it this upcoming Christmas}.  The second is that almost all of my free music time {mostly my driving time and some work time} has been devoted to paring down my end of the year list.  As it currently stands I might have found a way to choose a simple ten albums, but I’ve been giving all of the twenty two albums in my short list at least two listens each {and that’s a lot of music}.  The third reason is that I’ve simply been very busy lately and I don’t yet have a place that I can call my own.  I’m still crashing at a mate’s house and looking forward to picking up my own place {hopefully this weekend after my first paycheck is deposited}.

Fret not, TWF will return to a more regularly scheduled broadcast in the near future.  In the meantime wait patiently with great anticipation for my return.  Well, that and listen to Sister Winter on constant repeat for at least an hour.

As usual you can find this track on Sufjan’s peerless Songs For Christmas (itunes).

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BOTM vol 12

Published
by
billy
on November 4, 2008
in amie miriello, arcade fire, ben lee, best of the month, bob, bossonova, botm, chark mu, coldplay, cover, decemberists, digital leather, gnarls barkley, goodtimes goodtimes, indie, jay z, kooks, lily allen, live, mgmt, modest mouse, mp3, music, nirvana, of montreal, raveonettes, smashing pumpkins and sufjan stevens
. 4 Comments

Welcome back to The World Forgot.  Welcome back to the Best of the Month series.  Welcome many readers to election day and welcome the rest of you to a wonderful November 4th.  For those that are still unaware what the BOTM series is all about here’s a quick refresher.  I collect songs all month long and the best that I’ve heard in the past thirty days I put together in one easy to find post.  If you’d like to browse through the past eleven volumes click here.  Enjoy the music, and if you live in the Midwest enjoy the glorious sunshine.

All the tracks in one zip file : here {zshare = left click}

mp3 : Amie Miriello - Disarm (Smashing Pumpkins Cover)
This is easily one of my favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs and I think this cover respects the original material while at the same time Amie isn’t afraid to put her own spin on this classic.  It actually sounds a bit like if Stevie Nicks covered the Pumpkins.

mp3 : Arcade Fire - Brazil (Bossonova Cover)
The music in this cover is every bit as cheeky as you’d expect but for some reason Win Butler’s voice adds just the right amount of gravitas to make this cover worth a second, third, or tenth listen.

mp3 : B.o.B. - Left Field Lovely
This track reminds me of all my favorite parts of Outkast.  If that’s not brilliant enough endorsement for this track I’m willing to bet you hate everything I love.

mp3 : Ben Lee - Float On (Modest Mouse Cover)
This is a pretty raw cover of the song that put Modest Mouse on literally every iPod in the world.  Never mind that about two thirds of the way through the song Ben accidentally halts the song and has to count it off again.  It’s wonderful.

mp3 : Chark Mu - Eh Oh
Mr. Mu makes mighty impressive remixes.  Apparently when he’s not splicing together beats and melodies he’s busy making some equally impressive original material.  Clearly Chark Mu is a force to be reckoned with.

mp3 : Coldplay - Lost+ (feat Jay-Z)
After Chris Martin contributed a bit of talent to that Jay-Z track a ways back we all knew that Z would return the favor.  That’s just the type of classy gentleman he is.  The rhymes don’t kick in until after the two minute mark, but they’re worth the wait.

mp3 : Digital Leather - Dead Sound (Raveonettes Cover)
The first two thirds of this track are filled with enough glitches and blips to satisfy anyone with a heart for Fruity Loops or Acid Pro.  The real beauty reveals itself when the music is stripped away for a moment and you realize your heart is crying out for it to begin again.  Don’t worry, it does.

mp3 : Goodtimes Goodtimes - Eloise
If you’re wondering who should be crowned the next Dylan look no further than this track.  Seriously.  It is as if the vocals, the melodies, the whisper of whimsy, the overdose of melancholy, and the guitar strumming are taken right from Bob himself.

mp3 : Lily Allen - Naive (The Kooks Cover)
Lady Sov can kiss Lily’s butt.  If there was any question as to who was the better of these two oft quarrelling ladies this song puts most of that squabble to bed.  Honestly, can anyone imagine Sov pulling off anything like this?

