Resonator Magazine

Alright, listen:

I realize that you got ambushed with Sufjan a week or so back, right before Hacks and I saw him in Atlanta.

You can deal. Because I have something really, really special for you.

Sufjan's been performing two new songs live. One of them really is mediocre and eye-rolling and pretty much a PSA for NPR. And not the good, Sunday night NPR that sometimes has Sedaris reading stories about smoking in church, either. I'm talking the bad mid-morning weekday NPR that drones on and on like a Klonopin hangover and discusses the different types of fertilizer for your petunias and NEVER TELLS YOU what time it is so that you don't know if you should throw your clothes on and get out of bed.

However, midway through the show, Sufjan dropped this:



Sufjan Stevens: Majesty Snowbird (live)

With minimal introduction, which is unusual for Sufjan, who tends to preface each song with stories consisting of "so, I wrote this song about a forgotten Russian revolutionary, who died untimely in the great Coal Mine War of 1620 in Slotskilvaniaski, Poland, from holding too tightly to a small potato which he cradled to his chest in a loving and gentle fashion", Sufjan, as The Majesty Songbird, and his really, really tight band..the..Chinese...Butterfly...Brigade...(at least that's what Shara MyBrightestDiamond said that he was dubbing them for this tour, I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP HERE, FOLKS), launched into this EPIC nearly 10-minute piece of sheer genius.



"Majesty Snowbird" has what you'd expect from Sufjan, including moments where you are tempted to drift off into a quiet bliss. But let the repeated lyrics of "don't stop/don't break/you can delight/because you have a place" anchor you, emotionally, as the swirling theatrical ambience which you either love or hate as what IS at this music's essence slows to nothing more than Sufjan solo at the piano.....

And then, in the last two minutes, get fucking ready, as a...live breakbeat backing??!!!!....fucking launches the whole thing into the end.

Yeah. Hacks, who had been nodding off to the quiet not-rocking, fucking shot up in his seat at that. I looked over at him, and smiled. It's the magic of Sufjan, really-he'll fucking rock you out when you least expect it, because he CAN.

The whole thing is elegant and euphoric and tender and frail and damn cathartic...until you realize...y'know...it's ABOUT A BIRD.

A. DAMN. BIRD.

Imagine the music Soofy could write if he shirked his asexuality and fell in love with Anderson Cooper.

I smell a fan-fiction....

This is Sufjan for those of you who roll your eyes at his preciousness, at his fragility, at his desire to be the chronicler of America, "wither goest thou, Sufjan, with thy shiny banjo in the night?", etc-let this song play through, and you just may have to admit that he's a fucking living legend that we just haven't sufficiently recognized.

Proof that Sufjan listened to the same four Sonic Youth albums you did, he's just more of an asshole musically about it.

Sufjan's going to be Dylan for the Colbert Nation. Mark my words right now.

Don't stop. Don't break...

Since they wouldn't let Hacks' camera in, there are two pictures from the show. Both are awful and from my camera phone, so we used photos from bugsinamber.

Resonator Mag: we write songs about birds, too. BUT I MEAN IT LIKE MIKE SKINNER MEANS IT B/C THAT WAY IT IS MORE MEANINGFUL

i'm NOT a butterfly.

Yeah, yeah, I know, finished this whole pseudo-daily Sufjan thing earlier today, but there's one final song I wanted to throw out there, because I am a wishin' and a hopin' and a prayin' (oh god, puns INTENDED) to hear this tonight.

And, let's face it, no one at camp Resonator Mag will EVER let me post a Sufjan Stevens song EVER again, so I'm taking full advantage of this.



Sufjan Stevens: Size Too Small

From the glorious, beautiful Seven Swans, this is the ULTIMATE love song to Jesus. And it's kinda hot, too. It's like wistful glances towards to man on the cross, Bringin' SalvationBack.

And what if I told you
I was still in love with this?


Yeah, kitschy.

But so, so. pretty.


Catch you kids in a midwestern state.



