Private Eleanor blog

Two new songs on the new Beechfields compilation!

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:21:23 -0500

It's been a while... The news here is that we're on a new compilation CD from The Beechfields Record Label, which features two previously-unreleased Private Eleanor recordings. (One is a new song we recorded at home late last year, and the other is a Pupa's Window cover recorded during the Sweethearting sessions.)

The compilation is called This City of Neighborhoods, and it's FREE! Find out more and get your copy at http://www.thebeechfields.com/thiscity.html. (You can stream the whole thing there too.)

I've been helping to put this thing together (and promising it to you all) for nearly a year now, and I couldn't be happier that it's finally done and ready for you to hear. Most of the songs on it, including our two tracks, are unavailable anywhere else. All of them are good. Go get one!

In other news, I just finished co-producing and playing drums on a full-length record for Small Sur. We're really proud of it. It'll be released at the end of the summer via a cool little Portland label called Tender Loving Empire. It's been fun working on "someone else's" music for a change, and being able to influence the result in a different way... There will be some more of that this summer, on a couple other friends' projects, if all goes according to plan.

There might be a low-key live appearance or two of our own music too. Stay tuned.

Interview on BrightestYoungThings.com!

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:51:57 -0500

There's a long interview with me on BrightestYoungThings.com, posted earlier this week.

It is here.

Thanks to John for the thoughtful questions! (And for the fine eulogy of sorts for the band: "Built upon sturdy melodies and the type of harmonies rarely practiced these days, they dared to be genuine and pretty, hurt and poppy, confused yet direct. They made pop that the likes of Teenage Fanclub and Mojave 3 would happily call their own.")

A little late: '07 picks / update

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:01:04 -0500

Year-end list season is definitely over, but I don't care. Here are my favorite records of 2007. No commentary this year, because I am lazy. Note locals at numbers 5 and 11!

1 Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge)
2 Iron and Wine, The Shepherd's Dog (Sub Pop)
3 Radiohead, In Rainbows (self-released)
4 The Clientele, God Save the Clientele (Merge)
5 Monarch, If Children (self-released)
6 St Vincent, Marry Me (Beggars Banquet)
7 John Vanderslice, Emerald City (Barsuk)
8 Nina Nastasia & Jim White, You Follow Me (Fatcat)
9 Blonde Redhead, 23 (4AD)
10 Menomena, Friend and Foe (Barsuk)
11 Neil Cotterill, Moonshot (The Beechfields)
12 Dr Dog, We All Belong (Park the Van)
13 PJ Harvey, White Chalk (Island)
14 Sloan, Never Hear the End of It (Yep Roc)
15 Wilco, Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch)

I will also take this opportunity to note that Marian and I will be playing a duo set, consisting mainly of covers of songs we like, at Arlington VA's fabulous Galaxy Hut on Feb 25. As you may have gathered, we're not playing a lot in public these days, so if you're able to make it out to that, you should.

Other than that -- we're doing well, relaxing, working mostly on things non-musical (jobs, art, grad school) and a bit on things musical (writing songs in our living room that will probably stay in our living room for a while, getting that long-rumored Beechfields compilation finally finished). Hibernating is pretty nice in the winter.

--Austin.

Some "Best of 2007" honors for PE

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:22:32 -0500

We've been popping up on some best-of-2007 lists!

Al at City Paper's 'Noise' blog puts Sweethearting at #15 on his top local albums list, and our April Walters Art Museum show at #9 on his best live shows of the year list.

And local blog Feed My Face calls Sweethearting the #8 local record of the year.

If you've seen others, please let us know.

And if you'd like to check out the record, we'll remind you that it's still available for the special price of only $5, at our special CD sale page.

The end of something

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:22:57 -0500

The big news: We've already discussed this in person with a number of you who know us, but for everyone else, it's time to make the announcement: We'll soon be going on an indefinite hiatus. We all still like each other, and we're not thinking of this with the finality of a "breakup"... but after early 2008, there will be no more Private Eleanor shows planned for the forseeable future.

