“Sun Araw” (Used 7 times)

The weather's so nice, I'm surely not the only one thinking about the beach. Enjoy a beach-themed mix featuring Ducktails, Beach House, Learning Music, The Simple Carnival, Malvery Skimmer, Future Islands, Martha and the Muffins, Thick Business, Glove Compartment, Gary Wilson, Dublin Duck Dispensary, Fallen Leaves, Pomegranates, Nineteen Eight Eight, Sun Araw, and Noveller!

Photo: Creative Commons BY-NC Lakewentworth (via flickr).

Please click the "i" button for more info about the music, and more jams by these rad artists!

Fresh off appearances at Montreal's Mutek and the 2011 WFMU+FMA SXSW Showcase, Sun Araw took a first-ever trip to the WFMU studios for a live session!

Originally envisioned as a solo project from Magic Lanterns' Cameron Stallones (also ex-Pocahaunted), Sun Araw has evolved into a full band live performance experience alongside a flood of releases from labels like Not Not Fun, Woodsist, Leaving Records, and Araw's own Sun Ark.

The Sun Araw band features Cameron Stallones on guitar/synth/vocals, backed by two equally awesome players: Barrett Avner (also of Sadistic Candle) on the Shahi Baaja (pictured at left) & Monotron, and Alex Gray (Deep Magic / Deep Tapes) on extra guitar + MPC.

The session commenced with a 30+ minute improv to get in the zone for one new song, and one old song. The studio version of "Crown Shell" will be available on Ancient Romans, the forthcoming Sun Araw 2xLP due out on Sun Ark via Drag City August 23rd 2011. Ancient Romans will be Sun Araw's fifth full-length in three years, and "Crown Shell" provides a staggered, spacious, aquatic, and deeply hypnotic glimpse at what's to come. The band closed out with "Hive Burner," a psych-rock comet that originally appeared on Sun Araw's 2008 debut, The Phynx. 

Sun Araw's WFMU session was rec'd on June 7th and aired on June 9th [playlist for Talk's Cheap/WFMU, June 9th 2011]. If you like what you hear, dig deeper into the Sun Araw universe here and at sunaraw.com.

When WFMU trekked down to Austin for this year's SXSW showcase, the Free Music Archive tagged along to co-present a fantastic lineup of live music. We heard from Beijing/Brooklyn's Amen Dunes joined by Greg Fox of Liturgy, GDFX, Guardian Alien, Dan Deacon Ensemble; the USA debut of France/Belgium's él-g who one listener described as "Throbbing Gristle after a kegstand of springwater from the fountain of youth"; Long Beach future-psych jammers Sun Araw; Louisville KY punks The Endtables' first show in 25 years; a ferociously doomish set from Melbourne Australia's Whitehorse; and our super-secret guest, the always incredible Kurt Vile & The Violators (who everybody thought was going to be Erykah Badu based on the Philadelphia hint).

It was an incredible night, and for those who weren't able to swing by Barbarella, or tune in to the live broadcast, or would like to relive the magic, we've archived just about everything (though unfortunately we had to hold back on the performance from our hero Kurt Vile) here on the FMA for you y'all to bliss-out on-demand:

Amen Dunes

él-g

Sun Araw

The Endtables

Whitehorse

Between sets, I DJ'd 100% FMA music, including a bunch of tracks from our massive 3-part SXSW preview mix featuring ~150 artists who performed at SXSW this year. Check out the playlist here, and next year, we've got our eye on something really massive for SXSW so stay tuned!

L.A. based Cameron Stallones nee Sun Araw has been popping up all over dublab these days, so naturally the man eventually wound up in our studio for a far-out “sprout session.” This cool cat delivered on everything that the tuned-in and keen kids have come to expect from him: a sweltering riverboat cruise into waters of warmer dimensions. Not content to rest on his laurels even after ripping through arrays of mind-expanding explorations, this vigilant visionary blasted off in his futuristic cruiser to complete his next opus, the awesomely ambitious x2 LP “On Patrol,” available now on Not Not Fun.