Buy Seven Swans

Resonator Mag: we are the Res erection

oh so not funny..

Yup. It's that day.

Sufjan + Shara "My Brightest Diamond"Worden tonight in Atlanta.

It also means the fourth and final part of "Sufjan Says".



I wanted to make sure that I at least touched on one song from Sufjan's vastly over-looked (and pretty much ignored by everyone) piece of WARP Records-esque burbleandglitch snafu-tech, Enjoy Your Rabbit.

(especially since the album apparently makes dehumidifier's "soul bleed")

Sufjan Stevens: Year of the Rat

One of the prettiest compositions off the Rabbit album, "Year Of The Rat" shows Sufjan trying to stretch out his ability to compose purely synthetic pieces from minor interludes to actual moments that both create, contain and then dismantle an atmosphere. You be the judge on his success here-I love it.

and then, I can't end this without my favorite meeting of the Electronic + Sufjan minds:


Sufjan Stevens: Chicago (To String remix)

I've posted this before, and it always wins over even the most reluctant convert to the sheer fucking beauty of what Sufjan does. It takes that twee-tro hop-around-the-dancefloor-like-a-bunny (whilst Enjoying your Rabbit, of course) feel that the first Junior Boys album or some Her Space Holiday circa Young Machines traversed in, and wraps it around what I think is pretty much the MOST beloved Sufjan song ever, "Chicago".



I'm pretty sure you're well aware that if you're seeing Sufjan on this tour, you're going to hear "Chicago". I would kill to get some dance floor space and have Sufjan + Jongalloway (who did this remix) bust this one out, but, alas, it'll have to be a bedroom dancing moment. I've no idea what became of this-first supposedly one of the Illinois re-release bonus tracks, then one of the vinyl bonus tracks, and now just lost in the the ether. Snag it. Listen to it.
Dance. If you want to.

And sing along, because we all know you know the words:

I fell in love again.
All things go.
(All things go...)



Buy "Enjoy Your Rabbi In The Headlights

Resonator Mag: I don't mind, idle mind...

even with the rest belated, everything is antiquated.

Part three of our count-down to Sufjan-ness in Atlanta on Wednesday:



Reaching back, as did the first pick, all the way to Sufjan's first solo album A Sun Came, we at Res let a member of our extended family, aka dehumidifier, take a pick.

(Mostly because I'm really fucking excited to announce that Trixie and I will be at the first ever Knife U.S. show in New York on Nov 1st...yes, the 6pm show, think of it as dinner theatre where they sing about forest families, strippers and heartbeats and then let you go night-night with beautiful girls, and as such have had no time to give today's any thought)

Sufjan Stevens: A Winner Needs A Wand

Of her reasoning behind this selection, Miz dehumidifier says, and I quote:

"it's not from rabbit or michigan"

In the words of the great poet critic drunkard Neal Pollock, "now THAT's music criticism".



Buy a sun came

Resonator Mag: we're lazy

have we mentioned laaaazy?

Part two of the countdown to Sufjan Stevens and My Brightest Diamond at the Fox in Atlanta on Wednesday. Part two of us bringing you little chestnuts from the bright and shiny tree of lyrical folk that is the strong, broad Sufjan.

(ok, that was awful.)

Howabout "Part two of 'Sufjan Says'"?

Yeah.

Part two of "Sufjan Says":




Yesterday we gave you a quirky, glitchy little piece of RejoyceTro from Sufjan's debut solo album, A Sun Came!. Today we're gonna jump forward a little bit to something else underheard and overlooked, a song that Sufjan's apparenly dusted off for the current tour:

