KLAPS follows the soundscape of audio artist Karl Blau-- Kelps are sent out periodically in the format of CD: songs and sounds, orchestrations and field recordings.

Underscoring the committment to style exploration of the modern world as giant mixer of sonic cultures, Blau's KLAPS--formed beneath the grey skies of the Skagit Valley-- produce sonic landscapes of a new world. Karl Blau as crooner, as music producer, instrumentalist, as natural world observer, as collaborateur with artists from the NW and beyond. Kelp Lunacy Advanced Plagiarism Society above all shares Blau's love of sound

It is important to note that part of the essence of KLAPS is the hand-packaging including screenprinting, letter-pressed, sewn paper, and often on recycled material. Sure, you can download Kelps here for cheap, but you won't get the full flavor of Kelp Lunacy and the rush of treasure in the mail. Sign up here.

Here are some things coming up and some albums I've been on in the relative past

updated October 15th 2008

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Here's the video for Mockingbird Diet shot by Brody Charles and Pierce McGarry-- Kelp Elves

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Here is a picture of Lexi Mountain Boys from Baltimore, MD, they are one of the greatest shows to see and much like the Dead, different every time and so trippy. Push HERE to listen to a recording I made of this actual event that took place at the Current Canyon Festival in Fall 2007.

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driving through Montana spring 2008, coming home from New York

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====================July 9th, 2008: I became overcome with excitement today as I realized that Kelp Lunacy is going to halt here in 12 issues from now. Number 40 is going to be the last issue of Kelp that you may subscribe to. It's safe to say that this has been a great run, and the concept is great and possibly sometime during my life this will seem like a good idea again. But for this era I must cap this thing off, and thusly keep my sanity in check. It's going to be fun finishing this out and I hope that you will subscribe to it you who have in the past or have just considered it before. At this point the best deal is subscribing for the entire 12 issues left at $10 each in the U.S. and $12 each outside N. America. Do that now here.

========================>>>>>>>>Two new D+ releases: What is Doubt For? and On Purpose

Suddenly we recorded a new album. I don't know how this happened, we got together a few times and I guess the tape was rolling. It was so spontaneous and lazy. Bret Lunsford is calling the new one "What is Doubt For?" It's quite similar to "No Mystery." You can buy "No Mystery" here and possibly "What is Doubt For?" and "On Purpose" here soon. There's a really loud song that leads off the album and I'm singing the first line which is unique to this and the last record "No Mystery." It's not available yet, but I just listened to the master and it's sounding really good so maybe by What the Heckfest...

D+ ON PURPOSE

This is a retrospective D+ spanning a dozen years of recordings and songs of Bret Lunsford with Phil Elverum and Karl Blau.

Here's what Blau says of it, and in general of Bret--taken from the liner notes:

PRACTICE MAKES "ON PURPOSE"

Here are a bunch of songs from the first era of D+. I really hope we don't call this D+ Greatest Hits. That would just not be true; there's hardly been any radio play of this band and they're all just incredible pieces to the puzzle of the mind of Bret Lunsford with Blalverum embellishments. Many of these particular recordings were demos we made and one or two from compilations otherwise unreleased. An illustration is rendered here of the open-mindedness to recording we explored.

The nonchalance of recording with Bret and Phil started in Calvin's basement. It became apparent to me that the method of recordings by Calvin Johnson placed the emphasis more on what happened at the actual performance of the song (D+ often recorded the music all together then overlaid the singing) than how the song "sounded." And to be more specific and accurate, if we played through the song-- got through it-- it was, like, cool. This approach grew and developed in my mind, and became key in enjoyment of the recording process. To stress the practice of performance and to get out of the way as much as possible on the recording end-- this was ideal. Resulting music stays alive and breathing and the potential for revisiting the songs increases because the idea isn't beaten down in process. More recently we took this practice further; the tracks from "No Mystery"(2007) were mostly recorded in Phil's living room together into one microphone--one track-- mono.

Practice on stage was never discouraged. It was a place where we found ourselves with our instruments. On stage was just over here instead of over there. "When you play shows, don't drink doubles..." It was not unlikely to stop a song midway for a longish pause and then go back into it where we left off. This was all practice it seemed.

Early D+ shows must've seemed so awkward. Looking back on us: Phil - teen skater with a perpetual grimace hitting the drums so hard and bored; me with smile I couldn't wipe off, bare foot, long haired forest dwelling hunchback, pumping endlessly optimistic basslines; Bret's slur and slower-than-decipherable-by-youth prattle between songs, distorted, strummed open chords.

The physical make-up of our sound augmented drastically after the Deception Pass and Mistake recordings. We became a vocal group with guitar accompaniments. It was something barely mentioned between us the metamorphasis was so natural. At the time of this release, I think we're somewhere in middle ground: distorted vocal harmonies with loud distant drums, still the anchor of words meant to rack your brain c/o Lunsford.

