T h e D e n o u e b l o g

Commercial

2010-12-28T14:25:00.000-08:00

Big Sky: Denouement Mix Vol. 4

2010-11-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

1. Camille - Vous

From Le fil, 2005

2. Love - My Little Red Book
From Love, 1966

3. Kate Bush - The Big Sky
From Hounds of Love, 1985

4.Tim Hardin - Black Sheep Boy
From Tim Hardin 2, 1967

5. The Seekers - On The Other Side
From Seen In Green, 1967

6. Mahotella Queens - Wozani Mahipi
From Isigubu Sabalozi, 1969

7. Genesis - Keep It Dark
From Adacab, 1981

8. Low - La La La Song
From Trust, 2002

9. Andrew Bird - Carrion Suite
From Useless Creatures, 2009

10. The Hidden Cameras - Learning To Lie
From Awoo, 2006

11. John Lennon and Yoko Ono - Dear Yoko
From Double Fantasy, 1980

12. Wanda Jackson - Funnel of Love
From Right Or Wrong / Funnel of Love, 1961

13. Generationals - When They Fight, They Fight

From Con Law, 2009

14. Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit - The Ghost of O'Donahue

From A Larum Box Set, 2008

Halloween Mini-Mix!

2010-10-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

1. Round Robin - I'm The Wolf Man

From I'm The Wolf Man / Sit And Dance, 1964

2. Old Time Relijun - Daemon Meeting

From Catharsis in Crisis, 2007

3. Tom Waits - What's He Building In There?

From Mule Variations, 1999

4. Squirrel Nut Zippers - La Grippe

From The Inevitable, 1995

5. Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Little Demon

From At Home With Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 1958

Photo by Hollin Brodeur

I Can't Quit You Baby

2010-10-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

Re:Live August 28th

2010-08-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

ATTENTION! The Denouement will unfortunately not be playing the show anymore. Our drummer Robert DeLong will play his amazing solo material though, so everyone should still go!

RE:LIVE THRIFT STORE
24871 Redlands Blvd.
Loma Linda, CA
with Keith Tutt II

Le GRAND CRU shirts will be sold for a special price!

BIll Callahan Is So Cool

2010-08-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

Denouement Mix Vol. 3: How Come That Blood

2010-07-19T23:53:00.000-07:00

Download the whole thing here.

Or, listen and download individual songs:

1. Port O'Brien - I Woke Up Today
From All We Could Do Was Sing, 2008

2. Ros Sereysothea & Sean Vanthy - Jam 5 Kai Thiet (Wait Five More Months)
From Cambodian Rocks, 2000

3. Common Prayer - Us Vs. Them
From There Is A Mountain, 2010

4. Billy Nicholls - London Social Degree
From Would You Believe, 1968

5. Julie Doiron - Consolation Prize
From I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day, 2009

6. This Heat - S.P.Q.R.
From Deceit, 1981

7. Thee Oh Sees - I Was Denied
From Warm Slime, 2010

8. The Animals - Talkin' Bout You
From The Animals, 1964

9. OOIOO - Umo
From Taiga, 2006

10. Sam Amidon - How Come That Blood
From I See The Sign, 2010

11. Dismemberment Plan - Girl O'Clock
From Emergency & I, 1999

12. Micah P. Hinson - Yard of Blonde Girls
From Dream Brother, 2006

13. April March - Laisse Tomber Les Filles
From Paris In April, 1996

14. Heartless Bastards - The Mountain
From The Mountain, 2009

15. Adrian Crowley - Bless Our Tiny Hearts
From Long Distance Swimmer, 2008

16. Akron/Family - Everyone Is Guilty
From Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, 2009

Illustration taken from Le Livre de Sante, v.2, 1967. Illustration by P. Wyss

Past The Hills

2010-07-12T22:48:00.001-07:00

Aladdin Jr.

2010-06-23T09:37:00.001-07:00

Wonder Ballroom Pictures

2010-06-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

Wonder Ballroom was great! All the bands were awesome, and about 500 people came out. Greg Schroeder took the pictures below.

Click here to see pictures of the other bands from that night.

Hymn Song Live

2010-05-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

A while back we played Hymn Song at a restaurant in Long Beach. It was kind of a strange show. Later Jared Mees & The Grown Children inspired mass shirtlessness and a lot of broken glass. Fortunately much of it was caught on tape. Below is our performance of Hymn Song, and you can see one of Jared's songs here.

