The Saratoga Springs, NY duo of Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel, known collectively as Phantogram, are preparing to tour multiple times in 2010. In celebration of the release of their debut LP, eyelid movies (out February 9th, but available for pre-orders now), the band will be hitting the east coast and some Midwest dates. You can listen to the record in its entirety on the NPR website here.

The Long Winters have definitely put the 'long' back in 'taking a long time to make a new album', and we're not complaining (too much) because we know that whenever it's done it'll be great. However, we were very excited to learn that John Roderick recently recorded a very special acoustic version of not moving to portland with his and our friend, the amazing and talented Kathleen Edwards, and that he has donated the recording to the excellent and worthy local charity project GIVE Seattle. You can watch a charming video that John made for the song and learn more about the project on the GIVE Seattle site, but basically, for a very reasonable price, you can get exclusive songs from a ton of Seattle bands and songwriters, including Barsuk family like Pearly Gate Music, David Bazan, and Ben Gibbard.

Absolute Punk and Barsuk are excited to announce that anyone who pre-orders Rocky's new album true devotion before February 23rd will be entered to win some pretty great stuff, as well as getting immediate exclusive digital access to the album plus a bonus 7" single with two non-album tracks (while supplies last). Details can be found here.

A free MP3 from true devotion has just been posted as well, for the song red river.

Phantogram's beautiful beat-driven dreamlike album, eyelid movies, is now available for pre-ordering in the Barsuk shop. The band will be touring throughout February with Junk Culture (and a few dates with Minus The Bear).

The vinyl version of eyelid movies will be released by Ghostly International and will also be available here as soon as they're ready.

Death Cab for Cutie will be performing at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, airing live on VH1 on January 15th at 9pm (EST/PST). The band will perform a cover of the classic Simple Minds song, don't you (forget about me) from the classic film, The Breakfast Club during a tribute to filmmaker John Hughes.

Nada Surf bring their trademark sense of harmony and musical craftsmanship to 12 of their favorite songs with their latest release, if i had a hi-fi, their first album of covers. It will initially be available exclusively at live shows on their tour, which begins March 25. The tour will begin with three "album shows" in New York City, during which they'll be playing all the songs from let go, the weight is a gift, and lucky. There is a fan pre-sale for most US shows at nadasurf.musictoday.com — for more information, visit the band's website.

Death Cab for Cutie's the open door ep, a companion to 2008's full-length, narrow stairs, has been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. Barsuk is excited to announce the 180-gram vinyl version of this award-worthy EP, which features 4 non-album tracks plus a demo version of talking bird. Look for it in the spring of 2010 — or sign up here to be notified when it's available for pre-ordering.

Pearly Gate Music is an incredibly talented gentleman by the name of Zach, who makes beautiful, unusual, simple-yet-complicated songs structured around his extraordinary singing and melodic sense. His debut full-length will be out in 2010, but we'll be releasing a 7" single in March to whet your appetite, featuring one track from the album, and one non-album track. Quantities will be limited — sign up here to be notified when they're available for pre-ordering.

Here's yet another reason to visit the Barsuk shop: all orders over $5 will receive a free copy of our new sampler, treats 2010 (while supplies last). This compilation has tracks from this year's releases (including rare and previously unavailable remixes and alternate versions), as well as a peek at some of our upcoming 2010 albums from Phantogram, Rocky Votolato, Blunt Mechanic and Pearly Gate Music.

Menomena are currently busy constructing a giant robot out of miniscule gears and wires (oh, and also recording a new album to be released in 2010), but they recently played a show in New York at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. Pitchfork captured the band playing a brand new song, queen black acid, for their All Tomorrow's Parties SURVEILLANCE series (which also included The Melvins, Dirty Three, Nick Cave, No Age and more). The song is currently up at Pitchfork TV for your auditory and visual satisfaction.

2009 Barsuk CD Odyssey : All of Barsuk's 2009 full-length CD releases, all for $58 (regular price $72 — a $14 savings).

2009 Barsuk Vinyl Odyssey : Six vinyl records from 2009 (three LPs, an EP, and a 7"), all for just $49 — a tremendous deal for you vinyl lovers at 15% off regular price.

DCfC Holiday Package : All of Death Cab's Barsuk releases on CD — five full-lengths and 2 EPs for just $62 (15% off).

Barsuk Records is pleased to announce that Seattle's Pearly Gate Music has joined the Barsuk family. Pearly Gate Music is Zach Tillman, although it should be noted that he records and often plays shows with a full band. He is sometimes seen around town playing in other groups, contributing guitars and extraordinary vocals as required.

