Dark Was The Night: Compilation for Charity - Out Now on 4AD

For the indie types,... the sweater-wearing, bespectacled, shaggy neo-beats, the purposely shabby-looking artsy spill-outs, the hopeless romantics on the inside but awkward socially graced on the outside... this compilation is a wet dream...

Dark Was The Night (4AD)

Packed with fantastic pairings like <Feist with Ben Gibbard> and <David Byrne with the Dirty Projectors>...and <Antony (from Antony and the Johnsons) with Bryce Dessner (from the National)>...be still your heart, young neo-bohemian.

Disc 1 This Disc, features the syrupy, sultry vocals of Feist sauntering along with Ben Gibbard's shy, but chilly mid-range ("Train Song"); Bon Iver's "Brackett, WI" cuts a nice balance between his latest EP material and the fuzzy lo-fi charm of last year's terriffic 'For Emma,' Yeasayer displays some indicator of where their upcoming album will be, vibe-wise...less shimmering feedback and Afro/Middle-Eastern-flavored ambiance, less tribal rhythms and more delicate harmonies, clear ringing guitars and vocals upfront; Sufjan Stevens stirs up the bubbling technicolored soup of krautrock, spazz, twee, jazz, post-rock and Thom Yorke-recalling chilly delivery...in some 10-minute mad glory of a jam.

Disc 2 That Disc, brings one of the most interesting Spoon cuts to be heard in a while...("Well-Alright") - a fuzzy acoustic guitar rolls non-stop in a fiery wave under a shoulder-shimmy vocal melody - a song that just about conjures that wide-open road and sunny horizon...yet still feels enjoyably intimate, like your inside some stuffy closet, right beside the band, hunched up under the raincoats. The incomparable style, the beautiful soul and sweat-bedazzled funk style of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings fits in nicely, bringing the brass and a fine groove, right up alongside My MorningJacket and Arcade Fire; Yo La Tengo are their usual hazy/ unobtrusive--yet enchanting selves, with a piano heavy fuzzy ballad. You can get your ambient/electro kicks with wide-eyed swirl-around bleeps and buzzing strings in the 8 minute opera by Riceboy Sleeps; Devastations join up with Blonde Redhead for an eerie and beautiful tune perfectly at home for long night drives or the last call of some dusty whiskey joint for heartbroken extroverts; Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew wraps it up with a sparse, vocal-focused ballad that rests nicely on the slight strum of an acoustic guitar and subtle warble from a synthesizer...

Dark Was The Night is now available worldwide, compliments of 4AD. All of these exclusive recordings and performances were culled by the brothers Dessner, Aaron & Bryce, from The National - who were able to, either by friendship or by the call for community service, collect these staggering ditties to support the Red Hot Organization: an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. From the 4AD site: "Red Hot was founded on the premise that even without a cure, AIDS remains a preventable disease - using music as a great vehicle to rasie both money and awareness for it. This is also the 20th year of Red Hot as well as their 20th compilation." The compilation is available as a double-CD, triple-vinyl and download album (profits go to benefit Red Hot). The list of artists on board:

more info: http://www.redhot.org/

http://www.4ad.com/

http://www.darkwasthenight.com/

The list of artists on board:

THIS DISC
1 Knotty Pine – Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
2 Cello Song (Nick Drake) – The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
3 Train Song (Vashti Bunyan recorded, written by Alasdair Clayre) – Feist + Ben Gibbard
4 Brackett, WI – Bon Iver
5 Deep Blue Sea – Grizzly Bear
6 So Far Around the Bend – The National (arrangement by Nico Muhly)
7 Tightrope – Yeasayer
8 Feeling Good (popularized by Nina Simone) – My Brightest Diamond
9 Dark Was the Night (Blind Willie Johnson) – Kronos Quartet
10 I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan) – Antony + Bryce Dessner
11 Big Red Machine – Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12 Sleepless – The Decemberists
13 Stolen Houses (Die) – Iron and Wine
14 Service Bell – Grizzly Bear + Feist
15 You Are The Blood – Sufjan Stevens

THAT DISC
1 Well-Alright – Spoon
2 Lenin – Arcade Fire
3 Mimizan – Beirut
4 El Caporal – My Morning Jacket
5 Inspiration Information (Shuggie Otis) – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
6 With A Girl Like You (The Troggs) – Dave Sitek
7 Blood Pt 2 (based on original song “You are the Blood” by the Castanets) – Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8 Hey, Snow White (Destroyer) – The New Pornographers
9 Gentle Hour (Snapper) – Yo La Tengo
10 Another Saturday (traditional song) – Stuart Murdoch
11 Happiness – Riceboy Sleeps
12 Amazing Grace (traditional song) – Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
13 The Giant Of Illinois (Handsome Family) – Andrew Bird
14 Lua – Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch
15 When the Road Runs Out – Blonde Redhead + Devastations
16 Love vs. Porn – Kevin Drew

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