Barsuk is excited to announce Viva Voce’s first video from rose city, octavio.

Beautifully shot by fellow Portlander Alicia J. Rose, the video finds Anita & Kevin Robinson, alongside new band members Corrina Repp and Evan Railton, in a haunting — and of course rocking out — beautifully decrepit mansion. Watch, share, post the video for octavio !

Following a string of sold out dates in winter 2008 / spring 2009, this summer and fall Ra Ra Riot will once again be touring across North America. This July they’ll be supporting Andrew Bird, Death Cab for Cutie, and The New Pornographers. September and October will find Ra Ra Riot on a run of headline dates, with Maps & Atlases and Princeton as support.

In other Ra Ra Riot related news, LP, the debut album from Discovery, Wes’s side project with Rostam Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend, is out July 7th on XL. Pitchfork has already called the record "your electro-pop summer soundtrack".

Pre-order the new Starlight Mints album before July 21st (release date), and you'll receive a free high-quality download of the entire album!

We have two new shirts available in the shop: Viva Voce's swiss army cobra, and two different styles of The Wooden Birds shirts — all on organic cotton tees.

Rocky Votolato will be performing next week at the Seattle International Film Festival before the screening of a film called my suicide, a dark coming of age comedy which features 4 songs by Rocky (as well as music by Radiohead, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, and Tim Kasher of Cursive). The film will be shown on June 10th at the Pacific Place Cinema, and Rocky will perform at 9pm.

Like a honeymoon sprinkled with Pacific mist. Spacious and spontaneous, Rose City is an endlessly tuneful bouquet of beauty. - Alternative Press

Viva Voce are back with rose city, an album they wrote, arranged, and recorded themselves all in one furious month — choosing not to deliberate over every little thing but living purely in the moment musically and lyrically. Immersing themselves in sonic experimentation, it was truly spontaneous and cathartic. The result is an angular, immediate record that pulses with the palpable urgency of a band yearning for a return to the vagabond life of the working, touring musician — a mode in which Viva Voce is truly at home.

Starting today, fans will be able to take an early listen to the forthcoming Viva Voce release, rose city, at the ABC News blog, Amplified. The album will be out a week from today, and the band will be starting their tour this coming weekend — tour dates can be found here.

Ramona Falls is Brent Knopf's first solo venture, but he has an extensive musical resume as part of trio Menomena. For the Ramona Falls project, named after a childhood hiking trail on Mt. Hood, Brent collaborated extensively with musicians in Portland and New York. His debut album, intuit, was performed by Brent, with guest appearances by 35 friends (including members of The Helio Sequence, Mirah, Loch Lomond, 31 Knots, Talkdemonic, Nice Nice, Tracker, Dat'r, Dear Reader, 3 Leg Torso, and Matt Sheehy).

The new album will be out August 18th — you can hear two tracks here.

Lovely in sound, but chilling in mood - the dark side of the new quiet. - National Public Radio

Andrew Kenny’s songwriting remains mesmerizing and cut with a twisted sense of nostalgia. Magnolia is easy, earthy, and undoubtedly Southern, like the dusky buzz of summer cicadas. - The Austin Chronicle

Barsuk is pleased to announce that magnolia, the debut LP from The Wooden Birds, is available nationally today. The Wooden Birds is the latest project of Andrew Kenny, a native Texan who after nearly six years in Brooklyn, NY has returned to beautiful Austin, TX. He's best known as the singer/songwriter behind mellow indie favorites the American Analog Set. Full of guitar-top drumming and beautiful harmonies, and anchored by Kenny’s percolating, vibey bass, magnolia rolls by like a float down an ambient indie-rock river on a lazy summer day.

The limited edition CD-single of Ra Ra Riot's can you tell is almost all gone, but have no fear: it's now available digitally, with one bonus track (the Passion Pit remix of ghost under rocks). Get yours now at iTunes or your favorite digital retailer.

Norman, Oklahoma psych-pop pranksters Starlight Mints will be releasing change remains digitally on June 9th and physically on July 21st. They'll be doing a US tour this summer in support of the new album, the first leg of which will be with Evangelicals. More dates will be announced soon. This is what Starlight Mints' member, Marian, has to say about the new album:

"Three appears to be the magic number for Starlight Mints, as far as years between album releases is concerned. Somehow, though, it seems just like yesterday we were begging for just a bit more time to wrap up drowaton. I guess running a music venue, raising 5 children and working on multitudes of media projects, including writing ballads for pretty boy bands, will make time go a bit faster. So, here we are three years later: we've used up all our extra time, we've chosen a title and we've sent the music and artwork to the presses. The fourth album is done! Four: our new magic number. See you again in 2013."

