August 16, 2010
Blitzen Trapper - “Jericho” (via cadamole)
And speaking of unofficial videos, here’s a cool little fan-made video/cover for Blitzen Trapper’s “Jericho.” I really like the songflute, and the slapping the backs of guitars for percussion. Waking up to stuff like this is when I love the internet.
June 8, 2010
The new Blitzen Trapper album, Destroyer of the Void, is officially out today, and you can stream the whole thing via the player above.
Part of the reason I’ve been a bit silent on this blog lately is I’ve been crazy busy cramming to get their new site built, so I’m happy to report that it’s up and running just fine now. For you nerds out there, it’s all Ruby on Rails, with Topspin powering catalog sales (and all sales soon), and shows being sucked in via the BandsInTown API and Sub Pop’s BT RSS Feed. I’ve got lots of plans for this thing, so hopefully you’ll be seeing lots of cool new functionality over the coming months.
Also, the blog is being powered by Tumblr, so if you’re reading this in your dashboard, I’d suggest following Blitzen Trapper on Tumblr! That’s all. Looking forward to a nap.
March 23, 2010
Blitzen Trapper - Heaven And Earth
Blitzen Trapper “Heaven and Earth”
Here’s a brand new song from the forthcoming Blitzen Trapper album, Destroyer of the Void, out June 6th on Sub Pop. There’s also a free MP3 download here. This song blew my mind the first time I heard it, and that was before it had strings. Also, piano ballad = ballsy.
PS: First!!!!!!!! Third!
August 19, 2009
Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer EP (full stream) →
The good people at Lala are streaming this in full, a week before release date (meaning you can’t buy MP3s yet). Lala has been really cool to work with, and I continue to be a fan of the service. Ah yes, and these songs are good too! Big Black Bird has slowly become one of my favorite BT songs of all time.
July 31, 2009
Blitzen Trapper “The Man Who Would Speak True” (Live in Santa Barbara 7/11/09)
This is the sole new track Blitzen Trapper’s been playing on their current, about to be completed tour. Simple, heartfelt, good stuff. You can watch the entire show here, as filmed by a bunch of UCSB film students (awesome!). Finally, if you live in Seattle, you should go see BT for free at Seattle Center with Throw Me The Statue tonight.
July 15, 2009
July 7, 2009
Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer
Directed by Daniel Elkayam
After months of hard work by lots of talented people, here’s the brand spanking new Blitzen Trapper video! And let me just say that I am so, so happy with how this turned out. The director was new to me so I was a bit nervous going in, but man, did he ever pull it off. This thing looks crazy pro! It’s also a really nice example of the kind of community creativity that makes Portland so special, as captured in this super fun little behind-the-scenes video, and this blog post.
April 24, 2009
Blitzen Trapper with Fleet Foxes - Furr (via sosocceror)
Yesss! I heard this happened, and was really hoping someone would post video — and here it is. This sounds great, and it’s so cool hearing Robin from Fleet Foxes on backing vocals. Foxes also covered “Furr” during their set, with Robin on lead vox and Blitzen backing up. Really hope someone posts that too. This took place this past Wednesday night, on the last night of the tour, in Eugene. If you can’t tell there’s a lot of love between these bands. Awesome.
April 22, 2009
Ahead of the Curve: Blitzen Trapper | mtvU
This is the video I posted about here. Turned out pretty nice, right? That weird synth line in the background is the SK-1 playing vocal samples pitched up and down. It sounds completely absurd — midget druids, robo-Stonehenge, chopped ‘n’ screwed crazy frog — and I still can’t believe they actually used it on camera. And I love that they did.
April 1, 2009
Following up on this post, I can now confirm that these do indeed look awesome. Just got my copy of the BT one, and it is a thing of truly great beauty. We got the red and white swirl vinyl color we were hoping for, and the sleeve is made of recycled old Sub Pop posters. There’s also a coupon for free downloads. Awesome. Record Store Day is April 18th, at which point you will be able to buy this thing in (and only in) a real, actual record store. BE THERE!!
Helluva lineup, right? This particular configuration of bands only happened at this one show in Birmingham — the rest of the tour was just BT with Fleet Foxes. Pretty special. (via Daisy Winfrey)
March 27, 2009
So yeah, how amazing do these look? Well played, friends.
March 26, 2009
Interview: Nancy Baym of Online Fandom →
Another milestone will be the development of a new kind of intermediary who works with bands, managers and labels to help them understand and participate in social media effectively. We’re seeing a few of these people and agencies popping up, but it’s a long way from being the norm. We can’t expect artists to spend all their time online cultivating audiences or being experts in social media, just as we didn’t expect them to act as their own managers.
I’m currently filling this role as part of my managerial duties for Blitzen Trapper, and really enjoying it. The internet has created some amazing new ways to engage and cultivate a fanbase — it’s a fun time to be playing around with this stuff. That, and I’ve pretty much always been into geeking out with other geeks who really like the same bands as I do. And in case it’s not obvious, I really, really like Blitzen Trapper. Anyway, I recommend reading the whole interview. Nancy is a smart lady.
