Jana Hunter Sets Home Free, Tours

C'est chic, le freak-folk
Texan songstress and Gnomonsong signee Jana Hunter will cast off the shackles of domesticity on her sophomore disc, There's No Home, heading to the buyer's market April 2. Fans of the strummy stuff may recall "Farm, CA," the Hunter tune stuck in the mangy beard that was the Devendra Banhart-curated Golden Apples of the Sun freak folk showcase record, as well as her own well-received 2005 effort Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom.
Recorded at a friend's home in Houston, There's No Home packs plenty of the cathedral-ceiling harmonies, finger-plucked acoustic guitars, and freeform song structure you've come to expect from the freak-folkies. Guest-turns on the record are slim given the collective's tendency towards collaboration, but Jana's brother John Hunter contributes a few vocals, and John Adams of the Fatal Flying Guilloteens and Matt Brownlie of Bring Back the Guns handle a few instrumental duties.
The now Home-less Hunter will hit the road for a number of U.S. dates through April, then take a spin around Europe this May.

Yoshimi Heads Smalltown Superjazzz Charge

Boredoms/OOIOO firestarter (and Flaming Lips inspiration) Yoshimi teamed with Swedish saxophonist and Thurston Moore/Jim O'Rourke collaborator Mats Gustafsson for the upcoming Words on the Floor LP, one of several collaborative albums due out on Smalltown Superjazz in April.
Yoshimi and Gustafsson used electronics, tenor sax, baritone sax, alto fluteophone, and the rare slide saxophone to create one short three-minute piece and a second, droning track that exceeds 40 minutes in length. Together, those tracks form Words on the Floor, which will be released April 30 on Smalltown Superjazzz.
Two Bands and a Legend is the self-titled debut of a group composed of Cato Salsa Experience, Joe McPhee, and the Thing (good luck!). The album's nine tracks feature the crew doing covers of songs by the likes of PJ Harvey and James "Blood" Ulmer. They even turn in a version of "Louie Louie". Thurston Moore contributes liner notes to the album, which Smalltown Superjazzz will release April 16. The Thing will head out on a tour of the U.S. in April.
And as reported yesterday, Smalltown Superjazzz will release The First Original Silence, the debut album from Original Silence, a group featuring Moore, Gustafsson, Jim O'Rourke, members of the Thing, the Ex, and Zu.