Some of our favourite Long Playing Records of 2012

SEA PINKS 'Freak Waves' CF Records

THE BABIES 'Our House On The Hill' Woodsist

DUNES 'noctiluca' Post Present Medium

DEEP TIME '   ' Hardly Art

SIMON JOYNER 'Ghosts' Sing, Eunuchs!

U.S. GIRLS 'Gem' Fat Cat

 

VARIOUS ARTISTS 'SOME SONGS Side-by-Side' LP box Set 

 

HOUSEHOLD 'Items' Dull Knife

GROUP RHODA 'Out of Time Out of Touch' Night School

 

IRMA VEP 'HA HA' Turquoise Coal

PARQUET COURTS 'Light Up Gold' Dull Tools

GRASS WIDOW 'Internal Logic' HLR records

THE PHEROMOANS 'Does This Guy Stack Up?' Upset The Rhythm

 

ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITTI 'Mature Themes' 4AD

INIGO UGARTEBURU 'Back & Forth' Talo recordings

JULIA HOLTER 'Ekstasis' RVNG

LEONARD COHEN 'Old Ideas' Columbia

CHAIN & THE GANG 'In Cool Blood' K

WHITE FENCE 'Family Perfume Volume 1' Woodsist

                                                     

THEE OH SEES 'Putrifiers II' In The Red

MOUNT EERIE 'Clear Moon' P.W. Elverum & Sun

SIC ALPS '   ' Drag City

BIRTHDAY TAPES MMXII explanatory notes

At the beginning of the MMXIIth Year of our Lord we started a new collaborative with our sweet-hearted friends GIANT HELL.
We called it BIRTHDAY TAPES, as it was to be in concert with the cosmos and zodiac-affiliated and but also because we wanted each object to feel like a gift, wrapped as they are specially commissioned ark work.
Essentially a 'singles' club with one split release per zodiacal month.
So in MMXII there will be contributions from 24 different bands /recording artists and 12 visual artists/ image makers/ illustrators.

You can listen to the 7 so far below.

The series can be subscribed to HERE or digitally HERE.

Alternatively individual releases can be purchased HERE or digitally HERE

There a still a few full subscriptions remaining, which, in addition to all 12 tapes, also include a hand-mae wooden box to keep them all in courtesy of WINEBOX PRESS as well as some other surprises  and printed matter.

If you have any questions please direct them to:
 birthdaytapes@gmail.com or comfortableonatightrope@gmail.com

BIRTHDAY TAPES 003 ARIES SIMON JOYNER / CARCASCARA

Since the world is running out of money and it cannot be long before a rat becomes a unit of currency ,  so it becomes more important than ever that we humans think carefully about how we choose to dispense our funds---hard-earned or otherwise. It is with this consideration in mind we attempt to divert some of your attention to  two projects we sincerely believe are worth investing in.


SIMON JOYNER has long been one of our heroes and is, was and forever will remain a source of inspiration to us. The first Comfortable On a Tightrope show was set up for Simon Joyner. We celebrated our 3rd Anniversary by booking a UK Tour for him. And hopefully 2012 will see him return to our shores once more. You can help make this  more likely and practicable and snag yourself some rare and beautiful artifacts all at once by following the links below.






The 6 years since Diane Cluck released a new album have felt like an eternity. We've been fortunate that, throughout that time, she's made annual visit's to the UK and performed shows wherein we've heard some new songs but that's no consolation for the absence of new recordings. Thankfully, the wait is almost over. For 6 months, from March through 'til September Diane Cluck will write, record and disseminate a  song a week. The project is called, simply 'SONG OF THE WEEK' . You can read all about it and donate HERE

Simon Joyner is giving away cd's, records and t-shirts

to raise money for his daughter Tinca to study at a Native American reservation. He explains the details better than we can so we'll hand it over after noting that the albums he is giving away are some of the greatest ever made and that the t-shirts are designed by David Bailey and feature the 'skull' design he made for the winter 2007 UK tour:

Simon Joyner CD, LP and T-Shirt GIVE-AWAY!

Hey everybody, I'm raising money to send my daughter Tinca on a
service project to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana this summer.
She's been accepted by the Visions Service Adventures organization
(read about it at http://www.visionsserviceadventures.com/).

