RSS News FeedNew shareable widgets from Circle Into Square, a couple of free albums:
Live on KBOO
April 5, 2010
A handful of songs performed live on KBOO radio, in Portland, Oregon on April 5th. Includes songs from The Roots, The Leaves, Rusty String, 2AM, and some improvised instrumental tracks.
Birds T-shirt
April 5, 2010
Collaborative t-shirt design between Michael Crigler and Tom of cars & trains.
The Sun Always Sets / The Leaves Remix 7"
March 29, 2010
Limited run 7" featuring remixes off of "The Roots, The Leaves" by Token Recluse artists Big Pauper (pz) and Unconventional Science. Joint release with Token Recluse. The remixes are also on the free remix album "The Roots, The Remix".
The Roots, The Leaves
January 26, 2010
** VINYL is now available!
The Roots, The Leaves is the sophomore effort of Portland, Oregon based multi-instrumentalist cars & trains (Tom Filepp), a more personal and emotive foray than his 2007 full length debut Rusty String. Tom deftly mixes out-of-the-box electronics and found sounds seamlessly with a myriad of instruments–woodwinds, banjos, acoustic guitars, strings and glockenspiel–walking a blurry line that makes one wonder where exactly the uncommonly organic drum programming ends and the instruments and lushly layered found sounds begin.
On his first Fake Four Inc. release, Tom does what he shines at, as in previous efforts–vividly creating microscopic ship-in-a-bottle worlds with circular themes that one can imagine crawling into, like a favorite childhood hiding place, while brooding nostalgically on a favorite time or place long since past. His distinctive and thickly layered vocals sit atop soft but steadily pulsing guitars, malfunctioning toys, twangy banjos, crooning woodwinds and dirge-like trumpets, weaving a nimbly produced record that tells a succinct and engaging story.
Lyrically “The Roots” is much more vested in storytelling, painting vivid pictures of moss-laden decaying buildings, rusty railroad tracks, and dusty urban settings, all tinged with hints of nature and melancoly. Drawing on inspiration both from his adopted hometown of Portland and from his native Hudson Valley in New York, Tom builds on reoccuring themes that make the listener feel like they are part of something special and intimate. The ten tracks are more staked in a carefully hewn songwriting sensibility, while focusing to a greater extent on Tom’s singing and lush vocal harmonies than before.
Many guest artists contribute vocals and a diverse array of instruments to The Roots, The Leaves, including a handful of fellow labelmates on Fake Four Inc. (like Ceschi Ramos, Alexander Chen of Boy In Static), in addition to some Portland, Oregon locals. Carrying on the mantle of previous releases laden with toy instruments, distorted tape samples and banjos, “The Roots” sits at a curious intersection between more folk-oriented electronic groups like Tunng and the distinctive Pacific Northwest experimental folk sound of K Records/The Microphones/Mt. Eerie renown.
The Roots, The Leaves is cars & trains’ most realized and expressive effort to date, full of energy and intimacy gleaned from Filepp’s intense, energetic, and intricate live looping show that he has steadily developed and gained notoriety for. From the intricate plucking of The Root’s cyclical opening and closing songs, and everything in between, cars & trains carefully journeys hand in hand with his influences, cajoling them into a world all his own.
Also available on January 26th is "The Roots, The Remix", a free remix album of The Roots, The Leaves, available on this site for download.
The Roots, The Remix
January 26, 2010
A collection of remixes of cars & trains' new record "The Roots, The Leaves", available January 26th on Fake Four Inc, through this site.
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#1 i know someone (remix by boy in static)
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#2 asleep on a train (remix by melodium)
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#3 birds in your chest (remix by dollboy)
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#4 the roots (remix by meanest man contest)
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#5 intimidated by silence (remix by blue sky black death)
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#6 the sun always sets (remix by big pauper/pz)
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#7 drop ceilings and day planners (remix by otem rellik)
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#8 the leaves (remix by unconventional science)
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#9 some lonesome street corner (remix by USF)
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#10 dead telephone (remix by lullatone)
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#11 i know someone (remix by polyphonic the verbose)
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#12 asleep on a train (remix by bomarr)
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#13 some lonesome street corner (remix by ernest gonzales)
Rusty String Deluxe
December 2, 2008
Rusty String Deluxe reintroduces Portland, Oregon based multi-instrumentalist cars & trains' first album with new songs and a slew of remixes and covers, available digitally on November 18th through CIS records (bundled with the original CD, by itself, or bundled with a t-shirt), and December 2nd through online digital stores.
