Working out with Bon Iver

Now you too can work out the Bon Iver way!


In all seriousness, this is pretty damn charming.

Via Daniel Weekly Huiting
Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

YouTube features Bon Iver videos made by locals on main page today

How cool is this?! YouTube has jumped on the Bon Iver bandwagon upon the release of his just-release suite of music videos that accompany each song on his self-titled release. We know by now that locals Dan Huiting, Isaac Gale, David Jensen, and JoLynn Garnes worked on those videos, but YouTube has taken it a step further and featured videos from the directors featured on that album. That means videos from the directors' archives including Doomtree, Lazerbeak, Astronautalis, GAYNGS, Heiruspecs, and MN Original, featured on YouTube's main page today. Head over there now to watch the videos.



And in other Bon Iver news, his video album has snagged some high-profile press on Time.com and the Fader. Minnesota boys, you done good.

Via Dan Huiting on Facebook
Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Justin and Nate Vernon dig their Bushmills

Chris Rosenau of Volcano Choir just posted this (Photoshopped?) take on the Bushmills "Shared Among Friends" ad featuring Justin and Nate Vernon.

Apparently these guys dig their Bushmills.


UPDATE: We've just received confirmation that the ad is indeed for real.

Via @rosno
Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

GAYNGS to play Sunday brunch practice session at Nick & Eddie on Sunday

We nearly spit out our iced white chocolate mocha when we spotted Nick and Eddie owner Doug Anderson's Facebook update a few minutes ago:

[GAYNGS painting by Michael Gaughan]

Hmm, let's think about this for a minute: Megafaun and Rosebuds (whose members are in the supergroup) are all in North Carolina right now, though Justin Vernon is technically on a break from touring with Bon Iver. Har Mar Superstar just went back to L.A. and P.O.S. is in Austin. So basically, that leaves Ryan Olson, Channey Moon Casselle, Adam Hurlburt and Zach Coulter from Solid Gold, and Mike Lewis, and Jake Luck of Leisure Birds, and just maybe Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and Mike Noyce if we're lucky. Could this be GAYNGS 2.0?

UPDATE: Ryan Olson confirms the posting to us via email, saying "We are doing a 3pm gayngs sunday brunch practice at nick n eddie. Also Habenero (sic)." We're so in.

Via Doug Anderson on Facebook
Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Twitter speculation on Bon Iver + James Blake collab

Yesterday, wunderkind post-dubstep practitioner James Blake Tweeted about a mysterious new "Fall Creek Boys Choir" collaboration between himself and Bon Iver to be revealed next week, on August 24. Our pals at Gimme Noise swiftly picked up on the noise and made some choice, hilarious speculations.


Via Gimme Noise:

"So far, the only thing that exists on the internet related to the term "Fall Creek Boys Choir" is a MySpace page that mentions April Base, the recording compound owned by Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. A description on the site says Fall Creek Boys Choir is, "An amateur singing group from Fall Creek, WI that gets together twice a month and rehearses, drinks 7up and Cranberry juice mixers, and sometimes records at the Cricket Gym." April Base is located in Fall Creek, Wisconsin, just outside of Eau Claire, and back in 2007 Vernon used the Fall Creek Boys Choir moniker to dump atmospheric, pastoral vocal meanderings onto the web."

Brooklyn Vegan also did some digging:

"The choir once had a proper website. It's gone now, but the URL is still listed on MySpace. It's aprilbase.com ("Justin's website" according to DeYarmond Edison's breakup message)...One of the tracks, "New York (ball point)," contains the same vocal lines used in "Cool Knowledge" from Justin's Volcano Choir project. Remember that nobody had also logged into the myspace containing these four songs since 2008."

The site also gives confirmation that the date of August 24 does not in fact refer to a live show from the new/old project. Stay tuned!

Via @brooklynvegan, @gimme_noise & @jamesblake
Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Bon Iver performs Bonnie Raitt cover live in the studio

Earlier this week, The Daily Swarm posted video of Bon Iver's Justin Vernon performing his double cover of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "Nick of Time" live in the studio (which he performed last month on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon). The track is featured as the B-side to the single for Bon Iver's "Calgary." Watch it below.



Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Bon Iver backstage at The Colbert Report

A bevy of Minneapolis peeps were in New York for Bon Iver's interview and performance on The Colbert Report yesterday.

Here's @thebitchelor with Colbert backstage:


Local director/videographer Dan Huiting (who directed Bon Iver's "Calgary" video) snaps The Bitchelor hanging backstage with Jagjaguwar's Darius Van Arman, trombonist Reggie Pace, and Bon Iver mixer Brian Joseph.



Dan also snaps Bon Iver's S. Carey with Justin Vernon and his lady, musician Kathleen Edwards.

Dan Huiting (who is purportedly on the road with Bon Iver as part of the documentary he's shooting on them) snapped this shot of Justin Vernon & co. preparing for their gig.


