Summer in the Southeast

The Trekky crew did year end best of lists. Here’s mine. A late addition would have to be Jim O’Rourke’s “The Visitor” record. So damn good. Check out the rest of the crew’s over here.

01. Megafaun- “Gather, Form & Fly”
02. Bowerbirds- “Upper Air”
03. Akron/Family- “Set ‘em Wild, Set ‘em Free”
04. Midtown Dickens- “Lanterns”
05. Mount Eerie- “Wind’s Poem”
06. Chris Darrow- “s/t + Under My Own Disguise” (Everloving reissue)
07. Phil Cook and His Feet- “s/t”
08. The Dodos- “Time to Die”
09. Embarrassing Fruits- “Community / Exploitation”
10. Slaraffenland- “We’re On Your Side”
11. Volcano Choir- “Unmap”
12. Califone- “All My Friends Are Funeral Singers”
13. Horseback- “The Invisible Mountain”
14. The Kingsbury Manx- “Ascenseur Ouvert!”
15. Julie Doiron- “I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day”
16. Tinariwen- “Imidiwen Companions”
17. Hammer No More the Fingers- “Looking for Bruce”
18. Vetiver- “Tight Knit”
19. V/A- “Ghana Special” (Soundway)
20. Phosphorescent- “To Willie”

12”s/7”s/EPs/Singles:
01. High Places/Soft Circle- split 12”
02. Superchunk- “Crossed Wires” 7”
03. High Places- “I Was Born” single
04. Mark McGuire- “VDSQ - Solo Acoustic Volume Two”
05. Bell- “Magic Tape” 7”
06. No Age- “Losing Feeling” EP
07. Whatever Brains- “Saddle Up” 7”
08. Horseback- “MILH IHVH” 7”
09. All Tiny Creatures- “Segni” 12”

Most looking forward to in 2010: Gayngs (you’ve never really partied unless you’ve partied to Gayngs)

Trekky News Round-up

Things have been super busy and exciting over at Trekky as of late. Tons of rehearsals/recordings, shows, tour planning, and all that good stuff. Here’s a little update about all that stuff.

We are hosting our fourth annual Christmas at the Cradle benefit on Tuesday December 15th at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro. Tons of our friends/favorite bands from the area are playing, it’s sure to be a blast. Check all the info here. I did a little interview for the Independent about the show.

My dear friend Daniel moved to LA about a year ago. He’s been on the road pretty much nonstop over the last couple of years with his other band, St. Vincent. Daniel also plays in his own band called The Physics of Meaning. Trekky put their last record out. Anyway, Daniel and Physics are doing a quick tour out to Austin, TX where they will begin work on some new recordings. The tour kicks off tonight at Nightlight with our friend Perry Wright (from Prayers and Tears, fresh of a tour playing guitar in The Mountain goats) and Odessa records’ Wild Wild Geese. Check out more info/all the tour dates here.

It’s been so awesome, as always, playing with Josh in the Christmas band. He is such an inspiring player. Butterflies just finished a split Christmas EP with our friends Birds and Arrows. Head over to Butterflies’ myspace to download the EP. We will also be selling handmade ornaments with the download code at the Christmas show.

Embarrassing Fruits are working on some new recordings and they sound awesome! Here’s a video of them in the studio. They’re also playing a show tomorrow night at the Cave in Chapel Hill with Bambara and Reed Benjamin. Hell yeah!

We had such a great time at the show on Sunday. Thanks to everyone for coming out and to everyone that has made 2009 such an amazing year. Wow! Humbled, blessed, inspired.

Nightbirds

Hah! I found these a little while back. Some Raleigh nightlife/tequilabodyshot/soro photographer was repping hard at a Bowerbirds/Lost in the Trees show. Rachel, Joe, Brad, Kelly, Will, Phil, Beth: y’all the greatest party buddies anyone could hope to ask for!

Wednesday listening...

Akron/Family- “Odyssey of the Mind”
Bamba J Fall- “Gën Gui Dëk”
Broadcast- “Tender Buttons”
The Dodos- “Time To Die”
Fleetwood Mac- “Rumors”
Grouper- “Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill”
Horseback- “The Invisible Mountain”
King Tubby- various dubs
Jens Lekman- “Night Falls Over Kortedala”
Jenks Miller- “Approaching the Invisible Mountain”
Joni Mitchell- “Miles of Isles”
Mount Eerie- “Wind’s Poem”
Rockers OST
Arthur Russell- “Love is Overtaking Me”
Sly & the Family Stone- “There’s a Riot Goin’ On”
Volcano Choir- “Unmap”

Thankful

Many Ghosts

Bowerbirds+TRK: Besties. Yogis. Namaste

Grateful, lucky, thankful, blessed.

hometapes:

Today we unveil a bona fide Megafaun video, crafted on the road this summer to the tune of “Impressions of the Past.” We’ve watched this so many times. I think we’ll watch it again now. While we do that, you can read a little thing we wrote about the beauty and her maker, our friend Tim:

Thousands of miles, thousands of images. On tour with their new album “Gather, Form & Fly”, Megafaun was captured, piece by piece, by the photographer Tim Lytvinenko. Part-documentary, part-sense memory, Tim’s images took on a life of their own as he traveled across the west with the band, the music, the landscape, and everything in between. He set his first magical trademark sequences to the album’s epic and beautiful “Impressions of the Past” —- and a video was born. Further shaped across the plains, the mountains, the coast, and the desert of North America, the video became a daily experience for the band on tour. Tim’s memories became everyone’s, almost just as real as the moments they documented. This seemed to be the perfect expression of this song —- one that came by surprise, and one that conjures up the collective nostalgia of Summer 2009, and perhaps all those bygone seasons before.

So enjoy. Put yourself in it. Fill in the blanks.

Megafaun “Impressions of the Past”

Directed by Tim Lytvinenko.

Produced by Hometapes.

Buy “Gather, Form & Fly” on 2xLP or CD here.

“I think apple is still working on the ‘vibes’ app, Martin.”

—Josh Kimbrough