Sufjan Stevens: The Dress Looks Nice On You

An intimate piece of finger-plucked melody from the Seven Swans album (which, on a whole, is Sufjan's beautiful, understated meditation on what Christianity means to him), Sufjan's low, close voice beckons with comfort like a blanket by a fire on a cold morning. Regardless of how honeyed his voice is, Sufjan's lyrics, at first seemingly come-hither, actually prove to be a chaste, matter-of-fact business-arrangement takes on "when a man loves a woman". When he sings "I can see a lot of life in you" (and that barely-phrased scripted-afterthought of a "yes"), it's easy to see the Pilgrim at Plymouth Rock looking at his wife, her pregnancy bulge just beginning to show, and, in his dualistic view of "woman", thinking not of a "supersexywoman" but rather the continuation of his lineage. The next line, "and I think that dress looks nice on you", is delivered with a discomfort, a removed, formulated bit of praise by someone for whom those words aren't part of the every day-from the way it stumbles off his tongue to the use of "nice".

It's gorgeous and practical, it's emotive and Old Testament. It's a half-hearted pick-up line and a comment on Separate Spheres. Or it could just be a shoe-gazing attempt at a "hey, what's your name?" when words fail or are lost, from a shy boy.

Or all of the above.

It IS that shyness, that awkwardness, that makes "The Dress Looks Nice On You" work.

And if this song follows "Chicago", as seems to have been the norm on Sufjan's current tour, you just may see me wiping away some tears.

I can see a lot of life in you
And I think that dress looks nice on you...




Buy seven swans

Resonator Mag: that dress looks quite pleasant on you, it does

see a lot of life in us

Sufjan Stevens is playing Atlanta next Weds (the 20th), and I can't contain the excitement. I mean, it's literally so overwhelming I've spent the past two hours peeing myself repeatedly.

Ok, not really, but still. You get the point.

Yes, we have a sit-down with the gorgeous Shara Worden. Yes, we have special Sufjan coverage planned.

(yes, we still think "The Illinoisemakers" is the dumbest name ever and NO, we haven't sold out. Not 'til our bills are paid.)

I'm going to be pulling out some older Sufjan stuff here on the ResBlog, in an attempt to make sure we're all well aware that, well, we're dealing with a talent that rivals Dylan. Or Jesus. Or Dave Gahan.

Possibly surpassing even Wesley Willis.




Let's jump allll the way back to Sufjan's initial release for the amazingly cutely named Asthmatic Kitty records, A Sun Came. It's easy to skim through a good portion of his newer recorded output and label him a softy, a shhh-folk artist, the audible equivalent of Howard Finster, but those who do that usually have completely ignored the fact that Sufjan's thrown his multi-talented (and multi-tracked) weight around in a way that only brings one other name to mind:

Prince.

Doubt me?

Sufjan Stevens: Joy! Joy! Joy!

Ranking right up there with the Purple One's music as one of the freakiest, happiest, most creative celebrations of some guy named Jesus EVER, Sufjan pairs a skittering bells-and-glitchbreaks backing with lyrics that sing the praises of A Certain Book. It's so much fucking fun, though, that it's easy to miss the preaching (which is one of the wonders of all of Sufjan's stuff-it's so good that religion, much like Phil Collins' Jacket, is not required).

Note, though, mid-way through, when Sufjan pulls one of the aforementioned Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince's favorite tricks: slowing down the actual recording and overdubbing his voice, to present a vocal track that is completely unreachable by any other means. Prince named this treatment of his voice "Camille", for Sufjan we'll call it "Lil' Soofy". Lil' Soofy makes his appearance at several weird, trippy moments throughout A Sun Came, but pops up in the middle of "Joy! Joy! Joy!" to ask "hey, Sufjan, what do you believe in?", and then respond to itself with "Oh, a lot of things".


I really don't understand how this song works. But it's a freaked-out sort of purple sunshine and glow-stick rainbow celebration of a song that says "hey, you think "Chicago" was too flamboyant to be real? Think again". Call it SufjanBreaks. Call it RejoiceTro. Just. Listen. And then help me SCREAM my request for it.

More of what "Sufjan Says" almost daily as the day draws near. Because you can't get enough Sufjan.



Buy A Sun Came!, b/c Sufjan Says so

We put Sufjan Stevens on.

this is either going to lose or gain a LOT of friends...