Journal

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in late september, alex (the idles) challenged all of his music making friends to a cover song throwdown. a slate of three songs was suggested, votes were cast and frank sinatra's "witchcraft" was selected as the subject of the inaugural throwdown. halloween was set as the deadline for submissions and in the end, seven (including the challenger) arose to the challenge. you'll find their covers here, listed in order of receipt.

give them a listen, then help us crown a winner by voting for your favorite. voting closes next monday, nov 16.

http://www.acoustaclaw.com/artists/cover-throwdown/cover-throwdown-01-witchcraft/

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released exclusively on acoustaclaw records this week, the red line ep is the follow up to the idles’ 2006 debut plants, insects and women — an album acclaimed director and music aficionado brendan lawler lists among his favorite of all time. from the cover of minimalist composer michael nyman’s “memorial” that opens the album to the refrain of “…take a step on the red line and find a seat with your friends” that closes it, we can pretty much guarantee you’ll find the journey to be among the most pleasant you’ve ever associated with the red line.

download the red line ep for free now from acoustaclaw.

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the 4 tracks of dinner bell were culled from a collection of 15 or so nearly finished recordings that were originally intended to make up quidnunk’s third album. the album never made it past sequencing though; it was postponed indefinitely, as was quidnunk who elected to put away his guitar for as long as it took to forget how to play it, hoping to erase the tendencies that had become ingrained from an entire year spent playing nothing but silver jews songs.

a couple of those shelved songs appeared in new forms that year on the mystery squid album flight of can beer, but the rest have remained tucked away on a forgotten hard drive until now. post a 2-plus year hiatus, quidunk has begun writing new material for what will be his third full length album. but, not wanting to abandon those unreleased recordings completely, he chose a few of his favorites to release as a digital-only ep through acoustaclaw records. …

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plants, insects and women is the debut album from the idles, the recording name of washington dc songwriter alex solecki, whose previous projects include mystery squid and dialectric. originally self-released in 2006, the album is now being made available digitally for the first time through acoustaclaw records.

download the full album for free right here.

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flight of can beer began with the idea of the idles and quidnunk recording new versions of their favorite songs from the other’s solo project under the mystery squid moniker. that concept was expanded once recording began though, and the final product includes both new versions of previously released songs by the idles and quidnunk and previously unreleased demos that had been floating around, as well as a few brand new songs. the track list alternates between the two songwriters, beginning with a quidnunk song and ending with one from the idles.

download the full album for free and hear some of the original versions of the songs right here.

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as with another evening primrose, this digital re-release is the first time galumphing guitars has been made widely available, with just over two dozen physical albums originally released in late 2006.

the majority of galumphing guitars was written during the recording of another evening primrose and recorded just after that album was finished, though a few of the songs on the album were holdovers from several unreleased collections a few years prior (tracks 3, 4, 5 and 11) that were too good to leave that way. “peebles” and “i’m about to eat some rice” are thus far the only released tracks from the very first quidunk project; dozens of recordings of instrumental music accompanied by a frequently incoherent synthetic narrator via textaloud. and while the quidnunk version of “untitled” is a new one, the song had also been around for several years… appearing previously on the mystery squid…