We LOLd at this shot The Bitchelor took in Colbert's green room bathroom:

Video: Bon Iver on The Colbert Show

As part of its media blitz leading up to its just-released record, Bon Iver was on The Colbert Show last night. In other news, Bon Iver's first Twin Cities date in years was announced for September 7 at the Orpheum Theatre.

Here's Colbert interviewing Justin Vernon:

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

And Bon Iver performing "Calgary" on the Colbert Report:

And an online-only bonus video of the new nine-piece configuration of Bon Iver playing "Skinny Love":

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Bon Iver nabs a 9.5 rating from Pitchfork, performing on Colbert tonight

In case you haven't already heard, Pitchfork Media just gave Bon Iver's new album Bon Iver, Bon Iver (officially dropping tomorrow) a rare 9.5 rating. That's the best of the year - so far. The Twitter reaction:


Meanwhile, Rolling Stone is streaming the album free all day.

Tonight, our own Electric Fetus hosts an album listening party, selling the new album a day early along with a limited number of posters given away with purchase as well as a bonus, 3-track CD single featuring "Wisconsin," "Come Talk To Me," and the Bonnie Raitt cover medley "I Can't Make You Love Me / Nick of Time." The bonus CD will be raffled off during the listening party (no purchase necessary, must be present to win). They will also have the group's new "Calgary" 12" single (also featuring the Bonnie Raitt medley) available for purchase two weeks before its official release on July 5th.

You can catch Bon Iver performing on The Colbert Report tonight and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Tuesday night; our embedded reporter @thebitchelor promises some behind-the-scenes updates.



Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

GAYNGS Tweet their West Coast mini-tour, compare pool size

Local supergroup GAYNGS has hit the road for a mini, weeklong West Coast tour, hitting Portland, San Francisco, L.A., and the Sasquatch Music Festival in Quincy, Washington. And what could be more important while on tour than the hotel swimming pool?

First, the view from Justin and Nate Vernon's hotel room:


Fellow GAYNGS members Zach Coulter and Adam Hurlburt of Solid Gold respond with their decidedly less posh view:



Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

GAYNGS' Ryan Olson + Justin Vernon share year-end lists with Pitchfork

Justin Vernon (Bon Iver, GAYNGS) and Ryan Olson (GAYNGS and Marijuana Deathsquads) were included in Pitchfork's massive year-end Guest List. Olson name drops some locals: Nick and Eddie Wednesday nights (where Marijuana Deathsquads had a regular residency for a good part of the year) and Albert Elmore, a local IDM artist/noise experimentalist, while Vernon lists GAYNGS cohorts and Eau Claire band Megafaun.

Photo: Ryan Olson by Graham Tolbert

Here's a link to an mp3 of Elmore's track "Lannistumaton," which Olson calls his pick for Song of the Year.

Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Justin Vernon talks Kanye collab in Complex

[Photo: Nabil Elderkin/Complex]

As part of Complex's cover story on the making of Kanye West's just-released album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, we get a behind-the-scenes peek into the studio sessions that featured sorta-local-boy-done-good Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and local superground GAYNGS, as well as a lengthy quote from Vernon on how the Hawaii studio session came about.

[From left: Nicki Minaj, Kanye, Jeff Bhasker, and Justin Vernon. Photo: Nabil Elderkin/Complex]

Some choice quotes:

"I'm just a fuckin' lumberjack dude from Wisconsin. I'm not going to go out there and try to be this awesome rap guy."

"We heard that Kanye was gonna use our song ‘Woods’ for a sample—and then a couple of weeks later, we were hearing through his camp that he may want to come out here to Minnesota and record some stuff with me. He had a ticket booked and everything, but we had a bad snowstorm in Minneapolis so he couldn't come. He ended up calling me on the phone that day, just saying that he liked our shit and was interested in getting together...We talked for half an hour or so, and he told me to get on a plane and come out to Hawaii and work on stuff—so I got on a plane the next morning."

In related news, Star Tribune music editor Chris Riemenschneider just Facebooked that the album is "confounding/mind-blowing/game-changing," and "Suffice it to say something else just dropped off my tentative album-of-the-year list."

Via Gentry Boeckel on Facebook

Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Justin Vernon talks Kanye collaboration, Gayngs with Pitchfork

Pitchfork published a new Q&A with sorta-local celeb Justin Vernon today, and it's sure packed with some juicy tidbits. The Bon Iver main man and most famous member of local supergroup Gayngs apparently has a collaboration in the works with none other than Kanye West. They spoke on the phone about being mutual fans of each other's work and Avatar, and then he went to record with Kanye in Hawaii with John Legend. Just another day in the life.

In Gayngs news, they go out on tour in September with an abbreviated lineup.

[Photo by Drew Kaiser]

Read the full interview HERE.

Via Gayngs on facebook

Submitted by @jahnapeloquin