Cartography Out Now!

Looking Back: Day 5

Everyday of the week leading to the release of our new album, CARTOGRAPHY, we'll be streaming different UNreleased songs spanning the entire life of the band. The songs will only be up this week.

Our last entry is three songs we recorded as a part of Matt's senior project when he was in college. Other songs from these recordings, like OK, Okinawa, Heaven Maps, and Shake Off, appeared in more or less similar form on our first album, Low Tide.

I Don’t Bleed

I Don’t Bleed is a revamped version of a song Malachi and I originally wrote back when we were still an acoustic duo.  The Denouement went through a period where we explored more folk arrangements of some of our songs, and this song made a brief resurgence.

Daniel
This tune began as a guitar part (written by Robbie) and grew into a full-fledged demo in writing session including Robbie, Malachi, and Andrew.  This recording was created as part of my senior project, a collection of never before released Denouement recordings.


Hymn Song (Have a Beer on Us)
This song has been a live staple for a long time. It speaks for itself.

- Matt

Tomorrow: CARTOGRAPHY!

Looking Back: Day 4

Everyday of the week leading to the release of our new album, CARTOGRAPHY, we'll be streaming different UNreleased songs spanning the entire life of the band. The songs will only be up this week.


Today's entry is spotlighting the various claymation projects Sam had and the band helped out it with.




Century Paul
This was my first claymation where I really had freedom over what the
story was about. Because we were working with a very
short period of time, I wanted to have images that told a story by
themselves. A two-headed monster holding a gun, with one head shot
off instantly creates a narrative. I liked the imagery of the plant growing
in his head throughout the different stages, but looking back at it I
wish I had more time to work on these images. The whole thing was
filmed in a long weekend if I recall.


Stonefish
For Stonefish we really wanted to have fun pushing our boundaries of
what we could build and film. I'm really pleased with how all the sets
looked in the end. In this project I might have got myself into a bit
of trouble trying to come up with ways to tell a long story in a short
amount of time.The one scene I'm still very happy with is the
opening shot. We wanted to try a longer shot that slowly revealed one
element at a time to show what had happened, and I think it turned out well.
The Restoration - A Film by Sam Ward from Paul Hoppe on Vimeo.

RestorationFor Restoration I wanted to overcome a lot of the disappointments I
had with Stonefish. I wanted a clear stand-alone story that played off
the audiences understandings of classic genres. I'm still happy with
this one because even if the back story isn't clear, it's still a good old
western shootout with cool music.


- Sam

Looking Back: Day 3

Everyday of the week leading to the release of our new album, CARTOGRAPHY, we'll be streaming different UNreleased songs spanning the entire life of the band. The songs will only be up this week.

Today we're releasing 5(!) different incarnations of the same tune: "When The Spirit Descends," alternately called "The End" and "Spirit Waltz". There are many more versions than this, but thankfully Matt was not able to recover them.

The Spirit Descends

When The Spirit Descends (Reversed)

The End

Spirit Waltz

When The Spirit Descends (Low Tide version)

"The Spirit Descends" origin story is muddled by time and bad memory. It was set to tape sometime in 2004, probably during the Summer months. Due to it's simple structure and melody the song was remixed often. 

An early example of these attempts is "When The Spirit Descends (Reversed)." Using a tape machine, I reversed the instrumental tracks but preserved the vocal track. Because the vocal part utilized a pentatonic scale, there was no dissonance between the melody and the chords that lay beneath it, whatever, the combination. 

Later, after I met Robbie in 2005, he took a crack at transforming the tune, a version of which you can hear in a song titled "The End." 

When I bought a decrepit (and now deceased) accordion in the Fall of 2006, Malachi and I again adapted the song. The result was "Spirit Waltz" a janky 3/4 time pseudo-French folk imagining. 

"Spirit" finally coalesced into it's final form (or is it?) with the release of the version that appears on our 2008 record Low Tide. It's characterized by jarring verses with alternating time signatures and pretty slide guitar stylings from Matt.

The optimist in me thinks this bizarre repetition is reflective of our tendency to perfect an idea before moving on, to explore every stylistic frontier until we are satisfied that we have run the song of its every possible uniqueness.

The pessimist says that remixing this song ad infinitum is an indication that we are insane people.

Either way, you probably haven't heard the end of "When The Spirit Descends"

- Andrew

Looking Back: Day 2

Everyday of the week leading to the release of our new album, CARTOGRAPHY, we'll be streaming different UNreleased (and probably embarrassing) songs spanning the entire life of the band. Each song will only be up for the day it's posted. (Like I said, they're embarrassing)

We've got two songs for Tuesday's entry, which you can listen to here- 

She Is 

and 

Biting Through The Table. 

Here's what Malachi has to say about them:

Both "She Is" and "Biting Through the Table" originate from some of the earliest writing sessions I had with Sam and Andrew. The first demos were recorded in Yucaipa mostly, either in Andew’s bedroom or a church, when those two were still in high school. These particular recordings came from the “Weaker Than Thou” time, about a year or so later. Listening now, She Is doesn’t sound too different from our later work. One song from this time, Clotted Together, survived all the way through to our current sets.

- Malachi

**For details on the The Denouement's upcoming full length, go to www.facebook.com/events/337211663058749/

Looking Back: Day 1

Everyday of the week leading to the release of our new album, CARTOGRAPHY, we'll be streaming different UNreleased (and probably embarrassing) songs spanning the entire life of the band. Each song will only be up for the day it's posted. (Like I said, they're embarrassing)

Today's entry is a cover of Eleanor Rigby Matt and Malachi did ten years ago. Listen here.
What Matt has to say about it: 

I first met Malachi through mutual college friends and was working on a set of recordings for another band he was in when we decided it might be fun to experiment with some acoustic covers together. This track precedes the formation of the Denouement proper by about a year. Here is the unfinished version of the very first recording we ever made together in fall of 2003, a cover of the Beatles Eleanor Rigby.

--matthew lee

**For details on the The Denouement's upcoming full length, go to www.facebook.com/events/337211663058749/

2 NEW SONGS

UPDATE: Not one but two new songs!

From our forthcoming album CARTOGRAPHY

Stay Tuned

The Denouement Is Transforming.


This image was made by Nicholas Lockyer.

Commercial

Big Sky: Denouement Mix Vol. 4

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!

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

Re:Live August 28th

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

Denouement Mix Vol. 3: How Come That Blood

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