In advance of the new record, Viva Voce is offering up an exclusive single at eMusic, featuring rose city stand-out octavio and a pair of new remixes for the track. The single will be available next Tuesday, April 28th, about a month before rose city drops on May 26th. The follow-up to the band's 2006 Barsuk Records debut, get yr blood sucked out, the new album is an angular, immediate record that pulses with palpable urgency.

In honor of Record Store Day, April 18 2009, celebrating those quirky and resource-rich local establishments with names like "Flat, Black & Circular", several of our bands will be performing or otherwise entertaining the stores' customers:

• Ra Ra Riot — performing at Flat, Black & Circular (East Lansing, MI) at 3pm
• Say Hi — performing at Sonic Boom [Ballard] (Seattle, WA) at 3pm
• Menomena — foosball tournament (!) at M-Theory (San Diego, CA) at 6pm

A number of stores will be giving away special commemorative Barsuk-label Jones Soda for the celebration, including Amoeba (Los Angeles, CA), Aquarius (San Francisco, CA), Easy Street (Seattle, WA), Fingerprints (Long Beach, CA), Lou's Records (Encinitas, CA), M-Theory (San Diego, CA), Music Millennium (Portland, OR), Silver Platters (Seattle, WA), and Sonic Boom [Ballard] (Seattle, WA).

Following the release of their career-spanning limited edition vinyl box set last November, Nada Surf are excited to be extending their love affair with wax. On April 14th their albums the proximity effect, let go, and the weight is a gift will be put out individually on vinyl. The albums have been out of print on vinyl for many years, and Nada Surf wanted to re-issue these records and make them available to fans who couldn't get their hands on the box-set last fall. Order your copy now in the shop.

Nathan from Cold War Kids and Ben from Death Cab for Cutie are running to raise money for the non-profit organization Water Wells for Africa. While their bands are on tour together during the month of April, the number of miles they run is being recorded in real time at www.runforwaterwells.com. Fans can follow along as they rack up miles, and are encouraged to donate $1 for every mile the guys run.

Water Wells For Africa is a grassroots non-profit that has installed over 100 water wells in drought regions of Malawi, Southern Africa, providing fresh drinking water to 150,000-200,000 Malawians per day. Their goal is to work toward installing 1,000 new wells in hopes to bring the same clean water to 2 million people in the region.

Starting tomorrow, Mates of State and Black Kids kick off a US trek that runs the length of April. In celebration of the double-barreled coast-to-coast barnburner, DJA of Mad Decent has created a Black Kids vs. Mates of State mash-up, premiered by the folks at RCRD LBL Monday. Mates’ re-arrange us and the Kids’ look at me act as source material for the bass-heavy mixture.

And if news of Mates mixes piques some interest, you'll be overjoyed to learn that this is not the only reworking you'll get to hear in April. Indeed, The Mates will be releasing re-arranged: remixes volume 1 on April 14th. This limited-edition 12" vinyl features four reinterpretations of tracks from Mates of State's 2008 release, re-arrange us, with contributions from noted remixologists DJ Sega, Flosstradamus, The Mae Shi, and RAC. Packaged in a classic DJ white sleeve, this 12" EP is limited to 1000 copies worldwide and will be available exclusively on vinyl several weeks before hitting digital retailers.

Ra Ra Riot will be performing tomorrow night, March 25, on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson — be sure to tune your receptors to the appropriate station! They'll be playing the song can you tell, which is on their full-length album (the rhumb line) as well as a new cd-single.

Barsuk staff and many of our bands will down in Austin later this month for the annual SXSW music festival, playing parties, doing DJ sets, and having a good ol' Texas time. Our official showcase with Merge Records, March 21 at the Parish, will feature Ra Ra Riot, Say Hi, and The Wooden Birds, as well as Merge bands Telekinesis, Lou Barlow with Imaad Wasif, and The Rosebuds, and special guest DJ Jason Hammel from Mates of State spinning records between sets. Due to tour routing logistics, Viva Voce will have to hit the road before our showcase Saturday night, but they'll be down in Austin earlier in the week playing a few parties in their new four-piece lineup.

We are exceedingly pleased to announce that we'll be releasing the debut full-length album by David Bazan, curse your branches, on August 25th, 2009. Known for his work with Pedro The Lion and Headphones, curse your branches is his first full album release under the name David Bazan, following the fewer moving parts EP and the american flags 7" single (the b-side of which is the demo version of curse your branches album track please baby please.)