Pearly Gate Music's tremendous, confident, delicate debut full length will be out in 2010. Catch them or perhaps just him on the road this fall.

D Tour is an award-winning feature-length documentary that chronicles Pat Spurgeon's (from Rogue Wave) search for a living organ donor and the challenges associated with finding a viable match. The documentary includes footage from a San Francisco benefit that features performances from Nada Surf, Ben Gibbard and John Vanderslice. It premieres tonight, Tuesday November 10th, on the PBS series Independent Lens (check your local listings for time and channel).

The new video from Ramona Falls, for the song i say fever, is one of the best videos/short films we've ever seen, and it's premiering on Pitchfork TV. It was directed and animated by Stefan Nadelman, who also did the brilliant video for Menomena's evil bee.

Seattle musician Rocky Votolato is a soft-spoken, very kind, hard-working father of two, born in rural Texas and raised in the Pacific Northwest indie scene (where he fronted the acclaimed rock band Waxwing). Votolato writes graceful, understated, human, unpretentious songs, demonstrating that simplicity is still a viable option for accomplished songwriters. His last two releases, makers (2006, Barsuk) and the brag and cuss (2007, Barsuk), found him exploring and paying homage to the folk and country music that shaped his early life in Texas. True devotion, his new album, is a passionate, stripped down, and mostly acoustic reflection on moments from his current life; showing us where he is, where he has just come from, and where he’s going.

Nada Surf and They Might Be Giants (along with Charles Bissell of the Wrens) will be performing Wednesday 10/28 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn NY, to help raise money for the Northsie Town Hall Community and Cultural Center, a new community resource for North Brooklyn. If you're in the area and would like to attend, please visit the Music Hall's website for ticket information.

The David Bazan song, hard to be from curse your branches — easily one of the best songs on an album filled with great songs — is being featured as Song of the Day on NPR. You can listen to the song and read their review here. Bazan will also be on NPR's World Café this Thursday, October 15 — you can listen live via the internet (between 2pm and 4pm EST) here, or find your local NPR radio station and listen the old-fashioned way.

Chris Walla was recently paired with J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines) for the NPR All Songs Considered piece called Project Song. The two artists, who had never met before, had two days to write and record a song based on themes and images provided by curator Bob Boilen, and the result is pretty phenomenal. You can read about the project and hear their song here.

Previously available only on limited-edition vinyl, the Mates of State EP, re-arranged: remixes volume 1, which features four songs from their most recent album, re-arrange us, remixed by noted remixologists, is now available in digital format, with one bonus track!

Phantogram's music sounds like it's made by a band from the city. Electronic loops, hip-hop beats, shoegaze, soul, pop — each finds its way into their songs. Unexpectedly, the band calls the town of Saratoga Springs, NY (population 26,186) home. But Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel, the duo that make up Phantogram, have flourished in Saratoga. In fact, the town itself isn't rural enough for their taste — they drive almost every day another 45 minutes into upstate farmland to a barn they call Harmony Lodge to write and record. Serving as their homemade studio/practice space/think-tank/bat-cave, the barn is equipped with various samplers, tapes, records, synths, drums, and both percussive and stringed instruments, and it's there that Phantogram allows their natural surroundings and metropolitan influences to meld together creating beautiful, beat-driven dreamlike pop songs.

The band's debut album, eyelid movies, will be out in early 2010 — listen to a track from the upcoming release here.

Starting Thursday, October 1st, David Bazan will be taking to the road in support of his recent release, curse your branches, touring with a full band for the first time since the final Pedro The Lion show in October 2005. Joining Bazan on tour will be Eric Elbogen, guitar (Say Hi), Andy Fitts, keyboards + guitar (Aqueduct), Casey Foubert, drums (Richard Swift, Sufjan Stevens), and Blake Wescott, guitar (long-time Bazan collaborator).

Also, the last time Bazan was in Rock Island, IL, he stopped by Daytrotter and recorded a few songs off of the new album in their all-analog studio. The results of that day's work can now be heard at daytrotter.com.

Say Hi has had a great year, with the release of their Barsuk debut album, oohs & aahs in the spring, followed by several fabulous tours across the US, and things just keep getting more fun. Say Hi's Eric Elbogen and bandmates will be touring this fall with David Bazan (and Eric will be playing in Bazan's band as well), and our new friend Drew Norton just finished up editing a new (and quite charming) Say Hi video in which Eric is hunted by the obsessive, beautiful, and cruel goddess Diana, for the great song one, two ... one, which you can watch here.