mp3 : Of Montreal - Crazy (Gnarls Barkley Cover)
It’s live, it doesn’t have the best audio quality, but it captures the fun that is infused into every Of Montreal set.  And let’s not forget that Kevin Barnes can actually sing {even if he might be the weirdest performer currently on tour}.

mp3 : Of Montreal and MGMT - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana Cover)
I’m not sure where this cover comes from.  It’s in a live setting, and it’s decent quality, but what I find more fascinating is that it’s Of Montreal and MGMT paying homage to Nirvana.  And they do it in an appropriate straight up rocking sort of way.  Kudos.

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - In The Words Of The Governor
Will Suf ever release a new album?  There really hasn’t been much news surrounding the Sufjan camp these days.  It seems as if he’s busy shooting high 8 videos, writing instrumental pieces honoring highways, and signing more talent to his ever growing indie label.  This song is way different than most of what you’ve heard.  And it’s still brilliant.

mp3 : The Decemberists - Valerie Plame
I’m not sure The Decemberists will ever live up to the glorious splendor that was The Crane Wife.  Right now they’re putting out a series of EP’s and performing some songs on late night talk shows.  This happens to be one of those songs.  I like it, so just listen to it and agree with me.

That’s all for volume 12 of the BOTM series.  Come back often and read some of the regular posts where I basically tell you what’s good, what’s bad, and I succeed in convincing you that you’re not cool unless you’re just like me.  Oh, and make sure you check back tomorrow to catch the Best of the Remix series.  Cheers.

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TWF Turns Two with Sufjan Stevens

Published
by
billy
on April 15, 2008
in birthday, indie, mp3, music, sufjan stevens, the world forgot, twf and two years
. 3 Comments

Well it’s that time of year again. The time where I once again reminisce about all the fun I’ve had blogging here on The World Forgot. It’s been two full years now since this little music blog was launched and I’d like to think that it’s grown up a bit in the intervening time. Now that I’m officially a toddling blog you can expect me to be even more temperamental, demanding, and precocious than ever before. Here’s to hoping that the next two years will prove to be just as much fun as the past two have been.

As I was thinking over what to post to mark this momentous occasion, while also contemplating that my relationship with this blog has now out performed even the longest of my romantic endeavors, I turned once again to the artist that quite literally got me into blogging in the first place. That artist is Sufjan Stevens and two years ago he was on literally every blog that you had ever heard of on at least a monthly basis. It was my interest in exploring his music, and his storytelling {along with a fair amount of other influences}, that led me to start blogging two years ago. And to commemorate this moment I’ve diced up a a small live set that Sufjan preformed for PENultimate Lit in 2007.

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL (Live at PENultimate Lit)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Interlude 01 (Live at PENultimate Lit)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Barn Owl, Night Killer (Live at PENultimate Lit)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Interlude 02 (Live at PENultimate Lit)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Mistress Witch from Mcclure (Or The Mind That Knows Itself) (Live at PENultimate Lit

This is the entire set he played that day, cut up into individual tracks, and posted in the order they appear in the performance. If you’d care to download the set as one continuous recording you can find that here on PEN American Center’s website. I chose Sufjan for today’s post because of how influential his music has been on how I think and write about music, but also because I’ve blogged about him far more times than any other artist I’ve mentioned here. To check all the posts that include Sufjan Stevens here on The World Forgot simply click here.

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BOTM vol 03

Published
by
billy
on December 26, 2007
in best of the month, botm, clark brothers, cover, indie, jens lekman, killers, lightspeed champion, live, lupe fiasco, macon grayson, magnetic fields, mp3, music, mylo and sufjan stevens
. 7 Comments

Another month has come and gone, almost, and it is once again time for a little Best of the Month roundup. As I’ve said, and explained, before I have a lot more free time than you do. I don’t do much with my life other than listen to music and mess around with friends so, consequently, I have a lot of time to scour the interwebs to find the best music you probably missed on the first go round. These tracks were found using a variety of sources including Hype, Elbows, random blogs, and other music sites. Enjoy the tracks, I hope you all had a magnificent Christmas.