To meet the tuition requirements, we are giving away my cds and
t-shirts with every donation we receive. I have the following titles
available on cd: Out Into the Snow, Skeleton Blues, Beautiful Losers,
The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll, and Lost With the Lights On.

I also have silver-on-black American Apparel Simon Joyner skull
t-shirts and black-on-maroon skull t-shirts in most sizes (s, m, l,
xl). Every donation helps but any amount over $7 gets you a free cd or
t-shirt shipping included.

To donate to the cause, use the Paypal donation button on Tinca's blog
(http://tincasvisions.tumblr.com/) or send directly to
simon@simonjoyner.net via Paypal. If you are an international donor,
we can't include shipping so write me for a shipping total before
making your donation. When donating, please indicate which cd or
t-shirt color and size you would like in the "Notes" section at Paypal
and include your shipping address.

Any donation of $50 or more gets you all five available cds AND a t-shirt!

If you prefer vinyl to cd, any donation of $20 gets you an
inscribed LP. I have the same titles available on vinyl, plus the
following older titles: Songs for the New Year, Heaven's Gate, 2xLP
Yesterday Tomorrow and In Between, and Stranger Blues (a limited
edition collaboration with Dennis Callaci on Catsup Plate Records).

You can get all 9 vinyl LPs and a t-shirt for any donation of $100 or
more. If you already have the music but want to donate, we can send
the cd, lp, or t-shirt as a gift to a friend of your choosing, just
let us know.

Finally, Sara and I will be posting a big public thanks with a list of
donors on our Facebook pages (unless you prefer to remain anonymous)
and Tinca will post a thank you list on her blog as well. Feel free to
pass this along and thanks for considering a donation.
-Simon

GRAPEFRUIT RECORD CLUB

Is  a new, subscription-only record label from Simon Joyner and Ben Goldberg (Ba Da Bing! records). The first year subscription is on sale now (with staggered-payment options, half subscriptions and gift subscriptions available) until Valentines Day 2011. As you'd expect from Simon Joyner it's a considered and sincere project done with utmost care and integrity. Quite simply, they just tried to figure out the best (and most sustainable) way to release records by bands and artists they truly care about. All of this is better put on their website which you should visit immediately and thus solve any Christmas present dilemmas you may have been experiencing.

A first year subscribtion entitles you to four exclusive LP's and a handsome box to house them in which only leaves you to decide where to file the records in your collection (if you're operating an alphabetical system). The participating artists are LAMBCHOP (the Grapefruit disc compiles recordings from Kurt Wagner's first two home-recorded cassettes), Richard Youngs (one of the most prolific, compelling and genuinely experimental musicians/songwriters for the last 20 years), L. Eugene Methe (Legendary Omaha songwriter/experimentalist) and 200 Years (the new collaboration between Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance and Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Markers). The amount of records pressed will be equal to the number of subscribers which means the only way to get ahold of these amazing records will be to SUBSCRIBE.

'Dylan's Birthday Present'

is the name of what will be our first ever audio release.

IRMA VEP 'DYLAN'S BIRTHDAY PRESENT'  is A C-55 of pure Rothko darkness and beauty, 12 songs/self-eviscerations recorded by the guy in the foreground of the above photograph* as a birthday present for the guy in the background (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN!)

Street date November 18th: five years to the day from our first ever show

PRE-ORDER now from HERE and get it before everyone else and to guarantee you get one 

(first run 50 copies)

Some guys that played that first ever show, and  also have a new tape for sale HERE have just made two videos with David Bailey on webcam duty:

'TAKE THE LEAD'

 

& 'THE GOLDEN ROAD'

Simon Joyner, the reason this whole thing started also has a new album out. It is called 'Out Into The Snow' and we recommend you buy that HERE where you can also buy a T-shirt designed by afore-mentioned video-director David Bailey.

