Well, don't ever fault us for being a little late. This is Ava Luna's newest release and it's probably their most assured yet. They've been getting a lot of good press lately and the Village Voice has taken notice so it's probably just a matter of time before they get too big for our lil operation over here. As it stands, we present you the album. If you'd like to order a screenprinted CD-R copy, please email coolingpierecords@gmail.com and we'll get one to you. Enjoy!
If you're in the know, you've already gotten Ava Luna's new album at one of their blistering live shows. For the rest of us, CPR is proud to present the pretty-much-official release of 3RD AVENUE ISLAND.
We did all of the instrumental tracks in one day. The ladies' vocals were done in two days and the lead vocals were completed in one sitting. Everything was recorded at the Trinity Korean Methodist Church in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
Ava Luna also has some handmade CDs for sale. Buy a nice hard copy one for seven bucks!
Hey there CPR faithful. We haven't been updating because I (Julian) have been busy recording stuff with kc quilty and other people and none of my deadbeat friends want to write for this wonderful site. I did throw up a few photos of our recording sessions so far:
Looks good eh? Coming soon, we'll have a kc quilty full length, an Ava Luna full length, a Casiorossi EP and at LEAST one split CPR 7" in September. Keep lookin' forward, we'll be back very very soon....
kc quilty's been doing a fair amount of recording with Carlos (of Ava Luna down at his Coney Island "recording studio". I say "recording studio" because it's actually the basement of a Korean church. It's somewhat roach infested with low ceilings and it's frequently freezing cold down there in almost any weather. All signs point it it sounding like crap and yet, it's a magical place. Carlos has been doing a lot of awesome sounding stuff down there with pretty much zero dollars worth of equipment. He's got a Mackie PA thing and some decent speakers, a bunch of cruddy vocal mics, and some old German thing called Das Kompressor or soemthing. Casiorossi, Ava Luna, and kc quilty have all been down there among others, check their respective myspace pages, or songs on the Crust Never Sleeps page) for examples.
This isn't just a self promotional post though, I have a point I'm getting around to here. Basically, Carlos is usually generous enough to drive us to and/or from Coney Island because it's a helluva long trip and we're usually recording in the middle of the night. The last few time's we've ridden with him, he's had Hot 97 on the radio, which I have no bones with. In mid-2009, Hot 97 is a tutorial in auto-tune, Melodyne, and synth strings. It's awesome. A lot of the songs sound similar though because they're all run through the same plugins on the same settings I think. And oh god, they play the SAME TWO SONGS over and over.
One of those songs is Jamie Foxx's Blame It (On The Alcohol). First of all, kudos to Jamie for putting out a song with parenthesis. I LOVE parenthesis songs. Second of all, kudos to Jamie for putting out the best/worst song ever. Just listen:
That's T-Pain on the chorus. And Jamie on the verse. Can you hear the difference? It's a pretty medicore song until it hits the chorus with it's stuttering a-a-a-a-a-a effect. I have no idea how/if he does this live. The craziest thing is, Jamie Foxx can actually sing. Why is he bathed in autotune? I'm repulsed and obsessed at the same time.
The other Hot 97-on-the-way-to-Coney-Island song that I keep hearing is "Whatever You Like" by T.I. It would have been cooler if he had called it "(You Can Have) Whatever You Like", but I'll forgive him because it's actually a pretty good song. The chorus vocals are really behind the beat--it's probably the only song I hear on Hot 97 that made me think of Billie Holiday. I mean, it's no "Strange Fruit", but I think it works for Avenue X at 3 AM.
Sheeeiiiiit son....we ignored this blog for TOO long considering how much there is to say! Things have been busy and rockin' here @ Cooling Pie HQ.
