Pitchfork

Photo by Richard Sharman

All's been rather quiet on the Sufjan front for too long now, so of course our favorite soft-spoken songwriting history buff had to be cooking something up. Late last week he made a return to the Asthmatic Kitty website Sidebar, posting yet another review of one of his labelmates, this time Cryptacize and their debut disc Dig That Treasure.

Conflict of interest? Reckon so, but Sufjan's less interested in goading you to buy the new Cryptacize record than he is in delighting in wordplay and offering food for thought. As he writes, "Dig That Treasure offends many of my own musical impulses, the over-achieving bigger-is-better-shock-and-awe approach. Obviously I'm not offended, but rather in complete admiration of the band's minimalist gorgeousness." Sufjan an over-achiever? Get out!

Parse Mr. Stevens' words further and you may catch a whiff of indie rock beef. As he puts it: "Sometimes I worry that the ever-increasing trend toward excessive innovation has pushed the art and music world into a slapstick exhibition of dog breeding, generating increasingly newer, more contemporary fashions: gothic folk, for one. Or Afro-beat Ivy League pop." Uh oh, you guys gonna take that?

Oh, and did we mention the review is entitled "Cryptacize is ALIVE! Decipher that code, yo!"? It is.

Peruse the rest of Sufjan's Cryptacize musings here, and, should you find yourself in Moi, Norway this August, pop by the man's set at the Dalane Festival of Culture. Keep an ear out for his contributions to the forthcoming Red Hot comp and the new Clogs album, too.

As for Cryptacize, Dig That Treasure is out now on Asthmatic Kitty and I hear it contains "songs [that] are not trifles, but rather cryptic haiku poems that expand toward a vast cosmic significance." Bask in that vast cosmic significance at one of Cryptacize's many upcoming live engagements, and/or take part in their karaoke contest.

Cryptacize:

06-10 Providence, RI - AS220 !
06-11 Cambridge, MA - Middle East *
06-12 New York, NY - Knitting Factory #
06-13 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's #
06-14 Baltimore, MD - Floristree #^
06-15 Washington, DC - Black Cat %
06-16 Knoxville, TN - Pilot Light
06-17 Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone
06-18 Hot Springs, AR - The Exchange
06-19 Houston, TX - The Mink
06-20 Dallas, TX - Club Dada
06-21 Austin, TX - Mohawk $
06-23 Tucson, AZ - Solar Cultural Gallery +
06-25 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo ~
07-03 Egersund, Norway - Egersund Visefestival
07-07 Brighton, England - Engine Rooms
07-08 Nottingham, England - Bunker's Hill
07-09 Manchester, England - Kro Bar
07-10 Leeds, England - Fenton
07-11 London, England - Luminaire =
08-15 Athens, GA - Popfest

! with A Troop of Echoes
* with Ben & Vesper
# with MV & EE With the Golden Road
^ with Jana Hunter
% with Shearwater
$ with Voxtrot's Jason Chronis, Devon Williams
+ with Golden Boots
~ with Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark
= with Half-Handed Cloud, LAKE