 * taken by Adam Faulkner

The excitement surrounding

the new Simon Joyner LP 'Out into the Snow' is mounting considerably. If you've not yet had the pleasure of hearing this great mans music, it's a good time to start. And the sweet folks at TEAM LOVE are making it really easy; the title track and 'Roll On' are up for your listening pleasure and if you join the Team Love library you can download a free retrospective consisting of  9 songs from the Simon Joyner songbook. If you pre-order the new LP you'll receive a  45rpm 7" with two new, exclusive songs. As if this wasn't too exciting already there are also new T-shirts designed by  our bro' Dave Bailey. The eagled-eyed amongst you may recognise the bullet-ridden skull as tweaked from  the 2007 Simon Joyner UK tour poster. Whatever, it's a beaut in either colour.

The D-Train, as well as taking the three-panel 'Daily'-type comic strip into the 4th dimension with Flesh & Bone, is a contributor to Jess Higgins' amazing new zine/life-project 'MUSEUMS' for which we are helping plan a launch (in OCTOBER) and are busy compiling a compilation tape to accompany which, hopefully, will feature (amongst 85 other minutes of bomb tracks from around the world) a new and exclusive Simon Joyner track. *

*the cyclical nature, convenient segue and narrative resolution/self-containment of this post was inspired by Curb Your Enthusiasm (in general) and (specifically) the episode wherein LD drools on the M.D at 'The Producers'. 

Simon Joyner has made some of our

very favourite records of all time. They don't come out too often so when they do it's quite a big deal. He has a new one out on Team Love in September. It is called 'Out Into The Snow' and you can listen to one jam called 'Roll On' here.

This is what the front cover will look like. 

A Recipe, a reminder and some amazing records

Tonight we ate three different salads for the third consecutive night. This means it is summer and it is hot in the kitchen. The veg box from DIG did not really work out, we are thinking maybe about 'Limited Resources' instead. Last night we had Chargrilled courgettes, aubergine and haloumi with roasted baby tomatoes, couscous with dried apricots and pistachio and a cucumber and poppy seed salad which were all Ottolenghi or Ottolenghi-inspired. Tonight we had a white tuna salad, a grated carrot salad with french dressing and a classic tomato & avocado number.The next night we ate whale the next night we ate whale the next night we ate whale. The recipe below was learned from Inigo Ugarteburu and Ana. Inigo plays with Cafe Teatro and carcascara. You can buy their records from TALO records along with one by Atanas Arkestra. All three are amazing and housed in beautiful hand-made sleeves. There are only 125 copies of each. We're going to try and buy some to re-sell from here, at which point we'll write more about them.
Oh, and also the hardest to find and one of the most hard hitting Simon Joyner records entitled 'The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll' has been re-issued by Team Love. This is the record that made history when John Peel (R.I.P) played it in its entirety on his radio show. It is worthy of that high honour and then some. Also, we have some of the last remaining original-issue Simon Joyner LP's for sale. I think we have some 'Heaven's Gate', 'Songs for the New Year and maybe one ' Yesterday, Tomorrow & In-Between'. Email comfortableonatightrope@yahoo.co.uk if you're interested. They will be cheaper than ebay and plus all of the money will go to Mr. Joyner.

WHITE TUNA SALAD
preparation time 20 minutes
Ingredients (optional if *)
Dressing
A glug of good and spicy spanish or portuguese olive oil
One tea-spoon/ a pinch of Sweet, Spanish Smoked Paprika (Perry/Laetitia)
Couple shallots or one french white onion or a light red onion (very finely chopped)
A handful of olives (very finely chopped)
The juice of two lemons
A clove of garlic*
Sea Salt & Black Pepper
Some Fresh herbs (basil, baby thyme, parsley, coriander, whatever)*
Salad
Mixed salad leaves (a bowl full)
One jar or tin Spanish White Tuna in oil (if you can't find that you can use yellowfin, but it is worth the effort to find)
One or two sweet peppers
A handful of cherry or baby-plum tomatoes*
Some really good stale bread, roughly torn into bite-sized bits (this is the star of the show, do not leave it out, it absorbs all of the dressing and makes a meal of the whole thing)

Mix the dressing and and then add to the tuna and leaves. Finally add the bread and, gently, scrunch it all together (is it possible to 'scrunch' gently. Eat with Friends.

Then come and watch NISENNENMONDAI at the deaf institute. Golden Lab will be providing you with your second oppurtunity to buy their amazing zine 'BREAD' and you will have one of the first oppurtunities to pick up 'The Rookie Files' which is a new zine of interviews which are both radical and nice.