As of Monday, May 18, our five new recordings are online. They can be found in the following locations. If a particular song is not up yet, try again later on Monday. The songs will be exclusive to these host sites until Tuesday, May 26th, at which point they'll be available here for download. See the band live, Memorial Day, Monday, May 25th at IOTA Club And Cafe in Arlington, VA.

"Feeling My Way In The Dark" (and interview with Ryan):
www.districtofsound.com/archive/qa-with-the-beanstalk-library.html

"Cry Harder":
www.brightestyoungthings.com/downloads/exclusive-download-beanstalk-library/

"The Only Things I'll Take With Me":
www.dcist.com

"This Line Is Not For Me":
instrumentalanalysis.blogspot.com

"It Has Made All The Difference":
www.babystew.com/?p=3546

Enjoy!

Hello, friends.

Last we spoke, we were prepared for two big things coming down the pipeline: 1) The release of five new Beanstalk Library tracks recorded before we parted ways with Mike and John last fall. 2) The debut of the new live lineup of The Beanstalk Library. It is with a great deal of pleasure and excitement that we write to tell you that after much waiting and anticipation those things are finally upon us.

The Music

The band is proud to release five new songs recorded between October '08 and March '09. Most will be familiar to those who've seen us live regularly in the past year. They all feature the lineup of Ryan, Brian, John, and Mike, joined by various instrumental collaborators.

To celebrate the release of these five new tracks, we've decided to partner with five DC-area music related blogs who will each host one of the tracks as an exclusive during the upcoming week; then, after May 25, all of the tracks will be available through our website, MySpace and Facebook pages. A few of these blogs have been very kind and supportive of us in the past; others are new friends. Our hope is that if any of them are unfamiliar to you that you will bookmark them, read them, and support them. They all do a great job of keeping DC informed about what's new and interesting to listen to and see, and make a strong case for the undying importance of the tastemaker. Likewise, they are doing us a tremendous favor by allowing their regular readers to hear our music.

As a special treat for all of you that have trouble with delayed gratification, one of the tracks, "Feeling My Way In The Dark" is available NOW by visiting District Of Sound (www.districtofsound.com).

District of Sound is a relatively new DC Music blog, which is already doing some cool things and should hopefully experience a bigger profile in months to come. As of this very moment, you can download "Feeling My Way" and read an interview they did with Ryan, here: http://www.districtofsound.com/archive/qa-with-the-beanstalk-library.html.

The other four songs, "Cry Harder," "It's Made All The Difference," "The Only Things I'll Take With Me," and "This Line Is Not For Me" will all be available this Monday, May 18. Information and links to where to find these four songs will be posted at that time.

The Show

The Beanstalk Library will play their first area show in 8 months this Memorial Day, Monday, May 25 at IOTA. Joining us on the bill will be In Technicolor (from Charlottesville, VA) and our newest local friends Typefighter. We hope to see everybody out for a great night of holiday-weekend-capping music; we're eager to see old friends again, as well as introduce you to some of the newest members of The Beanstalk Library family.

Thanks for bearing with us all this time. We love you. Stay tuned.

(originally posted Jan. 29, 2009)

I. What's Going On:

Greetings, friends.  We've been through a lot together since our last correspondence.  The hustly-bustly holidays.  Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, for us, maybe others for you.  We've observed the changing of a season, a year, and, mercifully, a president.  Those of us in the Northeast are finally experiencing some winter, these last couple of days.  Now that things are breathing for a minute, we wanted to take a quick opportunity to fill you in on what's been going on; you see, we've been through some changes as well.

It is with mixed feelings that we report that drummer Mike Fellenbaum and bassist John Rapoza have left The Beanstalk Library.  We say mixed because we are hopeful and excited for their future endeavors and will continue to enjoy close friendships and hold in our hearts cherished memories of the music that we made and the experiences we shared the last couple of years.  John will still be in the area, while Mike has taken a job in beautiful New Zealand.  Though the splits were perfectly amicable, they were relatively sudden and, at the time, left us in some disarray with regard to communication.  Many apologies at the lag these last several months.

We also apologize for any confusion that arose due to our cancellation of two shows in October.  One, a Halloween show, was canceled because of our personnel situation; the other, a benefit at Cafe Asia in Rosslyn, was cancelled by the promoters.  This was unfortunate because it would have been our last hurrah together.  The last time we performed together was at a wedding reception and, though it was a blast and a great way to go out, it was only attended by invited wedding guests.  We would have preferred to have had a last public show together, complete with fair warning to our fans, but we just couldn't make it work before Mike had to leave the country.

Before he left, Mike wrote the following note that would have been included in e-mail promotion for the Cafe Asia show, had it happened.  We thought we'd include it here:

"Mike Beanstalk here.  Sadly, I'll be leaving TBL and DC at the end of the month for greener pastures in New Zealand.  As excited as I am for New Zealand, I'm equally sad to be leaving the band.  Thanks to everyone for all their support - especially those of you that I see at just about all our shows.  Good times have been had by all.  I'm super proud of our album and can't wait to hear the next.  We've a lot of good stuff in the pipeline, and while I'm certain the next drummer won't be as handsome, charming, charismatic, etc., etc., as me, I'm sure he (or she) will be able to ROCK!

The last few years were really special and I'll miss everyone, dearly."

