I remember back when the 2010 Sled Island lineup was announced I eagerly pointed my browser to the festival’s site and began scrolling hoping for awesome announcement after awesome announcement. While there were indeed a lot of names listed that brought a smile to my face I’d by lying if I said there was much that really surprised me; that made me sit up and begin planning to get tickets immediately. Once I got through the names in big print though I had my first eyes bugging out of their sockets due to awesomeness moment when they glanced across the name DM Stith.
DM Stith is the stage name of David Michael Stith a multi-instrumentalist and graphic designer signed to Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty label. Heavy Ghost his 2009 release was my second favourite album of last year (I’m at the bottom due to the tyranny of alphabetization by last name). Here’s some of what I had to say when I reviewed the album last April :
" The album begins with a sinister piano shuffle that ushers in “Isaac’s Song.” Soon a mumbling choir of what sounds like the dead digging themselves out of their graves chimes in before the song erupts into clamouring voices and clattering percussion. The song then fades into “Pity Dance” in which a slowly strummed acoustic guitar emerges in front of a series of clicks and horror movie atmospherics. The choir of the dead makes a return with some absolutely spine-tingling background vocals. In the centre of all of this is Stith’s rich voice which scales mountains and plummets into vast canyons to sing “I’ll tell the truth/ I’ve been sleeping with the lights on ever since I left you.”
Yesterday (Tuesday May 25) Stith released Heavy Ghost Appendices a two-disc set consisting of alternate takes on Heavy Ghost songs and a smattering of covers on the first disc along with remixes on the second. I’ve had the opportunity to listen to both discs once the revisions and covers have so far struck me as particularly impressive. On the disc Stith drastically alters some of his strongest songs and applies his massively layered production that choir of the dead and his fussily nuanced chamber pop aesthetic to the likes of Randy Newman’s "Suzanne" and The Ronnettes’ "Be My Baby." Though ostensibly an odds and sods collection at first glance disc one of Heavy Ghost Appendices is more worthy sequel to Heavy Ghost than tacked on appendix despite what its name suggests. Being a remix album the second disc is necessarily hit or miss.
Getting back to Sled Island I’m really curious to see how Stith is used during the festival. Sled Island always offers a diverse lineup but if there’s one thing the festival leans towards it’s scrappy garage rock. Stith music is more about haunted ambiance and attention to detail than raw power so it will be interesting to see where and with whom he plays. To get a feel for what his set might sound like I’d recommend checking out a Daytrotter session he recorded in January 2009. To hear him with choir of the dead in full effect (a difficult thing to pull off live considering the "choir" is mainly Stith harmonizing with dozens of versions of himself) check out the various songs available on his official website .
[Apologies to Pat and his excellent series of Sled Island posts for his FFWD blog Srsly You Guys . I totally ripped him off.]