We'll be playing with Jared again at The Wonder Ballroom June 5 in Portland. Join us!

Tour!

2010-05-25T21:50:00.001-07:00

The Denouement is going on tour! Also, the poster is by our very own Keiko Brodeur! Check out the dates and see if we're coming to your town.

06.02.10
House Party
1630 Fairview St., Apt. M
San Louis Obispo, CA 93401

06.04.10
House Party
812 ne Killingsworth
Portland OR 97211
10pm
with And And And

06.05.10
Whole Foods
2825 E Burnside Street
Portland OR 97214
4pm
with Archaeology and Super XX Man

06.05.10
The Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St
Portland OR 97212
6pm
with Finn Riggins, Typhoon, Jared Mees and more

06.09.10
The Crocodile
2200 Second Ave.
Seattle WA 98121
7pm; $8 adv, $10 dos; 21+
with Noah Gundersen & the Courage,
and The Head and the Heart

06.11.10
The Upper Room
817 S Third Street
Renton WA 98057
7pm
with Kaylee Cole, Dane Ueland

06.15.10
El Rio
3158 Mission St
San Francisco CA 94110
8pm; 21+

The Crocodile

2010-05-21T10:55:00.001-07:00

We're playing The Crocodile with Noah Gundersen and The Head And The Heart! It's part of that tour you all should be excited about.

Show flyer

2010-05-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

Also, The Denouement has a tour brewing, so stay tuned!

From The Archives - Daniel

2010-03-31T10:44:00.000-07:00

Some time back in 2007 we wrote a song called "Daniel" which didn't quite make it onto our first album, Low Tide. About a year later we revisited it, as we often do with our songs, and came up with a slightly different take.

Have a listen to the demo of Daniel from '08

Top Five Songs When I Was Twelve

2010-03-28T02:10:00.000-07:00

1. Orinoco Flow by Enya
2. Rocky Raccoon by The Beatles
3. Theme From Last of the Mohicans by Trevor Jones
4. Stand By Me by Ben E. King
5. Amish Paradise by Weird Al Yankovic

Timber Timbre

2010-03-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

Two videos of Timber Timbre playing for an NPR thing. Timber Timbre released one of my favorite records of last year. I also included one of their songs ("I Get Low") on the first denouement mixtape.

Reading Music

2010-03-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

A while back Matt had a great idea: to write a piece of music that is created by musicians interpreting non-musical notation. The piece is different every time it is played. At some point I think it would be cool to record different performances of the piece. Here's what it looks like:

Top Five Star Trek Doctors

2010-03-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

1. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Star Trek
2. The Doctor, Star Trek: Voyager
3. Julian Bashir, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
4. Phlox, Star Trek: Enterprise
5. Beverly Crusher, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Video Parade: Joanna Newsom

2010-02-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

What do ya'll think of the new Joanna Newsom album?

Here's Baby Burch, from that new one:

Garage Voice Tour!

2010-02-11T11:15:00.001-08:00

Our friends Garage Voice are going on tour! Check to see if they're coming to your town.

T-Shirts Available Online!

2010-02-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

Available in two colors:
Yellow and tan.
Only $10!!

The Denouement Mix Vol. 2: Stones Throw From Heaven

2010-01-30T21:40:00.000-08:00

I'm going to skip the writing this time, but enjoy the mix! This one's a little more subdued, and the next will be more... uh... aggressive. Again, you can download the whole thing below in one zip file, or listen and download one at a time.

Download the whole thing here.

1. The Ex – Huriyet
From Turn, 2004

2. Two Minute Miracles – Conjoined
From Vol. 4: The Lions of Love, 2007

3. John Lennon – Jealous Guy
From Imagine, 1971

4. Nurses – Technicolor
From Apple’s Acre, 2009

5. Hem – The Golden Day Is Dying
From No Word From Tom, 2006

6. Henry Mancini – Theme From Hatari
From Hatari! 1962

7. Terry Allen – New Delhi Freight Train
From Lubbock (On Everything), 1972

8. Josephine Foster – Stones Throw From Heaven
From Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You; 2005

9. Brent Gorton – That Photograph
From Brent Gorton, 2006

10. Brigitte Bardot – Les Cheveux Dans Le Vent
From Brigitte Bardot, 1964

11. Clifton Chenier – Zodico Stomp
From Bayou Blues, 1970

12. Floating Action – To Connect
From Floating Action, 2009

13. Incredible String Band – How Happy I Am
From The Incredible String Band, 1966

14. Vetiver – Strictly Rule
From Tight Knit, 2009

15. The Velvet Underground – I’ll Be Your Mirror
From The Velvet Underground and Nico, 1967

16. Al Green – Jesus Is Waiting
From Call Me, 1973

Ocean Floor Live, In A Church, With A Chorus Of Friends

2010-01-22T00:06:00.000-08:00

The Denouement - Ocean Floor (LIVE) from Paul Hoppe on Vimeo.