After taking some time off to finish their hand-built backyard home studio and gig around the town with country rock band Blue Giant, Viva Voce are back with rose city, an album they wrote, arranged, and recorded themselves all in one furious month — choosing not to deliberate over every little thing but living purely in the moment musically and lyrically. Immersing themselves in sonic experimentation, it was truly spontaneous and cathartic. The result is an angular, immediate record that pulses with the palpable urgency of a band yearning for a return to the vagabond life of the working, touring musician — a mode in which Viva Voce is truly at home.

Release date is May 26. The band will be playing US dates in March and April, and touring extensivly after the album is released.

Their vinyl love not sated by the career-spanning limited-edition box set from last year, Nada Surf will be reissuing individual vinyl versions of their albums the proximity effect, let go, and the weight is a gift on April 14th. The albums have been out of print on vinyl for many years, and the band wanted to make them available to fans who couldn’t get their hands on the box-set. Sign up to be notified when we begin accepting orders.

On April 15th, the band will be playing a hometown show in Brooklyn at the intimate Bell House. Tickets on sale Friday, February 13th.

There's a sweet new video from the guys and gals of Ra Ra Riot, for the song can you tell, and it'll be featured tomorrow night (Feb 5) on MTV's Subterranean. Don't miss it! (We'll post a link to the video online when we have it.)

Our old friend Andrew Kenny, best known as the singer/songwriter behind American Analog Set (one of our favorite bands of the last decade or so, and a guy we've been wanting to work with since Barsuk started releasing music), has a new project called The Wooden Birds. We're gleeful to announce that The Wooden Birds' first album, magnolia, will be out this spring on Barsuk in the US & Canada (and on Morr Music in Europe). Fans of AmAnSet will recognize Kenny's voice and songwriting immediately, but the arrangements on magnolia are more vocal- and percussion-heavy than anything he's done before — still really gorgeous, though, of course!

The Wooden Birds will be touring throughout the year, and will be making appearances at South By Southwest this March. The band also includes Ola Podrida songwriter and David Gordon Green film score composer David Wingo, co-producer Chris Michaels, vocalist, guitarist, and AmAnSet guest artist Leslie Sisson, and Lymbic System drummer Michael Bell. Look for more news and details about the release in the coming weeks, and listen to a couple songs streaming on the band's MySpace page.

Take a stroll on over to the Spin website, where you can listen to the first MP3 to be made available from the upcoming Say Hi album, oohs & aahs. The track, a cool observation on the winter months, is called november was white, december was grey, and you can hear it and read about it here.

Two good reasons to celebrate next Tuesday, January 20: Inauguration Day for our new US President, and the release of David Bazan's new 7" single, american flags. Out since November 4th digitally, this is the first time these two songs have been available on vinyl. The 7" also comes with a single-use code to download hi-res MP3s. Be sure to order your copy soon, as this is a limited pressing and will be gone fast!

Tonight, Wednesday Dec. 17, Death Cab for Cutie will be performing on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS). Check your local listing for broadcast time and station! Their most recent album, narrow stairs, has been voted the #5 Album of the Year by listeners and fans of NPR's All Songs Considered. Go here to view the story online.

The new DVD from The Long Winters and DorsiaFilms, live at the showbox, is out now, and it's incredible. Recorded in Dolby 5.1 surround sound, and featuring bonus commentary by John Roderick and The Long Winters, and a preview of the forthcoming Long Winters documentary, the new DVD is a must-have for both fans of The Long Winters and fans of the rock 'n' roll spirit in general. Shot at the final show of an expansive North American tour, at the largest Seattle venue the band has ever played, live at the showbox captures the infectious enthusiasm of a group of road warriors celebrating a triumphant homecoming.

We have a limited number of copies, so get yours soon!

Death Cab for Cutie have garnered two Grammy award nominations! They've been nominated for Best Rock Song (i will possess your heart), and Best Alternative Music Album (narrow stairs), along with Gnarls Barkley, Beck, My Morning Jacket, and Radiohead. Congratulations!

Ra Ra Riot recently did an interview and performance on NPR's World Cafe — you can listen to the session here.

Barsuk is honored to announce that we have added Say Hi to our roster. We will be releasing the album oohs & aahs nationally on March 3rd, 2009.

Say Hi is Eric Elbogen, who wrote and recorded the LP at his home studio over the course of 2008. He used to live in Brooklyn, New York, but moved to Seattle, Washington in December 2006. An ever-evolving cast of musicians joins Elbogen live. Say Hi has no plans to curb their busy tour schedule (155 shows and counting since 2007), and we’d be surprised if this trend fails to continue into the new year and beyond.