There are a lot of reasons for this decision, but the short answer is that we feel we need a break from being in a band, and some time to try other things. I won't speak for my bandmates, but I personally am quite excited about hibernating for a while, writing and recording at home, and focusing on just making music for myself again. In the meantime, though, there are a couple of final shows in the works, and two compilation album appearances: Love Goes On, the tribute album to Grant McLennan, on which we cover a Go-Betweens song, is out now on Rare Victory Records; and two new PE recordings will appear on the Beechfields Record Label compilation this winter.

CD clearance sale! Here's the biggest thing for now: We're also trying to make sure all the remaining copies of our CDs make it to good homes... So we're having a big clearance sale on all three of our remaining titles: Only $5 per CD when you buy them directly from us (at http://www.privateeleanor.com/cdsale.html), and we'll even ship them to you for free! We have a limited number left of Sweethearting, No Straight Lines, and My Pious Friends, and we won't be getting any more pressed when they're gone, so go snap them up now! If you have friends who might enjoy our music, please forward them the link -- or just buy them a copy!

(Note that Sweethearting will remain available digitally through iTunes, but we have no control over what they charge, which means it will remain $9.99. I'd say it's better to pay us half that and get a CD with uncompressed sound quality and a cool foldout poster... but the choice is yours.)

We are incredibly grateful to every one of you who has come to a show, bought a CD, or offered words of encouragement (or a floor to sleep on) over the past few years. Having the opportunity to meet so many great people has been one of the best things about being in this band. Thank you.

going out of print! / upcoming compilations

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:55:01 -0500

Going out of print!

The three Private Eleanor albums that are currently available as of this writing (Sweethearting, No Straight Lines, and My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions) will likely be going out of print soon! When the current pressings of these records are gone, we do not plan on repressing them -- probably ever. Once they're gone, they're really GONE.

So if you have ever thought about picking up one of our records... or you've been meaning to check out that one you don't yet own... or you've always enjoyed the songs on our site or myspace, but never got around to buying a disc -- Now would be a REALLY good time!

All three CDs are available directly from the band, here on our website. Buy more than one CD and we'll throw in some extra free stuff!

Oh, but there's new music coming!

That's right, as the Private Eleanor catalog passes into out-of-print-ness, new PE music is on its way, in the form of two compilations.

First, Love Goes On (a tribute to Grant McLennan of the Go-Betweens) is released in October, featuring our cover of the title song -- alongside tracks from the Clientele, the Bats, Portastatic, Ivy, Stars, and a bunch of other great bands. Rare Victory Records is taking preorders for the album now!

Then, at the end of the year, The Beechfields will release its first compilation album. Private Eleanor is contributing two never-before-heard recordings: Our cover of an unreleased pupa's window song called "Capitan" (recorded during the Sweethearting sessions at Silver Sonya last fall) and a new song called "Scare Yourself to Death". We're excited to have both of these out for everyone to hear. More info about this release coming soon...

On another note: A thank-you...

...to everyone who came out early to HampdenFest for us last weekend; it was so nice to see so many friends out there supporting us.

A nice weekend

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 21:20:46 -0500

We had a nice couple of shows this past weekend. Thanks to those who made it out. In Baltimore we opened for Au Revoir Simone and Oh No! Oh My!, both of whom were quite good. It happened to be Drew's final show with us, after 3 and a half years in the band. (I didn't say anything about that onstage, because I'm sure he would have turned bright red for the rest of the set had I pointed it out. But now you know.) It was a fine send-off, I think. We sounded pretty good.

Then we headed up to Brooklyn, as a keyboard-less quartet, for our first New York show in a long while. We played a quieter, stripped-down set at Pete's, and it felt great. The other bands (Boy Genius and Breakup Breakdown) were great too, and incredibly nice as well. Meeting cool people when we go out of town always reminds me why we do this in the first place... and sometimes I really need the reminder.

We scored some good record purchases up in New York too. Tommy was beside himself over a hard-to-find Dntel record he found, while Marian's eagle eye netted us some fine CDs by Tiny Vipers and Josh Ritter from an otherwise-crap-filled dollar-bin.