True there is much wincing today on my behalf when I listen to my "harmonies" shouted over Bret's delivery on the first 2 D+ albums. But this also reminds me how ecstatic I would and still become in engaging with these words. If you've ever heard or read them I don't have to tell you how Bret's lyrics work like a Choose-Your-Own- Adventure book. Each line Bret writes has at least two meanings to offer, D+ lyrics usually have 3 to 5 stanza's--lots of possibility. This is homage to me the listener, it's telling me "I respect that you will make your decisions based on who you are and with respect to your environment." Basically, Bret's lyrics read like an anarchist handbook. Trust your conscience.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\There are 6 albums floating around my studio, I am going nuts, because I can't wait to send them off. Got the "In Return of Ghost Country"s in the mail yesterday. I have a feeling some are going to come back to me because it's been too long since the last KLAPS installment. Thank YOU so much for your understanding SUBSCRIBERS! You are the wind beneath my wings, the current on my scales.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{I recorded Spencer Sult last weekend, his moniker is Generifus.He lives in the Redmond/Kirkland area of Seattle. I'll put some songs up soon about what happened, he is a touched songwriter. He had all the songs and arrangements just floating in his head, never wrote down a word. A couple times we would begin to lay his vocals down on tape and he'd be like "just a second, it's still coming to me" and a moment later, he would sing the vocals having never sung them out loud before. Here is Baby Drawing from the album "Solstice Songs," which should be available soon through this website and his.

O+++++++++++++++++++++OThe "That's How I Got to Memphis" single just came out on K records IPU series. This is two tracks that Tucker Martine produced under his own project Mount Analog featuring me as vocalist. You should get your copy now here .

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=========================================New Your Heart Breaks recorded recently, mastered and even available now here! We revisited the trusty Dub Narcotic studio in Olympia for these recordings. I don't think that our version of the New Kids on the Blocks's "The Right Stuff" made it sorry to say. But that's just testament to how strong the recordings are otherwise! BTW, I'm the producer and drummer of these records, Clyde Petersen writes the songs/sings them/plays guitar, Steve Moore plays wurlitzer on them and they include members of LAKE, Boys from Deer Park and still more folks. Here's Start By Walking and Torrey Pines featuring Kimya Dawson for example.

Also Available from YOUR HEART BREAKS:

Live in Berlin. A full live YHB set from Germany. Featuring Karl Blau, Steve Moore, and Clyde Petersen as Your Heart Breaks. From a European tour with Laura Veirs in Spring 2007.

BUY NOW!

Sailor System. The newest full-length from Your Heart Breaks. This is the twin record of New Ocean Waves. Recorded at Dub Narcotic Studios in January, 2006. There are more than 30 awesome musicians on this thing. It is a rock opera with Karl Blau, Laura Veirs, The black cat orchestra, and the Your heart breaks band. The art was made by Meghan Hanlon, who made the art for new ocean waves. The records belong side by side. It is epic.

BUY NOW!

New Ocean Waves. A full-length from Your Heart Breaks. Produced by Karl Blau. Recorded at Dub Narcotic Studios in January, 2006. There are more than 30 awesome musicians on this thing. It kicks ass. It's 5 bucks. You will love it.

BUY NOW!

==============================The fabulous Laura Veirs and Saltbreakers record on Nonesuch "Saltbreakers" came out a year ago March. Get it here. I play bass, guitar and sing on these recordings with Laura, Tucker Martine, Steve Moore, Eyvind Kang, Bill Frissell , and more folks.

Also check out these amazing Laura Veirs albums. I met Laura Veirs in Anacortes at a little show at the Business on Commercial Ave. about 10 years ago. Bret Lunsford set it up, then Laura was passing through Anacortes on her way to visit her parents in the San Juans from her home in Seattle. We played some shows together at that point and even began playing music together. I played in her group the Tortured Souls that became Saltbreakers, recorded Carbon Glacier and then Year of Meteors with Tucker Martine and Steve Moore. Kelp issue number 8 features Laura Veirs and myself in Europe on tour as a duo in support of Carbon Glacier(then a Bella Union release). The Kelp issue is called "Lore of Ears" and is currently sold out, but I'm toying with the idea of putting it up just to share for free. Here's more Veirs albums-- you can click on the picture and order if you want:

CONTACT KELP LUNACY ADVANCED PLAIGIRISM SOCIETY

e-mail me any questions here:

KLAPS email

"kelpmonthly" at sign "fastmail" dot "fm"

which is the same as:

k-e-l-p-m-o-n-t-h-l-y-@-f-a-s-t-m-a-i-l-.-f-m

(written this way I hope that it doesn't get any spam additions by trained machines)

or send mail:

po box 1307
Anacortes, WA
98221 USA

FAQ

KARL, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO RENAME KELP MONTHLY INTO "KELP LUNACY ADVANCED PLAGIARISM SOCIETY"?

I want to be fair to people and the fact that I hadn't put out a Kelp in like 6 months, I didn't like the misleading term "monthly" to be a part of the name, but I decided to keep the moon reference('month' is derived from 'moon') and go with Lunacy in there. I would like it to be a monthly periodical. As soon as KLAPS is all I'm doing, it will be monthly. The "PLAGIARISM" part comes from my recent semi-obsession with the fact that nothing is original. Even God made people in his/her likeness I am told. I feel like just saying it right out front that I plan to rip everything off relieves the pressure of doing something original on one hand, but then also gives ample room to prove otherwise. I really do want to do something original. Can you tell?

WHY HAVEN'T I RECEIVED ANY KELPS IN FOREVER?

There is also the chance that you have moved and forgot to let me know. Please email me at "kelpmonthly" at sign "fastmail" dot "fm" if you have moved.