Hi All,

An article appeared in the New York Times this weekend called “The Return of the One Man Band” by John Wray. It’s a great article about Final Fantasy, St. Vincent, and Panda Bear (with a brief nod to Sufjan Stevens), but it also had these nice words to say about the great Half-handed Cloud:

“…in the last few years there has been a gravitation from tried-and-true rock paradigms, driven both by boredom with the increasingly threadbare conventions of indie rock and by a sincere, if playful, rediscovery of experimentalists as diverse as Van Dyke Parks and Philip Glass. And it’s no surprise that many of the boldest of these, like Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Half-handed Cloud and Ghostband, are essentially one-person projects that don’t require too much consensus about what a song should be.”

Way to go, Mr. Ringhofer!

For the whole article, click here!

We’d like to thank you for the pleasure of sharing ‘A Familyre Christmas - Vol. 1′ with you all. It was an exciting project, and so much fun to have everyone involved.

If you missed the download window, don’t despair. There is a high likelihood it will be made available again next Christmas season, along with Vol.2!

The complete track listing for Vol.1:

1: ‘Christmas Eve Nite’ - Danielson
2: ‘For There Is Born A Child’ - Lenny Smith
3: ‘Plant A Little Fir Tree’ - Half-handed Cloud
4: ‘Dayspring From On High’ - Soul-Junk
5: ‘Pat-A-Pan’ - Leopulde
6: ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ - Dan Zimmerman
7: ‘Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming’ - The Singing Mechanic
8: ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ - Sufjan Stevens*
9: ‘What Child Is This’ - Rachel and Jon Galloway
10: ‘I Wonder As I Wander’ - Woven Hand
11. ‘Christmas Is A Holiday’ - Ben + Vesper
12. ‘Immanuel’ - Joshua Stamper
13. ‘O Holy Night’ - Elin

*Recorded with Daniel, Elin, Lilly, and Ida at
the NJ Recreation Rm over Thanksgiving Weekend (2007).

Have a wonderful 2008, folks!

Love,

Everyone at Sounds Familyre

When thinking about re-issuing the vinyl version of “Seven Swans,” Sufjan and I decided to look back at some of the unmixed tracks that didn’t make the cut for the record. I went back to the 1/4″ 8 track tapes and made rough mixes of these recordings to play for Sufjan. “Seven Swans” was actually recorded before “Michigan”, so we had an early version of “Romulus” that Sufjan had decided didn’t work with the album. Also we had a song “Borderline” which ended up on a Rough Trade 7″.

The two remaining songs, “I Went Dancing With My Sister” and “Waste Of What Your Kids Won’t Have,” were great fun to hear again. I put bass lines down on them and mixed them up for Sufjan to hear. We liked what we heard, but felt that they still belong separate from the album. So here we are with the vinyl re-issue of “Seven Swans.”

This is an album that I am so proud to have been part of and still enjoy listening to. The vinyl mastering is better, the vinyl is thicker, the cover is matte instead of shiny, and it’s got a bonus 7″ of two Sufjan songs from the “Seven Swans” sessions that are not available in any other format. Get a new needle for your turntable and enjoy.

Daniel Smith, Clarksboro 2007

Musicians on Seven Swans:
Elin Smith -vocals
Megan Smith -vocals
David Smith -drums
Andrew Smith -drums
Daniel Smith -vocals and bass guitar
Sufjan Stevens -everything else