Interview Magazine–as in Andy Warhol’s Crystal Ball of Pop–has just published an interview with M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger about songwriting, his new Poor Moon album, and what it means to be a professional folklorist. Check it out here, and buy your copy of the LP here.
Also, the plant that pressed the record, Cleveland’s Gotta Groove, has featured Poor Moon in the wake of their own recent feature in the New York Times.
Stay tuned for more press, forthcoming shortly.
Today, an apropos date known variously as the high harvest holiday of Samhain, the liturgical All Saints’ Day, y el primer Día de los Muertos, is the official birth date of Hiss Golden Messenger’s masterful new Poor Moon LP. Read more and purchase your copy here before they’re all gone, or ask your local record store to stock it.
Stream “Westering” here:
In the spirit of the album, and the spectral occasion, here’s an oblique endorsement in and out of time from the great Maya Deren. These are the days of the dead. POOR MOON IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. Buy it here. Thank you for your support.
We’ve just posted a new product page for Hiss Golden Messenger’s “Poor Moon” LP, which officially launches on November 1, el Día de los Muertos. You can now order the record directly from us here (or follow the link on the right column of this page, where you’ll find product pages for our other releases as well.) Thank you for your support.
Some kind digital-dwelling folks have started to proclaim the merits of Poor Moon, the new Hiss Golden Messenger album.
The remaining LPs are all assembled and ready to ship, so pre-order and stream here for the next week (check out those bonus EPs for a limited time only), email us at paradiseofbachelors@gmail.com (proper order page forthcoming), or just wait until after November 1st to find a copy in your local record shop. But these things are moving quickly…
Here’s a generous preview of the record on Play B Sides.
The good people at Art of the Rural have this to say (scroll down.)
Scroll down here as well for The Liminal’s glowing review of Hiss Golden Messenger–”one of the most surprising acts of the weekend”–at the recent Tusk Festival in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, alongside Rhys Chatham, Chris Forsyth, Alvarius B., Purling Hiss, and other luminaries. Check out a performance from the same UK tour, live at Miss Peapods in Penryn:
Last but not least, Some Velvet Blog cites Poor Moon as its “jaw dropper of the day!” Bruce Warren from WXPN perceptively notes some kinship to J.J. Cale and Tony Joe White. Drop dem jaws!
Thanks be to all ye reviewers. Like Jesse Ed Davis says (sort of), keep ‘em coming.
Paradise of Bachelors will officially release Hiss Golden Messenger’s masterful Poor Moon LP on the first of November, el Día de los Muertos. The first fully electric ensemble recording since 2010′s highly limited Root Work, Poor Moon represents both an elaboration and inversion of previous HGM efforts, proposing an America at perpetual sundown, wracked by devotion, wrecked by celebration. We are very proud of this album, and we hope that you will enjoy it.
To commemorate the release of the Poor Moon, we’ve come up with a pre-order structure by which you can ensure your vinyl copy of the album and also order two additional digital releases—Lord I Love the Rain and Plowed: Live in Bovina—not available anywhere else on this earth. Poor Moon is available only in a limited edition of 500 hand-numbered copies, so please consider reserving one now before they’re all gone.
Our $20 (plus shipping and handling) Oak Level pre-order guarantees you a copy of the Poor Moon LP, in addition to a digital download of the album on October 15th, two weeks before the album’s official street date.
Our $25 (plus shipping and handling) Ash Level pre-order secures your vinyl copy of Poor Moon and an early digital download of the album PLUS an immediate digital download of the brand-new Lord I Love the Rain EP, a release that juxtaposes a selection of offcuts from 2010′s celebrated Bad Debt and the never-released HGM conceptual soundtrack He Wore Rings On Every Finger.
Our $30 (plus shipping and handling) Rowan Level pre-order ensures your copy of Poor Moon (with early digital download), the Lord I Love the Rain EP, AND an immediate digital download of the legendary but rarely-heard Plowed: Live in Bovina performance, originally taped on a hand-held recorder in Upstate New York in 2008.
