A new song from Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter is being featured on the NPR show "All Songs Considered" — check out the podcast here. To purchase the new EP from which this song was taken, visit Jesse's official site.

Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter will be playing a string of shows with Black Mountain this month in the midwest and east coast of North America — tour dates can be found here. Also, the song dreaming dead (from the album oh, my girl) was put to good use in the premiere episode of the new HBO show True Blood — you can learn about all the music used on this show here.

On Saturday, April 19, independent music stores across the country will be taking part in the first annual Record Store Day, celebrating those wonderful and unique places where music fans can find satisfaction. Several of Barsuk's artists will be taking part in this event — be sure to check out your local record store to find out what events they have planned.

Here's where you can find our bands:

• Aqueduct performance at Sonic Boom (Ballard) in Seattle, WA at 4pm
• Mates of State performance at Newbury Comics (on Newbury Street) in Boston, MA at noon
• Menomena foosball tournament at Jackpot Records (SW 9th) in Portland, OR from 1pm to 3pm — anyone who beats the band members at foosball will have their name put into a hat; at the end of the tournament, one lucky winner will win a special gift. The band will also be DJ'ing during the event.
• Nada Surf performance at Vintage Vinyl in Fords, NJ 2:30pm
• John Roderick (The Long Winters) DJ set at Sonic Boom (Capitol Hill) in Seattle, WA at 3pm
• Jesse Sykes performance at Easy Street (Queen Anne) in Seattle, WA at 5pm

Jesse Sykes' critically acclaimed album from 2007, like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul, is available on beautiful double vinyl, packaged in a swank gatefold jacket. Get yours while supplies last — we have a very limited quantity, including a handful of the peach vinyl version.

The concept: gather together a bunch of bands in a house that will be destroyed. All bands play one song each, and perform their song twice, and then the house is destroyed. Capture everything on film, and release it on DVD.

For the Seattle edition, Death Cab's Ben Gibbard gathered together a bunch of great local bands: The Long Winters, Jesse Sykes, David Bazan, Harvey Danger, Tiny Vipers, The Cave Singers, Minus The Bear, Eddie Vedder, Kinski, Spook The Horse, The Can't See, The Blue Scholars, Triumph of Lethargy Skinned To Death, and, of course, himself. Released by Trixie DVD, but available here while supplies last.

Not only does she write great songs, have an awesome band and a heavenly voice, but Jesse Sykes also takes photographs. Some of her work from the early '80s is available for sale now at her website. All photographs were hand printed on fiber-based paper, and come with handwritten notes from Jesse. Sweet!

The nominees for the 2008 PLUG Independent Music Awards have been announced, including several categories with Barsuk artists. Menomena are up for 3 awards: Video of the Year (for the food-crazed rotten hell video), Best Packaging of the Year (for the awesome Craig Thompson-created design of friend and foe), and Song of the Year (for wet & rusting). John Vanderslice is up for Male Artist of the Year, and the Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter album, like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul, is up for Best Americana Album of the Year. Visit the PLUG website to vote!

If you've been wondering when your favorite Barsuk band is going to be coming around to your neck of the woods again, wait no longer. A dizzying number of tour dates have just been announced, including Nada Surf's US tour in October, Menomena's third big tour of the year (this time with Illinois in October and November), David Bazan's epic journey (with support Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, September through November), Rocky Votolato (playing some dates with Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter) in September and October, John Vanderslice (celebrating his new album, emerald city) and Smoosh (supporting Bloc Party in September). Check out our shows page for more details.

Two live performances, captured on video as part of Plum TV's Juan's Basement can now be viewed on the Jesse Sykes ecard. If you've never seen Jesse and the Sweet Hereafter perform, now's your chance to experience the bliss, at least electronically.

The song the air is thin, from Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter's latest release, like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul, has been chosen to be NPR's Song of the Day — follow the link to hear the song and read what NPR has to say about it.

Jesse Sykes and her sublime band The Sweet Hereafter recently did a performance on premiere Santa Monica radio station KCRW. The performance is now available as a free podcast and video on the KCRW site.

Influential publication and website CMJ has chosen like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul as their Album of the Day. Read the full review here.

If you happen to be down in Austin, TX for the annual SXSW festival this year, be sure to stop in at the Barsuk Records Showcase, Thursday March 15th, at Buffalo Billiards. The showcase will feature our bands Menomena, Aqueduct, Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter, and Rocky Votolato, with special guests Bob Mould and Say Hi To Your Mom. See you in Texas!

The new album from Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter, like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul, will be out February 6th, but you can listen to all twelve beautiful tracks by visiting the new e-card here. Enjoy!

Not long after sending out advance copies of the upcoming Jesse Sykes record, we started getting requests and high praise for like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul. Now, influential radio station KCRW has joined in — they'll be featuring the song LLL as their download of the day (for January 24). The new album will be out February 6th.

The third album from Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter, like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul, is due for release February 6. It's a musically deep piece of work, addressing themes of love, illusion, forgiveness, and the universality of the human experience. Every single track on the record is brilliant in its own way — get a taste of this breathtaking work by listening to the free MP3, LLL.

Jesse Sykes and her heavenly bandmates will be crisscrossing the North American continent with Sparklehorse in February, in support of their upcoming release, like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul. Tour dates can be found here.

Magnet Magazine has published a great preview of the upcoming record from Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul. There's also a short question and answer section with Jesse — you can read it online here.

Jesse Sykes recently lent her talents to the Boris/SunnO))) project, Altar — read about it here on the CMJ site.

Pitchfork has some nice things to say (including a 4-star rating) about a track from the upcoming Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter record, like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul. The song is called LLL — read the article and listen to the track here: LLL review.

February 6th marks the arrival of a new album from Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter, produced, recorded and mixed by Tucker Martine (Decemberists, The Long Winters, Laura Veirs) and Martin Feveyear (Mark Lanegan, Kings of Leon), with additional recording and production by Randall Dunn (Kinski, SunnO)))). Like, love, lust & the open halls of the soul is a sprawling and musically deep piece of work, lyrically addressing themes of love, illusion, forgiveness, and the universality of the human experience — its rocking guitar solos and driving rhythms could easily be lost gems cut by Crazy Horse between takes with Neil, but it retains the atmospheric beauty of much of Sykes' earlier work too. Prepare yourself for greatness.

Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter have been busy these past few months recording and mixing their next full-length album. We're just starting to hear some of the near-final mixes, and it's sounding gorgeous. We're hoping for an early 2007 release — stay tuned!

Devil in the Woods Records has released vinyl versions of both of Jesse Sykes records, and they're available here in the Barsuk shop.

Jesse Sykes appears on a Nick Drake tribute compilation with Mount Analog, doing the song River Man. More information can be found from Songlines.

A new t-shirt and a split 7" single (with Steve Turner) are both available in the Barsuk shop.