The final performance in a series of solo house shows is now available to watch from the BrooklynVegan website. Full-band tour starts in October.

We ♥ FILMguerrero. Our friend John Askew has been running his label in Portland, OR for years now, and has released a ton of great music including the first couple Menomena albums along with fantastic albums by Tracker (polk is one of our favorite records EVER), Lackthereof, Norfolk & Western, etc. If Barsuk has a sibling label out there in the world, it's definitely FILMg, so we wanted to let you all know about the latest great release of theirs, coming this fall from Lackthereof:

Before Danny Seim started the acclaimed Portland, OR art rock trio Menomena (in which he drums impressively, and, along with Justin Harris and Brent Knopf, sings, writes, composes, arranges, deconstructs, and reassembles), he was the sole, prolific, and promotion-averse member of Lackthereof. Seim still finds time for making Lackthereof recordings, which, over the project's ten year history, have ranged from lo-fi to lush, acoustic to synthetic, poppy to noisy. a retrospective 1998-2008 contains the best of Seim's Lackthereof work, selected by him from among a decade of remarkable electronic beat experiments, lo-fi indie dub, simple acoustic soundscapes, challenging art pieces, and much more.

Sign up to notified when we have a pre-order available for this very limited-edition eco-friendly package that features 20 of Danny's original illustrations and lyric sheets here.

Barsuk is proud to announce the addition of a new band (and old friend) to our roster, Blunt Mechanic, whose debut album world record, will be out in January 2010. Although this is their debut album, it's certainly not the first release from critically-acclaimed songcrafter Ben Barnett, the brains and soul behind Blunt Mechanic. Barnett, who formerly performed as Kind Of Like Spitting between 1996 and 2006, released eight full-lengths and numerous EPs and singles throughout the band's prolific decade-long run.

More details about Blunt Mechanic and world record will be coming soon.

It was announced today that Death Cab for Cutie's contribution to the Twilight series' New Moon will be the first single from the soundtrack album. The song, meet me on the equinox will premiere on September 13th at the MTV Video Music Awards.

In a phone interview with MTV News, Nick spoke about the song, Death Cab's connection to the Twilight series, and more. Click here to listen to the interview and read the full article at MTV.com. You can also read a statement from the band at the website of Twilight author Stephanie Meyer.

The new David Bazan album curse your branches is in stores Monday August 31, and select retailers will have a free bonus 7" containing two non-album cover recordings available with purchase of the album while supplies last. If you've already pre-ordered the record from Barsuk, you will be getting a 7" in your order, but after our supply runs out (we have only 15 left as of today), the only way to get the 7" will be to purchase from one of the stores carrying it, or maybe from Insound while their supplies last.

The Wooden Birds have recently returned from their Europen tour with Grand Archives, documenting and condensing this experience into a two and a half minute video set to the standout track, hometown fantasy, from their recent release, magnolia. You can watch the video here (or download an MP3 of the previously unreleased extended version of the song here).

The Wooden Birds will be joining Great Lake Swimmers on an upcoming US tour — check out the tour dates here.

Ramona Falls is Brent Knopf's first solo venture, although you probably know him already through his extensive musical resume as part of Menomena. His debut album, intuit, is just the latest example of the off-kilter brilliance that springs from Knopf's extraordinary musical mind, sometimes reminiscent of his Menomena work and sometimes heading out on other explorations.

Download the song i say fever, and pre-order the album from the Barsuk shop now. Ramona Falls will be touring immediately after the album's release (next Tuesday, August 18) in select cities across the US. Also: the fittingly beautiful artwork for the album was created by noted graphic novelist Theo Ellsworth, whose books Capacity and Sleeper Car are also both available in the shop, while supplies last.

THIS JUST IN: New video of Brent Knopf and his pal, Christopher Frogken, announcing the release of intuit can be viewed here.

The Wooden Birds are being featured on two websites, with in-studio performances of some of their songs from their recent excellent album, magnolia. They perform four songs on the Oregon Public Broadcasting site, and do one song on the Paste Magazine blog site.

Three unreleased tracks are now available from Starlight Mints' Daytrotter session. Read the article and listen here.

There's also a great new video available. It's for the song power bleed, and features some quirky costumes and great performances from the band — watch it here.