Recording

2010-01-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

Photos by Paul Hoppe

Ocean Floor

2010-01-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

Image by Paul Hoppe

Not only is the lettering hand-drawn, but Paul created the font from scratch! A detail shot:Paul has some more cool process related stuff right here.

Videos!

2010-01-07T23:37:00.000-08:00

Totally unrelated, but totally cool

and

Keep Hunting

2010-01-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

Image by Tommy Panigot

Video: Robbie Live

2009-12-31T19:18:00.000-08:00

Click here to watch Robbie's solo performance in Redmond, WA! The sound/video quality isn't the best, but it's better than nothing for those of us that weren't able to see the show in person!

Until The Day

2009-12-27T10:34:00.000-08:00

Image by Anna Hurley
Click the image for a larger view!

R.C.E DeLong New Album! North West Shows!!

2009-12-19T19:47:00.000-08:00

Robbie, The Denouement drummer, has a new solo album and it's truly great! Listen:

Now that you've listened to these tantalizing songs, you probably want to hear the whole thing, (I don't blame you) and guess what, you can! Robbie is playing some shows with Johanna Chase in the Northwest:

Monday, December 21st @ Alberta Street Pub
1036 NE Alberta St.
Portland, OR 97211
6pm

Wednesday, December 23rd @ The Grave's
1730 232nd Ave NE
Sammamish, WA 98074
7:30pm

Saturday, December 26th @ Soul Food Books
15748 Redmond Way
Redmond, WA 98052
7pm
(This show will stream live at soulfoodbooks.com!)

Also, if you were on the mailing list, you could download the above songs for free! So send an email to thedenouementnews@gmail.com!

David Thomas Broughton Live

2009-12-14T14:51:00.000-08:00

Top Five Side Effects From Prescott Pharmaceutical Products

2009-12-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

5. Hunchfront
4. Strangulated Narnia
3. Hair Blood
2. Lung Badgers
1. Acid Reflux Capacitor

Five Winter Songs

2009-12-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

It's finally been a little cold down here in Southern California, so to celebrate, here are five winter sounding songs.

Ella Fitzgerald - Rock Of Ages, Cleft For Me
From Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas, 1967

Holopaw - Igloo Glass
From Holopaw, 2003

Wes Montgomery - Polka Dots And Moonbeams
From The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, 1960

Beach House - Holy Dances
From Devotion, 2008

Damien Jurado - Walk With Me
From Ghost Of David, 2000

Video Parade: Old and New

2009-12-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

Two great performances of songs from two albums everyone should own. First, "Grounds For Divorce", the single from Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow (The same album that holds "One Day Like This" from our Kindly Take The Floor mix)

Next is "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues" from my favorite Kinks album, Muswell Hillbillies. Even if you don't like the Kinks, at least watch the video for the trumpet player's hair.

Welcome

2009-11-27T09:15:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Denouement's website! There's already a lot of cool stuff to see and hear: To the left you can listen to our new e.p. in its entirety, below is a special mix of music The Denouement enjoys (Okay, just Malachi enjoys), there's a cool video by Ben Blood down there somewhere, a great painting Lindsay Eller made just for us, some photographs of touring and recording, and Much Much (Okay, a just a little bit) More.

If you haven't seen this before, Robbie (sort of) explains some of the handmade percussion used on Ocean Floor:

Robbie and the shaker parade from matthew lee on Vimeo.

The Denouement Mix Vol. 1: Kindly Take The Floor

2009-11-25T20:28:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try and have mixes like this available every once and awhile. I think the best thing to do is download the zip file and listen to it as a complete mix, but you can also listen to and download the individual tracks below. I should warn you that the song choices do not necessarily reflect the tastes of the rest of The Denouement.

Click here to download the entire mix!