All the tracks in one zip file : here {zshare = left click}

mp3 : Jens Lekman - I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You
mp3 : Lightspeed Champion - Heart in a Cage (Live The Strokes Cover)
mp3 : Lupe Fiasco - Streets on Fire
mp3 : Macon Grayson - Minnesota Weatherman
mp3 : Mylo - Sweet Child of Mine (Live Guns N Roses Cover)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Far Physician’s Son
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - How Can The Stone Remain
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - In the Words of the Governor
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Transfigurartion (Live Orchestral Version)
mp3 : The Clark Brothers - Gimme Shelter (Live Rolling Stones Cover)
mp3 : The Killers - Great Big Sled (Live)
mp3 : The Magnetic Fields - California Girls

Definitely check out the tracks by Lightspeed Champion, the newcomers The Clark Brothers, Mylo, and the new song from the upcoming Magnetic Fields album. The rest of the tracks are pretty awesome as well, especially the very rare Sufjan songs that were graciously given to my by many a concerned reader during my Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens. {if you look closely you’ll notice none of these songs are a remixed track. stay tuned for my inaugural post in the new BOTR series later this week}. Also, does anyone else think that Lupe Fiasco is very similar to Moby mixed with Will Smith? Whatever your opinion this track by Lupe Fiasco is phenomenal. Also, if Macon Greyson isn’t winning the award for ‘band who sounds the most like Lynryd Skynryd’ I don’t know who is.

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Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens part 7

Published
by
billy
on December 11, 2007
in cover, indie, live, mp3, music, rare, sdoss, sufjan stevens and the bqe
. 26 Comments

It has been a wonderful week. This week I’ve met some new friends, reaquainted with old ones, and discovered I haven’t yet heard every single song recorded by Sufjan Stevens. For those of you just dropping by this is the final installment of my current series, Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens. If you’d like to view this entire series on one page you can simply click here and it will be displayed for your viewing pleasure. Also, today is the last day that you can vote for The World Forgot. If you’d like to show some support please leave a comment on this post or simply vote for this blog. On to the music.

This post has literally taken me all day to compile. I’ve been working steadily on the music below for the past seven hours. Yes, seven hours. Granted some of that was uploading time, but most of it was spent editing a large concert file down to individual tracks, finding the best or cleanest version of a song, or simply finding a song to fulfill a request. You’re lucky I didn’t have to work today or this post never would have been realized.

This first section of songs is taken from a 2004 performance that Sufjan played up in Canada. The venue was a place called Lees Palace and it can be found in Toronto. The sound quality of the recording is absolutely excellent. To the best of my knowledge this concert has never been available as individual song downloads, so enjoy this little gem. For those of you who would like the entire concert, simply download the zip file from zshare {link}. This download contains every single second of the recording split up into individual tracks. With the entire concert you get to hear Sufjan banter a bit and explain literally every single song that he plays. The individual tracks listed below are listed in the order they were played that night and they have been edited, as best as possible, so that they contain only the song and not the conversational pieces or the audience applause. Choose your poison.

All the tracks in one zip file : here {zshare = left click}

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Fifty States (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Flint (For The Unemployed and Underpaid) (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Sister (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Upper Peninsula (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - A Good Man Is Hard To Find (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - That Dress Looks Nice On You (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Say Yes! To M!ch!gan! (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Romulus (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - He Woke Me Up Again (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Star Spangled Banner (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace! (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Super Sexy Woman (Live at Lees Palace)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - For the Widows In Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti (Live at Lees Palace)

It is quite an amazing set and I’m glad to be able to post it here. Enjoy it thoroughly, I recommend downloading the entire concert in one zip file as it gives you a much more complete set.

This next live set hails from a Festival Sufjan played October 1st, 2004 called the Festival Para Gente Sentada. Again you have two options to download the tracks. If you would like you can grab all the files in one easy to use zip file. The other option comes as single song downloads for those of you readers who are a bit more frugal with hard drive space. As per usual the tracks below are listed in the order they were played that night.