With Rusty String, twenty-seven year old Tom Filepp weaved electronic drumming together with woodwinds, banjo, trumpets, strings and glockenspiel, creating an album that sits somewhere between stations on the analog dial, where an old country broadcast breaches into absent-minded waves of static.
The original album consists of handfuls of microscopic crafted worlds, shaped with tiny precision. Songs paint imagery of overgrown grass reaching through cracked sidewalks, hazy suburban childhoods playing not-so-benign games, and self hypnosis. Banjo driven four to the floor stompers yield to spacious instrumentals laden with sampled americana. Bursts of orchestral cacophony and found sound then break through to reposition the listener.
Several guest spots add to the character of the album, including Boy In Static from Mush Records on viola, and a vocal collaboration with Sole from anticon. records.
Rusty String evokes early Morr Music releases by bands like Tarwater, intersecting with folk-oriented electronic groups like Tunng. Found sound and distorted tape samples create urban lullaby landscapes. Undaunted, meloncholic drums and timid textures are reminicent of cloudDEAD or Tujiko Noriko.
LITTLE SONG
The deluxe edition also includes new and more personal material from the new EP Little Song. Simple guitar based compositions pare back from the more densely orchestrated approach of the Rusty String LP, while layers of decaying feedback, sparse glockenspiel and tape samples weave a dark and dense tapestry of sound. Deep brooding vocals sit atop songs with deceptive timing, subtle electronic stutters, and thunderous and organic drumming. Songs jump from the paired down folk-electronic mix of previous albums, mixed with an eclectic songwriting sensibility that brings The Microphones to mind.
REMIXES/COVERS
Rusty String Deluxe includes a synth heavy remix of "...And all of us, as well" by Boy In Static, a remix by Factor (Fake Four), Meanest Man Contest, and Radical Face, and covers by Ceschi and Portland, Oregon locals The Harvey Girls.
PACKAGING OPTIONS
The deluxe edition comes with the ability to choose your packaging. You can buy just digital, or these other combinations with digital bundled for free:
DIGITAL + ORIGINAL RUSTY STRING CD / $10
DIGITAL + RUSTY STRING DELUXE CDR / $9
DIGITAL + T-SHIRT / $16
DIGITAL + ORIGINAL RUSTY STRING CD + T-SHIRT / $24
DIGITAL + RUSTY STRING DELUXE CDR + T-SHIRT / $23
Note that the Rusty String Deluxe CDR does not include the first track off of Rusty String, "Some Sort of Overture".
T-shirts are red 100% cotton American Apparel, available in S,M,L,XL.
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#1 some sort of overture
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#2 the wires from my broken record player
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#3 fake plastic guns
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#4 oh sweet consequences
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#5 beatitudes
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#6 and all of us as well
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#7 painting over it did no good / solitary bird
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#8 further from home
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#9 the sky is clear
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#10 the singing will never cease
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#11 nursing 500 broken fingers
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#12 sometimes falter, sometimes sway
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#13 what comes after
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#14 the needles spinning
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#15 and all of us as well (boy in static remix)
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#16 sometimes falter sometimes sway (meanest man contest remix)
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#17 the names of things and other such thoughts (cover by ceschi)
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#18 sometimes falter sometimes sway (cover by the harvey girls)
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#19 the wires from my broken record player (remix by radical face)
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#20 fake plastic guns (factor remix)
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#21 the sky is clear (cars & trains remix)
Victrola T-Shirt
December 2, 2008
Here it is, the new Cars & Trains t-shirt, designed by Michael Crigler over at Birdhead Design. Comfy 100% cotton American Apparel-ness. Available in S,M,L,XL. You can also get the shirt bundled with the Rusty String Deluxe album, along with other albums soon. Thanks for modeling, Dave.
*** We have a couple of misprints left over for cheap, $5! Overinked, underinked, etc
Little Song
October 7, 2008
cars & trains paints a dense and personal landscape with "Little Song", a short digital EP due out this fall. Simple guitar based compositions pare back from the more densely orchestrated approach of the Rusty String LP, while layers of decaying feedback, sparse glockenspiel and tape samples weave a dark and dense tapestry of sound. Deep brooding vocals sit atop songs with deceptive timing, subtle electronic stutters, and thunderous and organic drumming.
Filepp visits common themes in his songs, building small worlds of melancholic reoccurring dreams, that divert to a more psychedelic and dark feel than previous cars & trains albums.
