Tinyfolk's next album, "Black Bears" is going to be released for free in high-quality mp3 format from Heartphone records!  Heartphone is run by the wonderful Mike Downey, who you might know from bands such as Wolfie, The National Splits or Mathlete.  Don't be worried, though, the album will still be distributed through CLLCT as well as Heartphone.

He wrote a lovely blog post welcoming Tinyfolk to Heartphone that you can read here.

In the next month or so I'm going to be recording my next album, "Black bears", which should be out in time for my short, early December tour with Jenny is a Boy.  It will be available at shows and for free on CLLCT, and will include the following tracks (though not necessarily in this order):

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1771357193/hel...

Kickstarter - Help me record the new tinyfolk album!

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Donate so I can go to Oregon and record with Ryland from the Robot Ate Me!

Two new EPs out:

Dark Sun (Tinyfolk/James Eric collaboration)
This is something that's been sitting around for awhile. Bits of things I made and sent to Jim to finish, and bits of things he made and sent to me for me to make up words and sing over or put music under or whatever. Worked out pretty well for the most part, though there are some rough bits that I would change if I could. But that's just the way it goes. I'm happy with it. I'm really proud of the cover I made for it. It was inspired by the box art for Sega Master System games.


Remarkable Renewal of Your Body Hen
This is a longish EP I made of some old things and some new things. "Mary Poppins" is the third Hello Shark cover I've done, but probably won't be the last. Hymn to Eris, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Christmas Lights, The Animals are Watching and Amillionth Birthday are all songs that were on compilations recently. On the Occasion of Your Amillionth Birthday has been sitting on my computer for a really long time, because it was supposed to be on the Redbear/Super Famicom/Tinyfolk/imadethismistake split 7" that was supposed to come out on Fall of the West records but never did. La-aame. I've played it live a lot in the past year and a half or so, so if you've seen t-folk play you've probably heard it.


I did the musical score for a student film by Stephen Ray Morris (of the musical project Existential Hero) called Until the Very Last Moment, and I believe Stephen has the soundtrack compiled and it should be up on CLLCT soon. No new full Tinyfolk songs on it, but there's a bunch of instrumental stuff I made specifically for the film, which I hope will be up online to watch at some point, but I can't confirm for sure if that's the case.

Finally, I'm working on a new album which will probably be called Our Hollow Earth. So far I've got eight songs written for it, and recorded demos for all of them, but I doubt any of those will be final recordings, as the wonderful James Eric has consented to recording and producing the album at his homebrewn studio once t-folk moves to Chicago. The album will be out, as I'm sure you're sick of me saying, on the amazing Swim Slowly Records, home to amazing acts like Ryland Bouchard, The Ocean Floor, The Robot Ate Me, Tele V. Cheeseburger and others. This is such an awesome opportunity for Tinyfolk and I can't thank Ryland enough for giving it to us.

Expect to hear some bare acoustic stuff that feels like a higher-fi version of the acoustic ep i put out last december, some lonely sad songs that kind of feel like really old tinyfolk, and a bit of weirdo sci-fi pop. Here's a list of the songs that I've got so far:

1. The Moon is Dead, Jim
2. Ashby
3. Our Hollow Earth
4. The Fisherman
5. In the Museum
6. When I Was
7. Lonely
8. Umbrella (Rihanna cover)
9. Can't Transfer Last Copy of Callnum with Orders

That's all for now, but I hope you all are doing well. Send me a message if you want to chat, even if I don't know you. Especially if I don't know you. I don't know what I have that's interesting to say, but I love answering questions.

Best,
Russ

Now playing: Wabash - The "I Don't Need You"s

As you may have heard, Tinyfolk is moving. We will be a Chicago band by August. But remember, your mother and I love each other and you and your brother very much, and this doesn't change that at all. If you're having trouble with this, feel free to send me a monk-e-mail about it.

Below, for those of you who are curious about Chicago, I've quoted some research on the city that may be able to enlighten you a bit. I hope this finds you all well.

-Russ

"The poet and explorer Carl Sandburg asserted in his poem "Chicago" that the city was populated by half-naked, white-toothed, magnetic dog-men who had enormous shoulders. At first it was believed that Sandburg was merely a dope fiend. Later, it would be learned that he was in fact speaking of Omaha. Also, he didn't exist either.

Time and again, the Chicago-is-real theory simply does not stand up to scrutiny. There are no man-eating vines on the wall of Wrigley Field. No Al Capone. No John Wayne Gacy. These are stories invented to frighten children.

This is not to say there are not Chicagoans. But I would suggest that they are a nomadic people, whose lost home exists only in their minds, and in the glowing crystal memory cells they all carry in the palms of their hands: a great idea of a second city, lit with life and love, reasonable drink prices at cool bars, and, of course, blocks and blocks of bright and devastating fire."

-John Hodgman, The Areas of My Expertise

So far one complete song and pieces of a handful of others have been written for the upcoming Tinyfolk album, which will be recorded this summer and released by Swim Slowly Records (home to The Robot Ate Me and Ryland Bouchard's amazing box set SEEDS).  If all goes well, Ryland will be recording the album using his magical musical equipment.

Yesterday I was in a bad mood.  I apologize, internet.