Baltimoreans, don't forget Hampdenfest on Saturday! Get there early for us!

Sunday's show comes recommended. Plus Hampdenfest details

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:55:34 -0500

Sunday's show at Galaxy Hut comes recommended by both the Washington Post's "Nightlife Agenda" and dcist.com's "Weekend Picks"...

The Post calls us "twee" and says "you can picture them all wearing very nice, retro sweaters." (Ha!)

dcist says we mix "the sounds of pretty mid-1990s slowcore like Red House Painters or Bedhead with an occasional hint of twang -- like if These United States were to sit down after a long night and quietly sing you some lullabies."

We're not really all that quiet live, as my eardrums post-show can always attest... But don't let that stop you. If you're in the DC area, come say hi. (That's this Sunday, 8/26.)

In other news, details for Hampdenfest have been announced, and it seems we are kicking off the whole thing at the ungodly hour of 11am. Yes, it's early, but the earlier you arrive, the more Hampdenfest fun you shall have... And c'mon, admit it, you can't pass up an excuse to start drinking before noon.

We'll be on the "Hampden Idol Stage" at 36th & Roland. The whole day is an embarrassment of local-music riches, so don't miss it.

In our stereo

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:33:17 -0500

I'd like for this space to not always be about us specifically, but also a space for writing about music in general... We used to have a "Current Recommendations" section on our old site, and I've meant to resurrect that here for a while -- So finally, here you go: What's in my stereo. Ten new and ten old:

Recent releases:

Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Their best since Girls Can Tell, and already one of my favorite records of the past several years. I don't call many records "instant classics", but this is one. There is no better band in existence today.

John Vanderslice Emerald City
Haven't totally digested this yet, but it sounds weird and beautiful as expected.

Travis Morrison Hellfighters All Y'all
I heard many of these songs live a couple years ago before he kinda disappeared for a while, and they are every bit as good here as I remember them. People will probably hate on this anyway, but they will be wrong.

Monarch If Children
It's nice when some of your favorite music is made by some of your favorite people...

Clientele God Save the Clientele
Every Clientele record gets a little cleaner and sunnier, but no less beautiful.

Among Wolves Among Wolves & Seldon Plan The Collective Now
More fellow Baltimoreans/labelmates making quality records.

Dolorean You Can't Win
Third straight great record from this criminally underrated band... If you have any interest at all in countryish folk-pop, you need to hear them.

Sea Wolf Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low
St Vincent Marry Me
It's nice when an artist comes out of nowhere and impresses you -- It doesn't happen often enough to me anymore. Both of these did.

Older stuff:

Monkees Pisces Aquarius Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
Yep, the Monkees. Shut up, it's an awesome record.

Bill Fox Transit Byzantium
Apparently Bill Fox's records are now fetching nearly $100 on ebay, after the Believer article about him earlier this summer. I bought this for like $8... but I can't really blame the folks paying so much, because the records really are brilliant. Another piece of evidence for the argument that spinART was one of the best labels of the 90s.

Bill Fay Time of the Last Persecution
Finally picked this up after hearing about it from several people -- glad I did. The songs have this almost majestic quality to them, but the playing is so loose... Cool stuff.

The Jam Sound Affects
Not even a Cadillac commercial could ruin this.

Laura Veirs Year of Meteors
Thanks Mike for turning me on to this one.

Todd Rundgren Something/Anything?
This one too. (In the same night, no less!)

Clem Snide The Ghost of Fashion
One of my favorite bands at the moment. Funny and heartbreaking at once.

Camera Obscura Underacheivers Please Try Harder
Lovely, fun, buoyant stuff.

Let's Active Cypress/Afoot
Jack Rabid compared us to these guys in his Big Takeover review of our new record. I'm not really hearing it (unless it's the fact that there's a nasal-voiced singer with pretty girl backing vocals?) but I do like this a lot.

Neil Young Comes a Time
I guess he was trying to recapture the Harvest audience with this one, so it's necessarily a bit less interesting than his other albums of the time, but there's some great stuff, including the original version of soft-rock classic "Lotta Love", a song I never liked (and never knew was written by Neil) until now.