All the tracks in one place : here {zshare = left click}

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - This One Goes Out To The One I Love (REM Cover) (Live at Festival Para Gente Sentada)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Upper Peninsula (Live at Festival Para Gente Sentada)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Romulus (Live at Festival Para Gente Sentada)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice On You (Live at Festival Para Gente Sentada)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Size Too Small (Live at Festival Para Gente Sentada)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti (Live at Festival Para Gente Sentada)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - He Woke Me Up Again (Live at Festival Para Gente Sentada)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (Live at Festival Para Gente Sentada)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (Live at Festival Para Gente Sentada)

Yet another great set from the esteemed Sufjan Stevens. It seems as if he cannot go wrong. As I’ve said before Sufjan seems to have a certain musical Midas touch with which, and we are all thankful, he has seen appropriate to share this blessing with us all.

This last section of songs hail from all over the map of the Sufjan canon. This is where I’m answering requests that were left during the previous six days. There’s a couple of Christmas tracks, a few from studio albums, and a trifecta of rare and largely unpublished other tracks. The BQE tracks hail from an in studio radio performance Sufjan and his orchestra played at WNYC. For those of you who don’t know The BQE stands for The Brooklyn Queens Expressway and it was a musical composition Sufjan set to a short film he made of that highway. Enjoy the rarities, some of them were an utter pain to find.

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Bushwick Junkie
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - God’ll Ne’er Let You Down
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Holy, Holy, Holy
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Sister Winter
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The BQE Movement 3 (Live on WNYC)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The BQE Movement 6 (Live on WNYC)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Come On! Feel The Illinoise!: Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition/Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Variation On Commemorative Transfiguration & Communion At Magruder Park

At long last this brings us to the end of the 2007 installment of Seven Days of Sufjan.  I hope you’ve enjoyed your time here at The World Forgot and I hope I’ll see you back in the future.  I’m not sure how long these tracks will stay available here as they seem to be downloaded literally by the dozens and it kills my bandwidth allowance. I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip through all things Sufjan and make sure you see him live to really experience his genius. Support him as an artist and support other bands on his label, Asthmatic Kitty. Cheers.

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Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens part 6

Published
by
billy
on December 10, 2007
in indie, live, mp3, music, rare, sdoss and sufjan stevens
. 10 Comments

Welcome to the sixth installment of Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens. This is a series that I began, largely in jest, last year when my blog was still a young pup just learning to run around. This time around I’m dumping massive amounts of tracks from the ubiquitous Sufjan and I’m also encouraging you, if you like what you’re getting, to vote for this blog in the Billboard Best Music Blog competition. You only have two days left to vote, so hurry up and vote for this blog.

These tracks hail largely from various sources. Some are from the B-Sides of Michigan. Some performances have only ever been heard live. Others hail from compilation albums or an EP. Wherever they come from they are mostly rare. To the die hard Sufjan fan these might be old news. You might even have them floating around on your drive somewhere. For the rest of the world here’s a chance to see Sufjan in a new light.

All the tracks in one zip file : here {zshare = left click}

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Adlai Stevenson (Alternate Version)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Borderline
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (To String Remix by Jongalloway)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (Live at The Knitting Factory)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Jupiter Bad June (Live at MusicNOW Festival)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Majesty, Snowbird (Live)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Many Guides (Live on Wired for Sound)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Niagara Falls (Final)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Opie’s Funeral Song
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Friendly Beasts
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Lord God Bird
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone With You (Live)

If you’ve never heard Niagara Falls, Opie’s Funeral Song, or The Lord God Bird those are the three tracks that you should listen to immediately. Don’t hesitate, just listen. The rest of the tracks are quality as well. I hope you’re enjoying Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens. If you’d like to see the entire series on one page simply click here. Tomorrow I was planning on dropping two full live sets {at least one of which is recorded from the soundboard} and Movements 3 and 6 from the BQE. Does that sound like something you would be interested in?

