The Lord God Bird

Sufjan Steven’s second installment in his ‘states’ series of albums, Illinoise, was supposed to be released today, but unfortunately due to some legal complications it’s been delayed until they can produce new sleeve art.

But never fear!

Independent radio producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister were curious about how Stevens writes his songs, which, much like their own work, are filled with stories of places and people. So, they introduced Stevens to the Arkansas town of Brinkley.

The result was an entertaining piece on this afternoon’s “All Things Considered,” and an NPR-exclusive MP3 that you can download right here. Hopefully it’ll tide over those fans who didn’t score an advance copy or (like us) find a kindly shopkeeper who’d put the CDs out early.

UPDATE: It seems Asthmatic Kitty have solved some of the copyright issues. According to Pitchfork the CDs so far shipped can now be put on sale.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 6th, 2005 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Front Page, Music. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

7 comments

  1. Rob VG-R
    July 6, 2005 at 8:13 pm

    I really hope the copy I ordered from Djangos arrives soon (preferably with Superman intact).

  2. zalm
    July 7, 2005 at 1:38 am

    I’ve been loving this album for a few weeks now.

    Since the NPR piece didn’t involve any actual interview with Sufjan, I thought you might like to check out the chat he had with Chicago Public Radio on Tuesday:

    http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/programs/848/848.asp

    And if you can’t find it in a store, the iTunes Music Store has the album for download (with two bonus tracks!)

  3. Kari
    July 7, 2005 at 9:08 am

    Thanks for the Chicago interview link, zalm!

    (And thanks for the song download link, babe.)

  4. Karl Swedberg
    July 7, 2005 at 11:53 am

    So, what do you think of the new album? Or is it to soon to judge? I love “Greetings from Michigan” but am not as thrilled with “Seven Swans,” so I think I’ll wait on the new one until I can sample a few of the songs.

  5. James
    July 7, 2005 at 12:05 pm

    It’s still a little too early to say, for me. There are some great songs on there and a few that I’m not so wild about. Right now I think there are some songs on there that are stronger than anything previously, but that the album as a whole may not be as strong as “Michigan”. Time will tell!

  6. Rob R
    July 11, 2005 at 11:39 am

    I love “Michigan” and am looking forward to the new one. Also hoping that Surfjan has replaced his trumpet player with someone who can play in tune . . .

  7. Rob R
    July 11, 2005 at 11:41 am

    (Sufjan, that is).