Above (left): Collage by Aya & Jason (Overture), created live in the radio station during the broadcast of Arthur Radio Voyage #9. Double-click to view fullscreen.

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Download: Arthur Radio Voyage #9: Forest Dwelling with Overture

This week we arrived at the Newtown Radio studio to find it transformed beyond recognition… emerald green vines blanketed the walls, and a lush carpet of multi-colored mosses and swamp grass covered the floor. We pushed our way through a thicket of elephant ears into a sun-dappled glade, where our guests Jason & Aya (otherwise known as Overture, the minds behind the cover of the recent Six Organs of Admittance/Azul split LP), were seated on bed of soft purple and magenta leaves. We listened under the shade of a poplar tree as they read tales of fantastical landscapes where landslides, floods and rainfall had created a boggy wonderland full of dancing musical animals, rhubarb babies, and a wise old vegetable lady…

After the storytelling, we ventured into the glade to ask our enchanting guests more about these worlds they had woven before our eyes. The first reading, it turns out, was inspired by a spine-tinglingly beautiful animation that the the super-artist duo made for Múm’s song “Rhubarbidoo” from their 2007 album Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy.

The second reading was inspired by the following three animations, which the artists made for experimental piano maestro Hauschka’s 2008 album Ferndorf:

The third reading, a story in which “An old man confronts his fears, traveling across a personal landscape to realize and accept his path,” was based on an animation Overture made for the song “Bless” by Icelandic musician Kira Kira, which is featured on her 2008 album Our Map to the Monster Olympics. This video was just released to the world officially yesterday — Enjoy!!!

Learn more about Jason & Aya’s work and future escapades at http://www.opertura.org and on their blog.

This week’s playlist…
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Download: “Lion Dance” — Glass Rock (mp3)

One of ten beauties on Glass Rock’s debut, Tall Firs Meet Soft Location, out now via Ecstatic Peace (more info…).

Last Sunday Arthur Radio embarked on its eighth voyage, this time to the wind-swept deserts of Greece, Morocco, Arizona and beyond… Special guest Robert Damore (aka Bobby Bouzouki) graced the Newtown Radio studio with the warm, nostalgia-inducing sounds of his bouzouki, and even took the time to tell us some of the narratives behind the rebetika (Greek folk songs) that he played during his set.

Before your journey begins, dear listeners, we have the following message to deliver from ye olde writing desk of DJ Hairy Painter…

The sun is here and opens the curtains slowly! It brings the slow glowing dust! It springs the earth out of polar jail, the winds blow the desert sand to make for better traction. If you sit, it will make your hair look sexier! The tectonic plates are shifting all around us, their quakes make the planet spin faster, and change the pitch! If you jump, you can land in buttes, the plateaus, or the Isle of Cyros! Through our earth’s muzak, the winds blow Bobby Bouzouki up to the Arthur radio treehouse for a jaunt upon rebetika mountain. Happy trials!

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Download: Arthur Radio Voyage #8 with Bobby Bouzouki

This week’s playlist…
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New strength from longtime Arthur faves (and ArthurNights 2006 alumni) the Archie Bronson Outfit…

Another freeform blast set off from a location hidden deep inside the Newtown Radio labyrinth…sit back and allow the soundwaves to reverberate over you as the Arthur Radio team busies itself with scooping musical gems out of the debris.

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Download: Arthur Radio 2-28-2010

This week’s playlist…
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Download: “Tell Me Thing” — Dios (mp3)

From the fellas’ new album We Are Dios, available in a large variety of formats from the band via topspin at http://www.wearedios.com/…

Sunday was a very special day for Arthur Radio. We never thought that co-host Hairy Painter would return to Brooklyn after spending a month building Mardi Gras floats and dancing to “sissy bounce” music in Nola, but he surprised us at the station door — out of breath, suitcase in hand — right when we were about to go on. And we never thought we would be able to cram one sound engineer, one baby, five DJs, half a dozen synthesizers, and all six members of Excepter inside the Newtown Radio studio, but somehow we pulled the whole production off without a hitch. Following the release of their new double album Presidence on Paw Tracks last Tuesday, (“Presidence Day observed”), Excepter graced the Arthur airwaves with a set so on point it caused unnoticed seismic shifts beneath a 24-hour techno-rave in Istanbul. Emilie Friedlander (Visitation Rites) engaged Jon Fell Ryan in a wobbly Q&A, and Ivy Meadows and Hairy Painter piled on layer upon layer of elliptical wax to set the scene…

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Download: Excepter on Arthur Radio 2-21-2010

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John Fell Ryan (otherwise known as “JFR” of Excepter) on his ink drawings (shown above – click on view fullscreen to enlarge):

These are all from the Spring of 1998. I was living alone on the corner of Metropolitan and Driggs in Williamsburg, trying to merge cartooning and abstract design with concepts of American Folk mythology and Jungian sex magick. No real art world aim in mind; these were done for reasons of personal development.

Last week on Presidents’ Day, Excepter dropped their new album, “Presidence.” Two days later, a show of drawings by band member JFR came to a close at Fingered Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn. In light of these seemingly aligned (and undeniably cosmic) events, Arthur Radio is excited to announce that Excepter will be performing an unbridled freeform transmission, including a live interview session with Emilie Friedlander (Visitation Rites), this Sunday from 4-6pm EST on newtownradio.com. Hairy Painter and Ivy Meadows will be there, and we’re all invited to come along for the ride…

Excepter – “Teleportation: KAL” (Presidence)

Above: Sonny (right) and a Sunset

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Download: “Lovin’ On An Older Gal” — Sonny & the Sunsets (mp3)

Buy:

There’s something about this song… From an album full of Velvets-on-the-beach singalongs called Tomorrow Is Alright, released late last year by San Francisco-based Sonny & the Sunsets. A run of 500 on vinyl is gone already but CDs are available for pre-order now from the good folks at Soft Abuse.

Sonny & the Sunsets: http://www.myspace.com/sonnythesunsets

Sonny Smith: sonnysmith.com

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(Above: Collage featuring in-studio photo by Anna Gonick and artwork by Wish)

This past Sunday, Emilie Friedlander (Visitation Rites) joined Ivy Meadows in the depths of the Newtown Radio caverns to celebrate the first day of the Year of the Tiger. Zeljko McMullen of the music/visual/art collective Shinkoyo played us a live set via his solo musical vessel Wish, and we all took a moment to reflect on the dazzlingly multidimensional, many-mirrored, endless maze that is love…

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Download: Arthur Radio #5: Amor Apocalíptico 2-14-2010

This week’s playlist…
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“Kingfisher”: another new song from Joanna Newsom’s forthcoming tripler Have One On Me, via the good folk at Drag City of Chicago.

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Download: “Kingfisher” — Joanna Newsom (mp3, 10.3mb)

Previously:

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Download: “Good Intentions Paving Company” — Joanna Newsom (mp3)

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Download: “‘81″ — Joanna Newsom (mp3)

Previously in Arthur Magazine:

“Forty-Six Strings and Some Truths”: JOANNA NEWSOM’s first ever major interview, by Jay Babcock, from Arthur No. 10 (April 2004)

“Always Coming Home”: How California harper JOANNA NEWSOM’s masterpiece album Ys grew from a time of personal turmoil, ambitious collaboration and eating hamburgers again. By Erik Davis, from Arthur No. 25 (Nov 2006)

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