KELP LUNACY ADVANCED PLAGIARISM SOCIETY

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Blaug

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

For me the priviledge of working with Spencer Sult for his next Generifus album has come into fruition as of last night. Eli Moore, Ashley Eriksson, Lindsay Shief, Andrew Dorsett, Mark Morrison and others are slated to be in cohoots for it. Check out his amazing record "Solstice Songs" that I recorded with him about 2 years ago now or at least a song from it here" -- December 28th 2009

Gigi

Gigi is the new project from producer Colin Stewart and No Kids/P:ANO band member Nick Krgovich. The duo currently have an album planed called Maintenant which will feature countless special guests and collaborators. This first tasty single “The Old Graveyard” features guest vocals from Karl Blau. Pick up the new album on Jan. 26th via Tomlab. Head over to GvsB for more info.

The amazing Adam Newport-Berra conducted this music video of my song "Dark Sedan" from ZEBRA. It features the band LAKE. We shot this video just after LAKE and my Brooklyn show during our "Let's Build a Zebra" tour. Many people were involved volunteering their time and it was a lot of fun. Kyle, Steve and Jesse shot the main footage, Mary put the wardrobe together, Johnny and Dan on lighting, Jackie -- art designer, Adam Abada -- props, Meggie for all her help, Herrie for the amazing food, Sam production, Jessie choreographing the kid dancing and et cetera. Special thanks to the dancer Lisa Diaz and the twin nine year olds who gave me extra encouragement with their enthusiasm and to their mothers for their support and attendance.

In the Dub Narcotic Studio recording Calvin Johnson this past week. He is working on an Ick Ick Records split release with Ten Little Indians of Olympia that we almost finished, could be out this spring. Also we're working on a full length for K Records that is going to be excellent. I think Calvin's songs right now, lyrically and otherwise, are his best yet. -- Dec. 12th 2009.

I have my amtrak ticket to head back to Oly on the 2nd of January to do some more Hive Dwellers recordings/mixes-- this is what Calvin is calling his new stuff, "Hive Dwellers." --Dec. 26th 2009

Hey, I started a blog and I'm calling it Blaug. It's just for fun. There hasn't been any mention of music on it yet (total lie). -- November 29th 2009

LAKE and Karl Blau Fall tour 2009. We are all home now. We rocked some socks. That's with a capitol RAW and SAW.

The mechanics of the trip seemed so daunting. We were to play 45 shows in 47 days -- the mileage was something like 15,000. But it flew by I must say. And all the amazing people we met and played with made it a huge success. The LAKE band is a gang of Kung Fu/yarn artists. They are able to crochet anything that comes their way with the energy that the offender sends at them. And they play very decently their instruments of music.

Dallas, Tallahassee, Hellerton, ARCATA! What can we say, you've stolen the keys from under our pillows once more. Lubbock!

(I've been wanting to post songs from people we met on this trip, it may be an ANOTHER ongoing project... I met and heard and took home truly decent art-if-acts of Stephen Steinbrink of Phoenix for example, also Amazing Ghost from Richmond, and Vollmar from Bloomington come to mind)

Sat 10/10          Langley/Anacortes, WA
Sun 10/11         Tacoma, WA
Mon 10/12         Olympia, WA
Tue 10/13          Seattle, WA
Wed 10/14        Portland, OR
Thur 10/15         Pullman, ID
Fri. 10/16          Missoula, MT
Sat. 10/17         Salt Lake City, UT
Sun. 10/18        Denver, CO
Mon. 10/19        Lawrence, KS
Tues. 10/20       Kansas City, MO
Wed. 10/21       St Louis, MO
Thurs. 10/22      Iowa City
Fri. 10/23          Chicago, IL/
Sat. 10/24         Grand Rapids, MI
Sun 10/25         Bloomington, IN
Mon 10/26        Cleveland, OH
Tue 10/27          Buffalo, NY
Wed 10/28        Syracuse, NY
Thurs. 10/29      Brooklyn, NY
Fri. 10/30         Haverford, PA
Sat. 10/31         Hellerton, PA
Sun 11/1           Baltimore, MD
Mon 11/2          Charlottesville, VA
Tue 11/3          Richmond, VA
Wed 11/4         Greensboro, NC
Thur 11/5           Lexington, KY
Fri 11/6             Knoxville, TN
Sat 11/7            Athens, GA
Sun 11/8           Tallahassee, FL
Mon 11/9           DRIVE
Tue 11/10          Dallas, TX
Wed 11/11        Austin, TX
Thur 11/12         Lubbock, TX
Fri 11/13           Albuquerque, NM
Sat 11/14          Phoenix, AZ
Sun 11/15         Tucson, AZ
Mon 11/16         DAY OFF
Tue 11/17          Los Angeles, CA
Wed 11/18        Santa Barbara, CA
Thur 11/19         San Luis Obispo, CA
Fri 11/20           San Francisco, CA
Sat 11/21          Arcata, CA
Sun 11/22         Salem,OR

I'll post shortly here or on my Blaug some songs that feature LAKE as my band and also some recordings I took of the band LAKE on this tour.

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September 2009, Mike Dumovich began recording at the Department of Safety with myself, Phil Elverum, Eyvind Kang, Lori Goldstein and others.

The recordings are finished, and after some technical difficulties (we didn't get to finish the mixing at the DoS because the machine broke down) it's now mixed and mastered, and it's awesome. Mike is calling it "The Shiv" I believe. When it is available, I'll let y'all know. --

In the meantime, here are two songs from some early mixes ( I thought it would be interesting to just have these alternate mixes up here so you can get the recording and it'll be totally new...

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

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.

====================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...

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:

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.

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.

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!

Earlier in the year of 2009, Laura Veirs invited me to record a bit on her new album. Tucker Martine was at the helm once more, and Steve Moore and Eyvind Kang were again going to be a part of what would become "July Flame." On my last visit to Portland, I stopped by Tucker's and he burned a copy for me. I'm pretty much smitten with the songs. It's back to Laura's guitar on this record and her thoughtful lyrics are as prominent as ever.

Laura is self releasing "July Flame," on her Raven Marching Band Label. So be sure and hound your local independent record store to carry it!

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

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?

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.

We at Kelp Lunacy Advanced Plagiarism Society are dedicated to communicating with these little invisible creatures known as MP3s.

They are quite mischievous, however. Relax. Please come back and visit again soon, it will be different.