The Tracklist:

1. The Microphones – Sand (Eric's Trip)
From It Was Hot We, Stayed In The Water, 2000
Phil Elvrum, the man behind The Microphones and Mt. Eerie, is one of my favorite musicians. Elvrum turns what are often weaknesses for other bands (the timid waver of his voice, the hesitant and fumbling timing, the muddy instrumentation) and melds them together to create something very beautiful and very hard to describe. His music often feels almost prehistoric and sometimes mystical in the best way possible. To those who are not familiar, I recommend starting with his album The Glow Part 2.

2. Harry Nilsson – The Beehive State
From Nilsson Sings Newman, 1970
As one might infer from the name of the album, this song comes from an entire collection of Randy Newman covers, all sung by Nilsson, who I think has one of the best voices in pop music. Nilsson stripped the arrangement down to essentially piano and tambourine, and I think the result exceeds the original.

3. The Sorrows – You've Got What I Want
From Take A Heart, 1965
The Sorrows are an underappreciated part of the British invasion and never managed to have a lot of success. Their course guitar tone and aggressive vocals may have been unappealing to people at the time, but in retrospect it almost seems like a precursor to punk much like the more popular American band The Sonics.

4. Timber Timbre – I Get Low
From Timber Timbre, 2009
“I Get Low” comes from one of my favorite albums of the year, and certainly the most overlooked. The album maintains a consistently haunting tone over the course of its eight songs. Taylor Kirk, the sole member of Timber Timbre, manages to arrange a sparse but perfect choice of instruments for each song. Nothing is wasted, and the album created from this minimal approach deserves a much bigger audience.

5. Moondog – Symphonique #6 (Good For Goodie)
From Moondog, 1969
Moondog has a pretty interesting story: To most he was a homeless blind man living in New York, referred to by locals as “The Viking of 53rd” because of his strange attire. But during this time he was writing and recording amazing music and spent time with the likes of Charlie Parker and Bennie Goodman. The quality of music matches the peculiarity of the story. His music mixes classical, Native American percussion, and jazz to wonderful effect.

6. Bill Withers – Harlem
From Just As I Am, 1971
R&B doesn’t get much better than Bill Withers, as far as I’m concerned, and Bill Withers doesn’t get much better than “Harlem”. I’m probably exaggerating, but Withers is a recent musical love of mine, so my enthusiasm is nice and fresh. If the studio recording doesn’t convince you, check out this amazing live performance of the same song.

7. Cryptacize – Peg
From Unusual Animals Vol. 4, 2008
This cover of Steely Dan’s first Aja (1977) single is successful in the repurposing of melody from the jazz infused rock of the original for strange autoharp driven pop without ever feeling unnatural. Cryptacize’s newest album, Mythomania, (2009) is filled to the brim with songs as good or better than this, so add it to your list if you like Peg.

8. Brian Eno and John Cale – Lay My Love
From Wrong Way Up, 1990
Listening to their separate projects, it's easy to tell Cale and Eno have the ability to craft catchy, pop friendly songs when they want to. On this collaboration the two dive head first into a mainstream electronic pop sound. If anyone is averse to late eighties/early nineties synthesizers this might not be for them. Also, I can't mention this album without pointing out the appalling album artwork .

9. Margo Guryan – Timothy Gone
From Take A Picture, 1968
"Timothy Gone" is actually a song that was cut from Guryan's only released album. Though to a lesser degree, the song reflects the Beach Boys influenced sunshine pop that pervades the record. It's surprising that most of her musical career preceding the album was spent in the jazz world, with the likes of Ornette Coleman, Bill Evans and Max Roach. Her music never caught on, largely due to her aversion to performing, and she spent the rest of her career producing and teaching music.

10. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Easy Does It
From Lie Down In The Light, 2008
Will Oldham puts out consistently good albums, but I think Lie Down In The Light is a standout of his post I See A Darkness releases. This opening track sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the album, and for the most part, he follows through.

11. Roy Orbison – Candy Man
From The Very Best of Roy Orbison, 1966
Candy Man is the b-side to one of Roy Orbison's biggest hits, Crying. I would imagine it provided some much needed levity after listening to the first side of the record. Orbison doesn't have too many rock n' roll songs in his catalog, but that doesn't mean he wasn't good at making them. I'd put him on the list with Harry Nilsson for amazing vocalists.

12. The Black Keys – Heavy Soul
From The Big Come Up, 2002
I love The Black Keys gritty and simple approach to the blues and rock traditions. They tap into that blues energy better than almost any contemporary band. Like much blues, I can sometimes grow tired after listening to the whole album, (There are some exceptions, like Muddy Waters and Junior Wells) but taking each song on it's own merit reveals the quality of each.