Lots more but I should stop. There will be more band news soon, probably, so check back.

Sorry, New York / New Baltimore shows

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:13:48 -0500

First of all, thanks to everyone in Baltimore who came out to see us last Saturday! The Metro is a great space, huh?

Unfortunately, we were not able to play the NYC show we had scheduled for the following night, due to some major vehicle issues on the way up on Sunday... (I'm just glad we broke down while still in Maryland instead of on the NJ turnpike somewhere!) Sorry to any New Yorkers who were planning to come see us that night! We're working on another NYC show in September and maybe another later on in the fall as well. Check privateeleanor.com for the updates.

As for Baltimore: We just added a last-minute show next Friday the 27th, at Theatre Project. This is a cool one-off gig at a really nice theater where you'll probably never get the chance to see us again... And our friends the Payola Reserve are sharing the bill with us!

We've also added a couple more local shows for the fall, including an opening slot for Au Revoir Simone and Oh No! Oh My! at Ottobar, and a slot at Hampdenfest. Check the Schedule.

Oh, and lastly, we're on the CD sampler that comes with subscribers' copies of the new Magnet magazine (the one with Spoon on the cover!). It's a song that you can readily download from our website, so there's no real need for you to track one down just for us, but still... pretty cool.

"So let me introduce to you..."

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:54:55 -0500

... our new drummer.

Many of you already know that Chris has left the band to focus on the non-rock'n'roll aspects of life. His contributions to our band over the past three years were huge, and we're definitely going to miss his presence and good musical ideas.

That said, though, we're excited to be playing with our new drummer, Tommy. He's a great player, he's really enthusiastic, and he shares both our collective love of Elliott Smith and our tendency to spend way too much on musical gear. He makes his debut in two weeks at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore, and the next night at the Delancey in Manhattan. Come out and make him feel welcome!

Black Cat photo

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 19:19:09 -0500

Just wanted to share a photo from our recent Black Cat show. Thanks to Matt for taking it! (And thanks to all of you who came out to the show!)

Praise, in ink

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:36:32 -0500

Some very nice new reviews this week for our record Sweethearting... Both printed on actual paper. (Yeah, bloggers, some folks still read about music on pages instead of screens.)

The Big Takeover says, "Baltimore's best surprisingly top their quietly sparkling No Straight Lines. Sweethearting ups the ante... behind production so lush, firm, and warm, it takes over rooms." (Buy a copy at bigtakeover.com - one of our longtime favorite magazines!)

On Tap gives us a 3.5 (out of 4), and says that we "evoke the confident, mature sound of artists such as Red House Painters and the late Elliott Smith" and that the record "is an assured display of subtlety and craftsmanship." (DC people, pick one up for free anytime in June; or check the site here.)

Black Cat - Wednesday 6/6

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:32:03 -0500

Happy June, everyone. Summer arrived quickly here in Maryland... For those of us who live without central air-conditioning, this is not entirely a good thing, but we're excited anyway. And what better way to kick off the season than with our first show at one of our very favorite clubs, the Black Cat in DC? We couldn't be happier about finally playing the Cat, especially when it's with our friends Kitty Hawk, and Lovehandles. If you're in the area, please come out and support us! The show is this Wednesday (the 6th) at 9pm.

After this show, we'll be taking a little vacation before getting back into playing shows again in July. I know our shows have been pretty few and far between for about a year now. But we're finally going to fix that starting in July and August, even getting back on the road a little bit. If there's anywhere you think we should play, please tell us!

"Baltimore's finest"?

Sun, 13 May 2007 21:28:20 -0500

A couple more very nice reviews this week of our new record Sweethearting. Palebear compares us to one of our faves, American Analog Set, and says our songs are "even prettier" (wow, we're blushing)... and Smother deems us "Baltimore's finest." (I think we ourselves might beg to differ with that one -- see our post below re: Monarch and Small Sur -- but still, we're honored!)

Also, there was this post on a Greek blog. Anyone read Greek?