Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Astronautalis releases "This Is Our Science" today; Announces fall tour!

Astronautalis releases
This Is Our Science today!
 
Full Album Streaming at AOL/Spinner!
 
Stream "Secrets On Our Lips" ft. Radical Face here!

MP3 (Cleared to post): Astronautalis - "Dimitri Mendeleev" (via My Old Kentucky Blog)

Photo: Daniel Carrillo
  "maybe the reason why Astronautalis isn't bigger than he should be is because to call him a "rapper" would grossly oversimplify what he accomplishes with "This Is Our Science". Our advice? Forget about labels and just listen."- Alternative Press

Once you find out that Astronautalis was born to a Texas train man with a nose crooked from bar fights and a pretty Kentucky girl who ran away from home at 17 to become a photographer, it becomes clear that he didn’t stumble into the life of a drifter, he was born into it.  With a poet uncle who lived off horse betting and hitchhiking, grandfathers who were spies, sailors, and test pilots, and over 500,000 miles of touring under his own belt, you have to wonder where the tales in Astronautalis’ music end and the life of Andy Bothwell begins.  Currently settled (for now) in Minneapolis, by way of Seattle, by way of Dallas, by way of Jacksonville Beach, FL; Bothwell has spent almost every waking moment of the last 7 years on the road, playing shows, earning scars, collecting/giving tattoos, grinding out a cult like fan base, and living up to his proud, storied, and whiskey soaked blood line.
 
Stream "Secrets On Our Lips" ft. Radical Face here!

 Absolute Punk says...
"Bothwell's vocal deliveries come off as fiery sermons through a mind afflicted with multiple personalities, but they work together as a fierce, tight-knit group that helps keep the album fresh and interesting."

Astronautalis Fall Tour

09.23 • Powellapalooza (Page, AZ)
09.24 • Space Gallery (Portland, ME)
09.25 • Royal Phoenix (Montreal, QUE)
09.26 • The Shop at Parts & Labour (Toronto, ONT)
09.27 • Southgate House (Newport, KY)
09.29 • Pike Room (Pontiac, MI)
09.30 • The Basement (Columbus, OH)
10.01 • Schubas (Chicago, IL)
10.02 • Beachland Ballroom & Tavern (Cleveland, OH)
10.03 • Triple Rock Social Club (Minneapolis, MN)
10.05 • The Zebra Cocktail Lounge (Bozeman, MT)
10.06 • A Club (Spokane, WA)
10.07 • The Vera Project (Seattle, WA)
10.09 • Rotture (Portland, OR)
10.11 • The Casbah (San Diego, OR)
10.12 • The Central (Santa Monica, CA)
10.13 • Venue 104 (Tempe, AZ)
10.14 • Bunkhouse Sallon (Las Vegas, NV)
10.15 • Kilby Court (Salt Lake City, UT)
10.16 • The Marquis Theater (Denver, CO)
10.17 • The Black Sheep (Colorado Springs, CO)
10.20 • The Mohawk (Austin, TX)
10.10 • Rubbergloves Rehearsal (Denton, TX)
10.22 • Fitzgerald's (Houston, TX)
10.24 • Masquerade (Atlanta, GA)
10.25 • Handlebar (Pensacola, FL)
10.26 • 1982 Bar (Gainesville, FL)
10.27 • Jack Rabbits (Jacksonville, FL)
10.28 • Club Firestone (Orlando, FL)
10.29 • Swarm 666 @ Squegee Science (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
11.01 • Milestone Club (Charlotte, NC)
11.02 • Spazz House (Greenville, NC)
11.03 • DC9 (Washington, DC)
11.04 • Santos Party House (New York, NY)
11.05 • The Fire (Philadelphia, PA)
11.06 • O'Brien's Pub (Allston, MA)

Having started in music over 15 years ago as a battle rapper, Astronautalis’ roots are planted firmly in hip-hop.  However, the sounds and styles on his albums are an animal not so easily caged, and his latest release, This Is Our Science is no exception to that tradition of wild genre bending.  Like previous records Bothwell uses that limitless approach to aid in his vivid storytelling, but where This is Our Science takes a turn from tradition, is in the subject matter itself.  While previous records read like historical fiction, documenting the lives of the bygone, the footnotes, and the forgotten, This is Our Science is pure autobiography.  While there are flash references to scientists from the Age of Enlightenment and old dead French mountaineers, these ghosts serve merely as parallels, rest stops in the story of the last 7 years of Bothwell’s romance with the road.

To help shape this memoir, Bothwell called in help from the cadre of musical friends he has made in his travels across 4 continents, and created a sound as diverse as the cast that's behind it.  Once again under the guidance of Grammy nominated producer John Congleton (Modest Mouse, Bill Callahan, St. Vincent), This is Our Science finds rock darlings like Tegan Quin (Tegan & Sara), Radical Face (Electric President), members of Midlake & The Riverboat Gamblers all waltzing in time to the work of P.O.S. (Rhymesayers), Alias (Anticon/Sage Francis), Cecil Otter (Wugazi), Lazerbeak (Doomtree), and more of indie hip-hop’s finest.  The resulting album is the full realization of everything Bothwell has been chasing after for 7 years.  Neither a rap record, nor a rock record, it is a work that finally captures the vein popping intensity and high melodrama of his famous live shows.  All the while, maintaining the steadfast literary tradition and masterful storytelling of his previous studio albums. 

"Minneapolis-based Charles Andrew Bothwell’s last full album was the incredible, experimental Pomegranate, and while that record was expansive and full of divergent genres and characters, This Is Our Science condenses the process into a tight 40 minutes of rhythm and revelations."


From the pounding drums and thick synths of the record’s opener, “The River, The Woods”, the roots in rap are clear.  But, that foundation quickly crumbles as the choir swells on the dark electronic gospel of the title track, “This is Our Science”. After the banging funeral dirge of “Thomas Jefferson” (featuring Doomtree rapper Sims), the record blazes into the thick of Bothwell’s vagabond life with heart breaking road ballad of “Measure the Globe”.  While songs like undeniably catchy, “Contrails” (featuring Tegan Quin) and the epic rock anthem, “Secrets On Our Lips” carry an astounding pop sensibility, there is something unnerving behind those big choruses and driving drums.  In fact, there is something hiding behind every corner of this record, and much like the road Astronautalis travelled to make it, there is no map, no guide book, no way to prepare yourself, all you can do is press on forward and see what is waiting for you just around the bend.

Artist - Astronautalis
Album - This Is Our Science
US Release Date - September 13, 2011
Label - Fake Four Inc.

Track Listing:

01. The River, The Woods
02. This is Our Science
03. Thomas Jefferson (feat. Sims & Rookie Sensation Mike Wiebe)
04. Measure The Globe
05. Dimitri Mendeleev
06. Midday Moon
07. Contrails (feat. Tegan Quin)
08. Holy Water
10. Lift The Curse
11. One For The Money

Previous Press for Astronautalis:
“It's a bewildering collision, this catchy hiphop that converts a symphony of instruments into shameless, poppy hooks, and these strange stories rumbling under the dust of a history-obsessed bookstore. Astro's killin' it here.” - The Stranger

"Just as the Rhymesayers and Anticon collectives persuaded adventurous rock fans to explore hip-hop, Astronautalis may just turn a few rap fans on to the sounds of American Gothic."- NPR

"I suppose the most untouchable of the Anticon crew, Why?, would be the closest comparison, but with his gravely delivery, Bothwell is closer to Tom Waits, had the junkyard troubadour been raised on a steady diet of '90s indie rock and the Def Jam catalog...I wish all records were this exciting." - Portland Mercury

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