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Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens part 5

Published
by
billy
on December 9, 2007
in cover, indie, mp3, music, sdoss and sufjan stevens
. 8 Comments

The Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens in 2007 is winding down my friends but it has been a good ride thus far. I hope you’ve all enjoyed the tracks posted and if you missed any feel free to click here and view the entire series of posts on one page.

Today I take a look at various covers that Sufjan has preformed, both in studio recordings and live. Although this isn’t a complete list of efforts these tracks serve to show his versatility as a musician as he covers some songs straight up and other songs he puts his own Sufjan spin on. Covers in this series can be found a variety of compilation albums; most notably Dream Brother, A Tribute to Joni Mitchell (iTunes), This Bird has Flown, and the soundtrack to the film I’m Not There (iTunes).

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Free Man In Paris (Joni Mitchell Cover)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Lakes of Canada (Live The Innocence Mission Cover)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Ring Them Bells (Bob Dylan Cover)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - She Is (Tim Buckley Cover)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The One I Love (Live REM Cover)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - What Goes On (Beatles Cover)

The song Lakes of Canada is especially wonderful and if there comes a request or two I could possibly post the original by The Innocence Band sometime soon. We’ll see if anyone wants it. Cheers.

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Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens part 4

Published
by
billy
on December 8, 2007
in indie, kcrw, live, mp3, music, sdoss and sufjan stevens
. 4 Comments

Welcome back to day four in the massive run of Sufjan Stevens tracks. I hope you’re enjoying this little endeavor I’ve undertaken, but more importantly I hope you’re learning to love Sufjan in a new or deeper way. The man is a modern day musical genius. He can capture hearts like no other composer and although he has spawned a massive wave of talented musicians there are relatively few that can hold a candle to the particularities of Sufjan.

Today the tracks I’m bringing come from another radio performance Sufjan did in the year two thousand and five. Yesterday I put up his set from KEXP, and today I’m posting his set from another great radio station, KCRW. {Now if only I could find a performance from WOXY I would have covered the trifecta of great American Radio} If you’ve never been to site for KCRW you should check it out. They offer an amazingly complete listening archive where you can listen to old shows, programs, and generally anything of merit they’ve ever broadcast. If you dig their programs please take a moment and support their fine station. And as a side bonus, if you support them now, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win trips to Rome, Australia, or to drive away with a Smart Car.

The tracks here below were originally broadcast in a show entitled Morning Becomes Eclectic hosted by the indelible Nic Harcourt. If you’d rather listen to a stream of the show you can find that here on their site. Below the show is posted in the correct track order for the performance.

All the tracks in one zip file : here {zshare = left click}

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Intro (Live on KCRW)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day (Live on KCRW)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts (Live on KCRW)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (Live on KCRW)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Interview (Live on KCRW)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (Live on KCRW)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - A Good Man is Hard to Find (Live on KCRW)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Jacksonville (Live on KCRW)

If you’re enjoying this series on The World Forgot I would like to say thanks for reading. If you’d like to view the other posts in this series click here. Also, thanks for all the great comments I’ve received, it’s always nice to get feedback. Enjoy the music and support KCRW.

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Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens part 3

Published
by
billy
on December 7, 2007
in indie, kexp, live, mp3, music, sdoss and sufjan stevens
. 8 Comments

I’m blogging about Sufjan each and every day for seven days straight. To see the rest of these posts simply click here. Also, if you like what you’re reading/seeing/hearing feel free to vote for my blog. Each vote would be much appreciated. {click here, then click on the blue ‘rate it’ button in the upper left}.

Today’s post hails from the year two thousand and five when Sufjan was invited to play a live set for one of my favorite radio stations, KEXP. If you don’t know what KEXP is, or you’ve never heard of them, then please take a second to hang out on their site. They stream all of their old shows {including concerts} for free as well as webcasting their daily broadcast to anyone who is willing to visit their site. For those of you who are big fans, or have deep pocket books, then please take a moment and help support a great radio station. You can even volunteer time, become an intern, or join one of KEXP’s street teams.