Taken together, these three releases represent well over 100 minutes of new recordings by Hiss Golden Messenger.
For more details on these releases, and instructions on how to order, follow the link.
Please consider becoming a fan of Hiss Golden Messenger and Paradise of Bachelors on Facebook. As always, we are thankful for your continued support and encouragement. We could not do this without you.
Love,
PoB/HGM
Poor Moon Rising.
September 10, 2001, All Day Records’ Hopscotch Party at Lump, Raleigh.
L-R: Steve Gunn, Cory Rayborn of Three Lobed Recordings, Terry Lonergan, Mike Gangloff and Nathan Bowles of the Black Twig Pickers, and Head Messenger M.C. Taylor.
Poor Moon LPs and jackets arrive on Friday! Keep those keen eyes trained here for pre-order information, including some exciting bonus offerings from Hiss Golden Messenger. Details about the November 1 release and associated events will follow shortly thereafter. In the meantime, we hope that this preview of the album artwork will whet your appetites.
The Bachelors have been so busy with our upcoming Hiss Golden Messenger LP (due November 1st, the Day of the Dead) and the Willie Lowery/Plant & See/Lumbee LPs (due late winter/early spring), that we’ve neglected to post more press.
Here is another great David Lee profile from North Carolina-centric Our State magazine.
Here is a review of Vision from the Art of the Rural blog.
Finally, check here and here for two Transatlantic shoutouts to Poor Moon, the forthcoming LP from Hiss Golden Messenger. Head Messenger M.C. Taylor is featured among some stellar company here, including Lindsey Buckingham, Jim Ford, Ry Cooder, Purling Hiss, Wilco, PoB pal Meg Baird, et al.
Skål!
Dear Pals of Paradise and Bachelor Brethren,
On November 1st, 2011–an apropos date known variously, and coincidentally, as the high harvest holiday of Samhain, the liturgical All Saints’ Day, y el primer Día de los Muertos–Hiss Golden Messenger will release a new long-playing vinyl record entitled Poor Moon on Durham, North Carolina’s boutique Paradise of Bachelors label.
Composed and arranged by Head Messenger M.C. Taylor at his home in the rural Piedmont mill town of Pittsboro and recorded with longtime collaborator Scott Hirsch in New York, California and North Carolina, Poor Moon offers a moving culmination of the spiritually-charged song cycle commenced on last year’s critically acclaimed Bad Debt album. Treading a red-clay road between Bad Debt and Country Hai East Cotton in sound and sentiment, it is the first fully electric ensemble recording since the highly limited HGM live release Root Work in 2010.
Featuring contributions from Terry Lonergan, Nathan Bowles (Black Twig Pickers; Pelt), Hans Chew (D. Charles Speer & the Helix), Matt Cunitz (Brightblack Morning Light), Tom Heyman (The Court & Spark), visual artist Alex Jako and others, Poor Moon represents both an elaboration and inversion of previous Hiss Golden Messenger efforts, proposing an America at perpetual sundown, wracked by devotion, wrecked by celebration. Named in homage to the Canned Heat track penned by the immortal Blind Owl, Poor Moon conjures the unsteady experience of soul at home in the wild, and it stands as the greatest Hiss Golden Messenger album to date.
Paradise of Bachelors is proud to present such a captivating document of Southern songcraft as its first foray into contemporary music. This autumnal album of twelve songs will be available in a limited edition of 500 copies, pressed on 150-gram virgin vinyl, packaged in hand-numbered tip-on sleeves, and accompanied by digital download coupons.
For a limited time, you can download the album cut “Call Him Daylight” in exchange for providing an email address HERE.
Please consider “liking” Paradise of Bachelors and Hiss Golden Messenger on Facebook, where you’ll find their most up-to-the-minute announcements, rambles, and information regarding pre-ordering and record release celebrations for Poor Moon.
Thank you, one and all. Carry the good news.