II.  What's To Come:

Without any futher ado, it is time to look forward.  Before it became no more, the most recent lineup of the band recorded five new demos together.  All of these songs have been performed live, and range from a song written before the first album came out to a song whose arrangement was finished in time for it to be played just once before we parted ways.  We've been putting the finishing touches on overdubs and mixes for these tracks and will share them all with you as soon as they're ready.

We've also been busy talking, auditioning, playing, and putting together a new live band.  It is our intention that within a month or two, the new version of The Beanstalk Library will be back out, continuing to perform and write new music.  We thank all of you for your support and patience, and know you are just as excited to continue this journey as we are!  We also hope that many who have never seen us or heard us before will take this opportunity to jump on board.

III. Ryan sings on Exit Clov track:

In the meantime, we highly encourage you to visit the website of some of our dearest friends and a phenomenal band, Exit Clov.  Last year, Ryan recorded vocals on a hauntingly beautiful song called "My Country's At War" for Clov's as-yet-unreleased debut album.  The track has been posted on their site as a free download.  Please download and enjoy, and while you're there check out the rest of their music, if you are heretofore unfamiliar.

IV. Facebook:

Before we say "'til next time," we just wanted to point out that the band is vamping up its presence on Facebook.  If you're a Facebook-er and haven't visited us yet, please become a fan at our page.  This is just like an official MySpace page and we'd love for you to join even if you're already a member of "Sigh...The Beanstalk Library is So Dreamy," because soon we'll phase that out as the other page becomes our official Facebook presence.  (Plus, there were, uh, varying degrees of opinion on the accuracy of the title of the Group. Ahem.)

We're excited about what the future holds.  Be back in touch very soon.

'Til next time.

5-25-09 Arlington, VA (IOTA) w/ In Technicolor, Typefighter
[In The Studio]

9-19-08 NYC (Delancey) w/ Bridges and Powerlines

9-14-08 DC (DC9) w/Brothers And Sisters, Sam Champion, Sera Cahoone

8-22-08 DC (Black Cat) w/ Bryan Scary & The Shredding Tears, Kitty Hawk, and The Jet Age

8-14-08 Arlington, VA (IOTA) w/ Brandon Butler

8-05-08 Baltimore, MD (8x10 Club) w/ Tapes 'n Tapes

7-26-08 DC (Honfleur Art Gallery) w/ The Red Vines
7-14-08 NYC (The Annex)
6-28-08 DC (Crafty Bastards Arts Fair)
6-16-08 DC (Rock & Roll Hotel) w/ Retribution Gospel Choir
5-31-08 Fredericksburg, VA (The Third Floor) w/ The Cotton Jones Basket Ride
4-19-08 DC (Rock & Roll Hotel) w/ Cloud Cult, Exit Clov, & The Forms
4-08-08 DC (Black Cat) w/ Bottles/Cans
1-26-08 DC (Rock & Roll Hotel) w/ The Roosevelt, Gary B and the Notions, Kitty Hawk
12-26-07 DC (Black Cat) w/ John Wayne Hero
12-10-07 Arlington, VA (IOTA) w/ Timothy Brachen Complex
10-12-07 DC (Rock & Roll Hotel) w/ The Exit, Dragons of Zynth, The Teeth
9-11-07 DC (DC9) w/ The Winter Sounds
8-16-07 DC (The Red & The Black) w/ Warm in the Wake
8-07-07 Arlington, VA (IOTA) w/ Red Racer & Octopi - CD RELEASE PARTY
7-26-07 DC (Velvet Lounge) w/ Octopi
6-19-07 DC (Rock & Roll Hotel) w/ Illinois & Tallest Highest
6-11-07 Arlington, VA (IOTA) w/ Exit Clov & The Eames Era
4-26-07 DC (DC9) w/ Bellman Barker & Mikal Evans Band
4-13-07 DC (RnR Bar & Lounge) w/ Death by Sexy, The Hall Monitors
[In the Studio]
11-28-06 DC (The Red & The Black) - presented by DCene.com
10-28-06 DC (The Red & The Black) w/ The Eames Era & The Payola Reserve
10-11-06 DC (The Red & The Black) w/ The Buffali & John Bustine
8-25-06 DC (Ebenezer's) - Benefit for Whitman-Walker AIDS Clinic
8-15-06 DC (DC9) w/ The Subjects & The Roosevelt
7-10-06 Arlington, VA (IOTA) - w/ Questions
6-13-06 DC (DC9) w/ The Payola Reserve & The Stock Market Crash
5-29-08 Arlington, VA (IOTA) w/ Meredith Bragg
5-16-06 DC (DC9) w/ Vandaveer & Erik Bradford
4-24-06 DC (Velvet Lounge) w/ The Buffali, Justin Trawick, Mara Levi
4-06-06 DC (Wonderland Ballroom) w/ Let's French & Kitty Hawk
3-20-06 DC (Velvet Lounge) w/ School & Fine Dining
2-18-06 DC (DC9) w/ Exit Clov, The Rewinds, Let's French
2-10-06 DC (Velvet Lounge) w/ Seldon Plan, Lucia Lie

Thank you for visiting our MySpace page. Our new record is called America At Night and is available now.  Please visit our website, www.thebeanstalklibrary.com to stream the entire record, to read our blog and for much, much more. Love.

-The Beanstalk Library