These Sufjan tracks hail from a show he played for KEXP at a venue called the Triple Door. If you’d rather stream the entire performance from KEXP you may certainly do so here, or to make life a little more portable, and a little more convenient, you can download the entire set in mp3 format below. Enjoy this third installment of Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens, it was a total bear to cobble this set together.

All the tracks in one zip file : here {zshare = left click}

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day (Live on KEXP)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (Live on KEXP)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Jacksonville (Live on KEXP)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (Live on KEXP)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Prairie Fire That Wanders About (Live on KEXP)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts (Live on KEXP)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us! (Live on KEXP)
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders Part I The Great Frontier (Live on KEXP)

The track order, as performed that night, can be found in the comments on this post.

It’s a beautiful concert broadcast by a great radio station I have been listening to for a long time. Visit KEXP and help support them and the great artists they give airtime to. Also worth noting is that this live rendition of John Wayne Gacy, Jr. is a full ninety seconds longer than its album counterpart. And let me say, each of those ninety seconds is well worth it.

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Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens part 2

Published
by
billy
on December 6, 2007
in christmas, indie, mp3, music, sdoss, sufjan stevens and vote
. 4 Comments

Ah, is it really part 2 in this series already? Time flies when you’re listening to Sufjan. For those first time readers this is a series where I will post tracks by Sufjan Stevens seven days in a row. The more positive votes I receive {vote here, click on the blue ‘rate it’ button in the upper left} and the more comments you leave here on the blog, the more tracks I will put in the following posts. It’s up to you.

These tracks come, again, from Songs For Christmas (iTunes), which is the first legitimate modern answer to the ages of Christmas music in the assumed Christmas Music Canon. I’m not sure if such a canon actually exists, but if I was in charge I would put this box set alongside the Christmas work of Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra. It is really that good. My favorite of the set is the fifth disc, entitled Peace, and it is from this disc that the first two tracks listed below are taken. The other songs come from the third and fourth disc in the set and are tagged appropriately.

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Once In Royal David’s City
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Star of Wonder
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - All The King’s Horns
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Did I Make You Cry On Christmas? (Well You Deserved It!)

Listen to every single track by Sufjan Stevens that you can find. The man has the Midas touch {and all other sort of appropriate metaphors as well}. Also, I seem to be honoring requests, if I can, so that is why Once In Royal David’s City was included today.

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Seven Days of Sufjan Stevens part 1

Published
by
billy
on December 5, 2007
in christmas, indie, mp3, music, sdoss, sufjan stevens and vote
. 11 Comments

Welcome to the second annual Seven Days of Sufjan here at The World Forgot.  For those of you who are new to this concept let me explain the rules.  I will be posting Sufjan tracks, some rare and some more commonplace, each and every single day for the following seven days.  The more comments that each post gets the more tracks I will post.  Also, this year, the more positive votes I get for my blog {vote here} the more tracks I will be posting.  And I’ll go ahead and say that I have a ton of great music from Sufjan Stevens including an entire concert and a load of tracks you might not be able to find anywhere but here.   So go leave comments, vote for the blog, do whatever you want to do if you think it will garner more great music from Sufjan.

To get it started I’ve taken some tracks from Sufjan’s Christmas compilation entitled, simply, Songs for Christmas (iTunes).  I hope you enjoy the music, there’s plenty more to come.

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Amazing Grace
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - It’s Christmas! Let’s Be Glad
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Only At Christmas Time
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Put The Lights On The Christmas Tree

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BOTM vol 01

Published
by
billy
on November 1, 2007
in arcade fire, best of the month, bishop allen, botm, bright eyes, cover, feist, jeff tweedy, mix, mp3, nada surf, radiohead, remix and sufjan stevens
. 8 Comments

I did this style of mix a couple of times in the past but now they’ll hopefully become a regular part of the lineup here on The World Forgot. So welcome to the first of many Best of the Month compilations. Basically I do a lot of random reading, listening, searching, finding, digesting, etc. of all the music that I can possibly get my hands on. And let’s be honest, I probably have a bit more free time than you do. Judging from the fact that I’m writing this extensive explanation and you’re simply skimming through it looking for the mp3 links I would say that’s a fair assessment of our relative free time to work time ratios. But in this case when I win, with more free time than you suckas, you end up winning with more good music.

