carey mercer hatte ich, wenn ich das richtig recherchiert habe, zuletzt im februar 2009 auf dem sender. auch in jener notiz ging es um das blackout beach benannte projekt, mit dem sich der umtriebige frog eyes verantwortliche und das swan lake mitglied nebenher beschäftigt. damals ging es um die ideale frau, die er einer griechischen sage nach beschrieb. auch mit dem neuen album "fuck death" ist eine intensive thematische auseinandersetzung verbunden. diesmal suchte mercer die verbindung von schönheit und krieg, er ließ sich über drei jahre für diese aufgabe zeit. inspiriert wurde er von einem gemälde des amerikanischen malers leon ...

Posting a year-end list in December is, for me, an admission of defeat. It goes against my real feelings about year-end lists and their potential viability and reveals me as an all-too-willing cog in the grips of the blog-o-sphere hype machine. Which is no huge reveal. I am easily one of the most hyperbolic (and nonsensical) writers on the internet and Forest Gospel is not even a blip on the radar of music taste-making--as well it shouldn't be. So I suppose it's not a big deal if I allow myself to get sucked into the pomp and confetti ...

As 2011 winds down, you may be taking a moment or more in the next couple of weeks to reflect on all the great music you heard this year. Remember James Blake's debut LP ? That was in January! Everything since then has all been this year! Many, many great albums and singles were released in 2011. I've never tried to compile a list of favorite songs from a year before, but I decided to do a two-week special highlighting my top 50 songs of the year on my radio show this January. Making that list turned out to ...

Blackout Beach is Frog Eyes frontman Carey Mercer’s solo project, and its third album, Fuck Death, shares many characteristics with the work of his full band. There are the requisite unintelligible lyrics and obscure cultural references, nods to Agamemnon and “Chinese soldier poems.” There is the deliberate and sometimes frustrating obliqueness. The songs are [...]

Blackout Beach Fuck Death Dead Oceans Records [2011] Fire Note Says: Blackout Beach does not disappoint on third LP as Carey Mercer once again will challenge your brain. Album Review: I don't think there is any argument that Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes, Swan Lake) has released some complex records and on his third long player, under his Blackout Beach moniker, you may add Fuck Death to the list. This record is about beauty and war while exploring cowardice at the perspective of a deserter. Heavy stuff but the material really does make for an interesting listen, as most of ...

This here's a mix I made about this time last year, a ballet about a man lost on foot in a mountain forest during a severe blizzard. Don't worry, the narrative's totally legible. Stay cold: Black Sky Black Snow by ForestGospel Black Sky Black Snow from Mediafire tracklist, as best I can: Mouthus - "The Duration Myth" Zs - "Concert Black" Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - "Dark Night of the Soul" Tom Waits - "Falling Down" The See Through Boy - "Interview" John Wiese - "Circle Snare" Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky - "Act I: Scene and Waltz of the Snowflakes" Mount Eerie - "Wind Speaks" The ...

by teepoo Blackout Beach is Carey Mercer from Frog Eyes and Swan Lake which I never really was very fond of so was never posted here, but his latest solo project Blackout Beach is pretty intriguing. It sort of reminds me of the reasons why I love Timber Timbre, that sort of folk-eeriness. Blackout Beach [...]

Carey Mercer insists that Fuck Death , the third album by his solo project Blackout Beach , “is not a political record.” He’s lying. Or perhaps he has a different idea of what a political record is than the rest of the world, which is a very real possibility; after all, his work with his main outfit—the epic, arty Frog Eyes—has always exhibited an obsession with the mercurial, subjective nature of the human mind. Throughout Fuck Death’s eight tracks, Mercer’s lyrics are cryptic and imagistic, if not indecipherably garbled. But the message is ominous and omnipresent: Death ...

Fuck Death is the third Blackout Beach album from Carey Mercer, breathy frontman for indie-rock heroes Frog Eyes and Swan Lake and his first for art-indie hub Dead Oceans. Mercer says the album was "an attempt to make something about beauty and war," inspired by seeing Platoon as a 10 year old and reading Chinese soldier poems as an adult (among a list of other things describes in great detail on the Dead Oceans site However, we hear everything from the discomfort of Xiu Xiu, the gloom-joy harmonies of TV on the Radio, the itchy churn of Suicide, the vintage ...

"Be Forewarned, the Night Has Come" is the second single to be taken from Fuck Death , the new album from Frog Eyes / Swan Lake member Carey Mercer 's rough-hewn Blackout Beach side project. "Beautiful Burning Desire" was our first taste of the record, which is out November 15 via Dead Oceans . (via Altered Zones ) MP3:   Blackout Beach: "Be Forewarned, the Night Has Come" Here's "Beautiful Burning Desire": MP3: Blackout Beach: "Beautiful Burning Desire"

Spencer Krug is a busy man. Apart from being the singer / songwriter / keyboardist / etc. for his mainstay of Wolf Parade, he also performs with several different canadian acts the likes of Fifth’s of Sevens, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake and others. Oh, and did I mention he finds the time to be able [...]

After an arduous search for a new location to deposit the unknown, Brooklyn-based A Place to Bury Strangers (APTBS) has signed to Dead Oceans. The announcement arrives with news of a new EP to be released in early 2012 and the unveiling of a new band member in the guise of bassist Dion Lunadon (also of The D4). The former duo of Oliver Ackerman and Jay Space will debut as a presumably even heavier trio during a headlining gig at the Dead Oceans/Jagjaguwar/Secretly Canadian label showcase scheduled for October 19 during CMJ Fest, with more tourdates to follow ...

Read a review of the 3rd album by Himalayan Bear, the solo project of Frog Eyes guitarist Ryan Beattie

This sucks. Absolutely Kosher — the excellent off-center indie rock label formed in 1998 that fostered a hell of a lot of great 00s bands in their pre-stardom years (Frog Eyes, Xiu Xiu, Sunset Rubdown, The Wrens, The Mountain Goats) — is saying goodbye to record-making for the time being, due to financial bullshit. Label owner Cory Brown posted a statement about the decision on the label's website : After 13 years, Absolutely Kosher will cease to release records for the foreseeable future. We’ve got one more album to share with the world before scaling back the operation to just administer ...

After nearly 13 years in business, San Francisco-based Absolutely Kosher Records has announced that it is shutting down for "the foreseeable future." The label will be closing its operations following the Oct. 11 release of Canadian artist Himalayan Bear's Hard Times album. And no, the irony surrounding the name of the record label's final release isn't lost on Absolutely Kosher owner Cory Brown. He released the following statement on the label's website : We should've been celebrating the label's bar mitzvah this year, but it's not to be. I wish I could tell you ...