THE PAST:
First of all, we had a terrific release party for Crust Never Sleeps last Friday. As you problably know by now, the night featured CPR stalwarts Pocketknife & Ava Luna, as well as Asa Ransom, who I'm pretty sure are going to blow the fuck up any minute now. Here's a pic from the party:
Pretty cool huh? We gave out a lot of PIE and about one majillion copies of Crust Never Sleeps. Shit was tight. Which reminds me, if you haven't checked it out yet:
THE PRESENT:
Spencer and I are sitting here and listening to the new Wilco album. It's called "Wilco (The Album", which sort of worried me at first because it sounded a little too cheeky. My fears have been assuaged as of the fourth track "Bull Black Nova". This (Wilco the) album is amazing (so far). The recording seems to harken back a little bit to "A Ghost Is Born" and the songs have the simple feel of "Sky Blue Sky" but unlike the latter, it's good. Oh shit, now Feist is singing. Crap, did I jinx this thing? I don't really want to hear her singing backup on this song, it's pretty awkward. When famous people sing backing vocals, they shoul be BURIED in the mix. She's practically louder then him. I want this song to end. This is some dad rock shit right here. I need to write about something else in order to allow the album to get good again.
THE FUTURE:
- We're gonna be doing some sort of Casiorossi release on June 31st. Get ready for it - Cas Kaplan from Day Sleeper is currently working on a solo release that we're gonna put out. - kc quilty is working on something secret.
Stay tuned, we're gonna keep posting awesome stuff up here. Cuz we rock.
Here's the masterpiece. Originally recorded throughout 2004 and 2005 at Ari Zeiguer's house in the Bronx, "Tales..." is an record that I'm very proud to stream up here. The first time I heard this record, I was a junior in high school and I was sitting in Ari's dorm room, stoned out of my wits. He asked if I wanted to hear his band and I absolutely did not--for me, there's nothing worse than listening to crappy bands when I'm stoned. I want the good shit: slow, hard music in waltz time. Maybe that makes me weird. Anyways, it's not that there was anything particular about Ari that gave me cause to think his band would suck, it's just that, you know, I'm a skeptical person and I really wanted to listen to Radiohead or something. So he puts on this little record and...suprise, I nearly wet myself.
First track "Love" gave me my Radiohead fix and with that satisfied, I was able to enjoy the rest of the album for what it is: classically arranged rock music minus any "prog" pretensions. I fucking hate prog. Seriously. But I love this album. I think "My Summer" might still be the best song that anybody I know personally has ever recorded. "Song for a Movie" ended up getting redone for Ava Luna's next record Lemming which we'll toss up on the site soon. "Sandpaper" has a real, live choir on it. How do you do it Carlos? I do not know. All I can say is that I invite you to enjoy this album with all (two) of us at Cooling Pie Records. Do drop us a line and tell us what you think!
To understand The Child In The Sky, all you need to do is check out that tracklist. Six songs break the six minute mark and there are 18 total tracks, including a remix! Looks like a Kanye album or something...but it's not. The Child In The Sky is the solo handiwork work of a young Carlos Hernandez, who's currently dominating Brooklyn's burgeoning "east-of-Williamsburg-hipsterish-semi-legal-we-won't-card-if-you-don't-tell warehouse/basement/loft" in a far different, newer incarnation of Ava Luna. They rock now but there's a purity to this album that I love. From what I understand, a 17 year old classical-pianist Carlos decided to record a rock song ("Co-Operation/Suspense") and the rest of the album grew out of these first attempts. Nobody was ever supposed to hear this music; it's an artist making art for his own sake. And yet, I think some people will like it. Some will probably hate it. If you like Mogwai, Sigur Ros, Procol Harum, or the first King Crimson album, you'll probably like this. If you like Dan Deacon, Garth Brooks, or Dave Matthews (ever seen these three in a list together), you probably won't. In fact, if you like Garth Brooks, please get off of this site. Now.
REVIEWS:
"the child in the sky is like SO bad" - Carlos Hernandez, 2008.
If that doesn't tell you enough, then I don't know what will. Enjoy. And donate.
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