Portland locals guest on some tracks, lending saxophone (Hiram of the Harvey Girls), vocals (Chelsea McAlister, local folkster) and autoharp, circuit bent omnichord, and other subtle niceties (Drew McIntyre aka PZ/Big Pauper of Two Ton Sloth). The EP wraps up on a more intense note, with a synth heavy remix of "...And all of us, as well" off of 2007's Rusty String LP, by Boy In Static of Mush Records/Alien Transistor.
Rusty String
November 13, 2007
With the Rusty String LP, Portland, Oregon based multi-instrumentalist cars & trains (twenty-six year old Tom Filepp) takes a cross-country step closer to the melodic electro-folk he set out to make with the 2006 debut EP, 2 AM. Woodwinds interweave with banjos, trumpets, strings and glockenspiel, fleshing out dynamically engaging song structures. Rusty String sits somewhere between stations on the analog dial, where an old country broadcast breaches into absent-meinded waves of static, synching up as if on purpose.
The album consists of handfuls of microscopic crafted worlds, shaped with tiny precision whiel recording in backwoods Appalachia and soberly urban Boston. The latent energies of those places were captured and realized, mixing solitary rural twange with driving electronic elements. Spiraling off these contrasts, Filepp explores a lot of ground lyrically and through found sound. Songs paint imagery of overgrown grass reaching through cracked sidewalks, hazy suburban childhoods playing not-so-benign games, self hypnosis, and bullet ridden statues standing alone in town squares. Banjo driven four to the floor stompers yield to spacious instrumentals laden with sampled americana. Bursts of orchestral cacophony and found sound then break through to reposition the listener.
Several guest spots add to the character of the album, including Alex Chen of Boy In Static (Mush Records) on viola, and a vocal collaboration with Sole (anticon. records).
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#1 some sort of overture
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#2 the wires from my broken record player
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#3 fake plastic guns
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#4 oh sweet consequence
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#5 beatitudes
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#6 and all of us as well
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#7 painting over it did no good solitary bird
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#8 further from home
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#9 the sky is clear
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#10 the singing will never cease
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#11 nursing 500 broken fingers
Consumer Confidence Vol. 2
November 6, 2007
Consumer Confidence Vol. 2 returns with a wide array of sounds: layered programmed and sequenced drums, walls of synths, samples, and strings, at times both a departure and yet familiar from Rusty String. This volume presents a much more cohesively crafted set of songs, departing from the random compilation of the previous release.
Vol. 2 is announced by the chimerical cacophony of "First Act", thickly layered with sawtoothed synthesizers in a dark, upbeat frenzy. The mood shifts into the more concentrated and intense drumming of "Every Little Movement", punctuated by layers of samba drumming and static. The veil of intensity lifts to reveal the softer, more introspective melody of "Stand Still Like The Hummingbird", driven by softly plucked guitar, shakers, and a dot matrix printer, to be lifted up high in a sea of drums and clicks.
"Stand Still" is a short pivot point to the cozy world of "Everything in so Long", layered with nostalgia inducing detuned guitars, tamborines, and underwater synthesizers, leading up to a manic ending swathed with cymbal crashes and abused snare drums. The intensity of the drumming segues into the dramatic on edge sea of violas in "My Life as an Echo", which then decay into the epic epilogue of the record: the nine minute strong "Lift Your Hands, but not too high". Hewn with an orchestral approach, "Lift Your Hands" creates a beautiful, forlorn-yet-hopeful dream landscape, building up into a decisive intensity that brings the track to a close.
The last two tracks on Vol. 2 include lush remixes Boy In Static of Mush Records, off of his Violet LP, and Telephone Jim Jesus & Bomarr of Anticon, off of their Chapel of The Chimes live improvisation album.
Consumer Confidence Vol. 1
July 11, 2006
Five free mp3 only tracks of instrumental beat heavy songs. These range from much older songs to songs that sprouted out of writing from the 2 am ep.
2AM
April 4, 2006
cars & trains debut EP 2AM is a celebration of all things minute, exploring themes of urban quietude and reflection amidst disaffection, decay, and overdevelopment. The five songs that compose 2AM are abundant with layers of lush harmonies, strong but modest melody, crafted lyrics, and movement-based arrangements composed with an apartment-full of sounds: trumpet, clarinet, mandolin, cello, and glockenspiel, and a whole slew of electronic and sampled punching-empty-cardboard-boxes-like-a-madman drums.