Here listed below are tunes I randomly sampled and loved from across the interwebs this past great month of October. By no means is it a conclusive list of who’s who and what’s what, but it is a small smattering of great music that you might have missed as you carried on with your fascinatingly involved thing some people call a “real life.” Seeing as how I haven’t had one of those since I graduated from college and failed to find a “real job” I guess it’s only fair.

As with all future BOTM volumes I recommend each and every track listed here below. They’re all worth a moment of your time. Cheers, and enjoy the first volume of BOTM.

mp3 : Arcade Fire - Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son (Serge Gainsbourg Cover)
mp3 : Bishop Allen - You Ain’t No Picaso
mp3 : Bright Eyes - Southern State
mp3 : Feist - Mushaboom (Postal Service Remix)
mp3 : Jeff Tweedy - Simple Twist of Fate
mp3 : Nada Surf - See These Bones
mp3 : Radiohead - Faithless the Wonder Boy
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Ring My Bells

Is it just me or does Jeff Tweedy sound like a young Bob Dylan on this track. And I might be reaching here but this Radiohead track I swear would fit in perfect as a b-side for Weezer’s Pinkerton. Maybe I’m crazy, you be the judge. And for once can Nada Surf make an entire album that lives up to their full potential for a full length? Please.

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Liz Janes

Published
by
billy
on April 7, 2007
in indie, liz janes, mp3, music and sufjan stevens
. 0 Comments


Liz Janes sounds a bit like a mashup of everything Sufjan Stevens has ever experimented with and the voice of a girl who grew up listening to pop radio in the late 70’s. Sometimes awkward, to be sure, but most of the time overflowing with warmth, vitality, and a smokey sort of personality that is unapologetically and unabashedly everything she wanted it to be. Maybe swagger would be a good word for Liz. She has a certain experimental swagger that coincided nicely with Sufjan’s backdrop of sound.

mp3 : Liz Janes - Lonesome Valley
mp3 : Liz Janes - Proposition
mp3 : Liz Janes - Wonderkiller

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Seven Days of Sufjan : part 7

Published
by
admin
on December 17, 2006
in indie, mp3, music and sufjan stevens
. 3 Comments


Today is a sad day because it marks the last of my Seven Days of Sufjan. It was a fun trip while it lasted and I hope I provided you all with some Christmas cheer and some harder to find tracks. Thanks for all the comments everyone. Also, merry Christmas to you all. Over the past week I’ve been getting hits on this blog from every continent but Antarctica, but I’m sure that’s just because it’s summer for them right now so they’re probably off sipping cocktails and chasing penguins.

Enjoy this track from Sufjan’s Songs for Christmas. If you’re interested in the man you should take a second and read the bio posted on his label’s website. here . It’s really a rather interesting biography.

mp3 : Sufan Stevens - It’s Christmas Let’s Be Glad

And as promised some harder to find tracks for you all to enjoy.

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Borderline
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The First Full Moon
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - The Star Spangled Banner
mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - Variation on Commemorative Transfiguration and Communion at Magruder Park

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[up next: one stop shop, new forgather songs, page france]

Seven Days of Sufjan : part 6

Published
by
admin
on December 16, 2006
in indie, mp3, music and sufjan stevens
. 1 Comment

Sorry kids but I’m strapped for time right now. I’m posting this real quick before I head out into the place some people refer to as the real world. Amazing, I know.

Something else that is amazing is this song by Sufjan. Yesterday I posted the instrumental ditty that is derived from this full length song. Both are great and worthy of space on your hard drive, but this one has words, you know, if that’s what you’re into.

Enjoy.

mp3 : Sufjan Stevens - O Come O Come Emmanuel

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[up next: the last day of sufjan, one stop shop vol 1]