13. Bill Callahan – Honeymoon Child
From Woke On A Whaleheart, 2007
I first heard Emiliani Torrini's excellent version of this song, which was recorded and released before Callahan's (even though he wrote it). I'm not sure what the circumstances are surrounding that... maybe Callahan wrote it for Torrini? Whatever the explanation is, both versions are fantastic. Woke On A Whaleheart is another album I highly recommend.

14. Justin Vollmar – Do You Have Hope In Your Eyes?
From Every Place Is Home, 2002
Justin Vollmar is another musician who has very little exposure in the music world. If he hadn’t opened for Half Handed Cloud at a tiny show in Pasadena, I wouldn’t know of him either. All three Vollmar albums display fragile, beautiful lo-fi acoustic music with narrative lyrics. It doesn’t hurt that he has an ear for melodies that stick with the listener.

15. Elbow – One Day Like This
From Seldom Seen Kid, 2008
Elbow’s sweeping romantic lyrics and instrumentation would probably be cheesy in anyone else's hands, but they bring a level of sincerity and musical skill that can’t help but penetrate the most cynical of ears. Elbow has been releasing music for nearly a decade, and they keep getting better.

Cover artwork taken from Al Ouchtomsky.

Sleepwalking

2009-11-21T16:53:00.000-08:00

The amazing artist Lindsay Eller created this image of the lyrics for Sleepwalking, from Low Tide. There will be more lyrics to come from other artists and designers, so stay tuned.

Old Photo

2009-11-19T18:02:00.000-08:00

Killer Sharks Compilation

2009-11-16T13:58:00.000-08:00

Racket Magazine now has a 20 song free compilation for download at their website, and it features The Denouement's new song "Ocean Floor". Go here to download!

Bellingham Photos

2009-11-09T10:34:00.001-08:00

Photographs by Ben Blood

Lie Flat

2009-11-09T10:21:00.001-08:00

Tour Video

2009-11-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

By Ben Blood.

2009 Fall Tour from Ben B on Vimeo.

You might recognize that song. It's "12 Minutes" from our previous album, Low Tide.

NorthWest Tour! New EP!!

2009-10-13T16:48:00.000-07:00

The Denouement is going on tour with our good friends/great band Garage Voice! Both of us will have a new EP for everyone to pick up, so do that! For tour dates click here.
Here is the artwork for our EP, which is a preview of the forthcoming full length album.Tracklist: 1. Lie Flat 2. Ocean Floor 3. Folk Heroes 4. Organs 5. Until The Day

Prepared Guitar

2009-05-03T21:45:00.001-07:00

Photographs by Paul Hoppe

Matt preparing a guitar for the demo of a new song called "After The Flood". No, it's not a cover of this "After The Flood". Our song of the same title will be much less awesome.
Anyway, the prepared guitar will probably be on a lot of the songs on the new album. Depending on the type of object attached to the string, it can make anything from buzzing sounds to resonating bell-like tones.

Bones

2009-04-22T14:07:00.001-07:00

Ideas from the green book. Most of the lyrics here are in the song "Us Spiders"

Writing New Songs

2009-02-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

New Shirts!

2008-08-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

$10, Only available at our shows.

Top Five Actresses That Would Have Made A Better Invisible Woman Than Jessica Alba

2008-07-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

1. Gweneth Paltrow
2. Charlize Theron
3. Naomi Watts
4. Reese Witherspoon
5. Almost anyone but Jessica Alba

Top Five Cats We've Had

2008-02-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

By Sam and Malachi

5. Willow
4. Henry
3. Elan
2. Izze
1. Marshmallow

(Sorry Princess)

Two Robots Fighting!

2008-02-15T00:05:00.001-08:00

By Robbie

Top Five Borg Lines

2008-02-14T00:25:00.000-08:00

By Andrew

5. "I will continue aboard this ship to speak for the Borg. While they continue without further diversion to Sector 001, where they will force your unconditional surrender" - Locutus

4. "Death is irrelevant. Your archaic cultures are authority-driven."
- The Collective

3. "We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us." – The Collective

2. "Freedom is irrelevant. Self-determination is irrelevant.
You must comply." – The Collective

1. "Why do you resist? We only wish to raise quality of life for all species." - Locutus

Robots

2008-02-13T01:21:00.000-08:00

By Malachi

Space Ship!

2008-02-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

By Sam Ward