As some of you may have deduced, I once called the frozen shores of Wisco home before packing up and moving on up (across?) to the east coast.  So it is with great pride and excitement that I bring news of fellow ‘Sconnie Justin Vernon’s new side project to the bakery today.  You may know JV (that’s what I call him b/c we’re down like that) better as Bon Iver, the whispery soul-bearing singer pining for Emma, but this time around he’s just another one of the boys in the band. Read on…

Volcano Choir is the assembly of Wisconsites Jon Meuller, Chris Rosenau, Jim Schoenecker, Daniel Spack, Thomas Wincek, and of course J to the V.  According to my sources this collaboration predates the Bon Iver project, and Justin himself has credited the Volcano Choir sessions with giving him the creative courage needed to go forth with the Bon Iver recordings.  The first single, ‘Island, IS’ is below for your listening pleasure and features some delightful multi-layered loops, microsecond guitar cuts and Mr. Vernon on vocals.  The album, Unmap, will be out September 22nd via Jagjaguwar and will probably sell a billion copies (or maybe just a little less).  Check it:

Volcano Choir – Island, IS

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Volcano Choir – Youlogy

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Pre-order Unmap here!

Oh, and one more thing before I go.  My boy Sydney C once told me a joke that he made up about people from Wisconsin, it goes as follows: ‘How do you know if someone is from Wisconsin? Believe me, you’ll know…’  Sydney’s upcoming standup comedy tour is in the works as we speak.