m iafrate (& the priesthood)

OK here is the plan:

4 recordings coming up, with no release date/timeline information. But here are the records:

1) The first thing on the list is the long-awaited St Louis Jesuits tribute album, The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor: Songs of the St Louis Jesuits

2) An EP or short album or regular album of acoustic songs called No Matter How Deep The Darkness, He Descends Deeper Still

3) Around the same time as #2 will be an album of outtakes and demos called Idolatry

4) Finally, a new full length from M Iafrate & The Priesthood called Horse Birth

Songwriting is well well on the way. Who knows when these albums will be birthed.

I recorded a demo of a new song today and posted it over at myspace/miafrate. It’s called “He Is Not Here.” Lyrics are on the lyrics page. Still collecting demos and ideas for an upcoming Priesthood record, and this may go on it, or I may end up recording a more stripped down solo record before the Priesthood record. We’ll keep you posted. Check out the song, though, if you like.

Welp hi.

Intending to make good on their tendency toward a musical gift economy, The Dick Brothers (Andrew and Michael Iafrate) will release a follow-up full-length as well as a two-song EP on November 1, 2008 as free internet downloads. The eight-song album, titled Uncle Brother, features traditional Appalachian songs as well as tunes by Dolly Parton, Will Oldham, Gillian Welch, Ryan Adams, The Folk Implosion, and Paul Simon. The Brothers’ sister Janet guest stars on the album, singing the haunting track “West Virginia Mine Disaster.”

The single, called the Straight Up EP, features a cover of Paula Abdul’s touching ballad of the same name backed with a much-too-drunk-to-go-on-side-one cover version of the R.E.M. classic “Wendell Gee.”

Both releases come your way November 1 (All Saints Day, by some reckonings), giving you plenty of time to dump them on your iPod and waddle down to your local polling place to cast your vote for the right folk.

We may be graced with an “MP3 Release Party” over the Christian holidays. Pray for it.

Two long-unavailable releases of mine are now available for digital download at DownloadPunk.com: 2002’s My Terrible Twin EP and the 2003 M Iafrate /Sean Decker split CD. For track listings and other info, check out the discography page.

I’m pleased to share that I was asked to give a workshop and play a set at this year’s Practicing Resurrection conference hosted by Culture is Not Optional and Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat’s Russet House Farm in Cameron, Ontario.

The theme of the conference is “Home Economics,” and so the title of my workshop is “Homemade Music: DIY Music Practices and the Church as Counterculture.” Here is the workshop description:

In this workshop, Michael Iafrate will reflect on his experiences in independent music communities and what they taught him about being Church. He will also lead discussion on ways to resist corporate throw-away “anti-music” through homemade music and “do-it-yourself” music-making practices. Come with ideas, examples, and experiences you have had with making your own music that you can share. Or if you are more of a listener, come simply with an openness to new ways of thinking about, making, performing, sharing, and “consuming” music.

I’ll be playing a set at the music event on Friday evening.

For more info on the conference, and to register, click here.

Over the holidays The Dick Brothers (Michael and Andrew Iafrate) got together to drink some whiskey and moonshine and recorded a number of songs for potential release. We hope to have those sessions available for you to enjoy (in one form or another) soon.

We posted a sample, our version of Dolly Parton’s “My Blue Tears,” in our MySpace sample baggie.

hey remember me?

you have 2 christy-mas recorkds that you can download from the past right in through your escato-futuro-logical-ality-ment.

remember that 2 years ago this time ago i hav’d released this record called:

HAPPY XMAS, X IS HERE

and it was in lowercases tho, and it was (and is!) available here to grabb:

http://www.catholicanarchy.org/miafrate/?page_id=56

then, not much more than one year ago i had released also a three-song feature of three songs called:

THE REBEL JESUS EP

which was properly capitalized! it was (and is!) available here:

http://www.catholicanarchy.org/miafrate/?page_id=63

if life has prevented you from hearing these documents, do in fact and in deed grabb them to your heart and breast and listen as you do the lord-birth-welcome. both are xmas to the maximum.

celebrate gaudate sundae by grabbing them to yourself and wait patiently for you know who.

thank you and me together, for this is true.

peace,
m

Welp, I guess it’s that time of year again. And happy xmas, x is here, which came out two years ago, was reviewed at a blog that features free Christmas music:

Yesterday I promised you another folk-based Christmas album, and here it is: M Iafrate’s happy xmas, x is here. There are 10 songs on this album, and they run the gamut from traditional Christmas carols, to the more modern “White Christmas” and “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”, to an original composition called “The Prince of Peace”.

The hymn “Each Winter as the Year Grows Older” starts the album off in a stark and somber mood, but by the time the harmonica kicks in on the second song, “O Holy Night”, one gets the feeling that this is anything but a standard Christmas album; the use of a kazoo in “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is an indication that this is a totally unique Christmas album. The Iafrate-penned “The Prince of Peace” is one of the album’s highpoints; with instrumentation of “vocals, acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, slide guitar, kazoos, tambourine, [and] hand claps”, all performed by Iafrate himself (as is the majority of the entire album), and lyrics like “pave the way for the prince of peace. he hangs around with fishermen but doesn’t eat meat. he tellin’ us all to turn the other cheek. pave the way for the prince of peace,” it is a fun and definitely unique look at the life of Jesus Christ. Another highlight is “Away in a Manger”, which features Iafrate’s brother Andrew on mandolin and vocals; and those vocals are harmonized beautifully with Iafrate’s to create a very stirring version of this traditional Christmas carol.

Overall, happy xmas, x is here is a very fun album to listen to. The unique instrumentation, beautiful arrangements, and inspired performances make it a worthy addition to any music lover’s collection.

M Iafrate & The Priesthood will play a set at an R.E.M. Tribute and Habitat for Humanity Benefit Saturday, November 3rd at 123 Pleasant Street in Morgantown, West Virginia. Also on the bill are ‘85 Flood, Sam Lamont, Straka, The Love Me Knots, Billy Matheny, and more. Count on the Priesthood focusing their attention on R.E.M.’s older material.

The Dick Brothers (my brother Andrew and myself) were together this week for an impromptu recording session in the same basement that birthed their much-acclaimed debut self-titled CD. The result is a cover tune that will surprise you. The release, including a special b-side, will come your way for free downloading next week.