| The Singing Saw at Christmastime | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 7, 2008 | |||
| Genre | Christmas, Lo-Fi, Experimental | |||
| Label | Merge Records | |||
| Julian Koster chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| PopMatters | (7/10) [1] |
| Pitchfork Media | (7.0/10) [2] |
| Spin |   [3] |
The Singing Saw at Christmastime is an album released by Julian Koster on October 7, 2008 by Merge. It features covers of popular Christmas songs played by Julian Koster on the singing saw. [4]
The album received mixed-to-positive reviews. Pitchfork gave it a 7 out of 10, describing it as “unsettling, bizarre, and, on occasion, exquisite.” [5] Spin’s 2-star (out of five) review compared the album to “your grandmother’s ghost visiting on Christmas Eve to serenade the family with wordless, impressionistic vapors that teeter between hauntingly gorgeous and slightly nauseating.” [6]
Neutral Milk Hotel was an American band formed in Ruston, Louisiana, by musician Jeff Mangum. They were active from 1989 to 1998, and then, from 2013 to 2015. The band's music featured a deliberately low-quality sound, influenced by indie rock and psychedelic folk. Mangum wrote surreal and opaque lyrics that covered a wide range of topics, including love, spirituality, nostalgia, sex, and loneliness. He and the other band members played a variety of instruments, including non-traditional rock instruments like the singing saw, uilleann pipes, and "zanzithophone".
Jeff Mangum is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who gained prominence as the founder, songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of Neutral Milk Hotel, as well for his co-founding of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Mangum is characterized for his complex, lyrically dense songwriting, exemplified on the critically lauded album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, as well as for his public image as a recluse associated with his extended periods of musical inactivity and minimal press interaction. An article published in Slate described Mangum as the "Salinger of Indie Rock."
The New Pornographers are a Canadian indie rock band, formed in 1997 in Vancouver. Presented as a musical collective and supergroup of singer-songwriters and musicians from multiple projects, the band has released nine studio albums to date. The band have received critical acclaim for their use of multiple vocalists and songwriters, as well as for the elements of power pop incorporated into their music. Pitchfork has described the band's sound as "peppy, gleeful, headstrong guitar pop", while Stereogum has retrospectively praised the band's debut album Mass Romantic as "one of the greatest and most immediate power pop albums ever rendered".
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Julian Koster is an American multidisciplinary artist. As a musician, he is a member of the Elephant 6 Collective, the leader of The Music Tapes, and a member of Neutral Milk Hotel. He is known for writing, directing, and acting in audio fiction The Orbiting Human Circus , and for performing with the theatrical troupe of the same name. He is also known for his heavy use of the musical saw in recordings, even releasing The Singing Saw at Christmastime, his only solo album released under his own name, in 2008.
The Music Tapes is an experimental pop music and performance art project of Elephant 6 member Julian Koster. The Music Tapes is characterized by unusual orchestrations, the use of musique concrète and narrative storytelling, vintage home-recording practices, and musical inventions. They are also known for their unique live performances, such as the Caroling and Lullaby tours that bring them into the homes of fans, and theatrical shows like The Traveling Imaginary, which takes place in a circus tent.
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o is Tilly and the Wall's third studio album, released on June 17, 2008 through Team Love Records. The album was engineered and produced by Mike Mogis.
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Sleigh Bells is an American musical duo based in Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2008 and consisting of vocalist Alexis Krauss and guitarist/producer Derek E. Miller. They became known for their overdriven style of noise pop, which incorporates elements from various genres including pop, hip hop, metal, and punk.
Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes is an album by The Music Tapes, a project consisting mainly of Neutral Milk Hotel's Julian Koster, released in 2008 by Merge Records. Koster spent nine years recording the album using mainly antique hardware and such as a 1895 Edison wax cylinder recorder, a 1940s wire recorder, a "state of the art hard drive", and reel to reel tape recorders.
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Zachary Cale is an American songwriter and musician who grew up in Louisiana but currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. His music combines elements of folk, country, blues, rock and pop styles. His "moody lyrics and accomplished guitar playing have drawn comparisons to Leonard Cohen and John Fahey, and his voice, in its lower register, is eerily reminiscent of early Bob Dylan." He has also been compared to Townes Van Zandt, John Martyn, Donovan, and Nick Drake, and his music has been described as both "emotionally resonant" and "delicate".
Kevin Robert Morby is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. A former member of Woods and The Babies, Morby has released seven solo studio albums: Harlem River (2013), Still Life (2014), Singing Saw (2016), City Music (2017), Oh My God (2019), Sundowner (2020), and This Is a Photograph (2022).
U.S. Girls is a Toronto-based experimental pop project formed in 2007, consisting solely of American musician and record producer Meghan Remy. She had released music on a variety of independent record labels before signing to 4AD in 2015.
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