As we relayed to you yesterday, Bon Iver and his bandmates played their last show together as a unit for an “indefinite” amount of time. The show came on the same day Justin Vernon was the honorary chair of AIDS Walk Wisconsin and took place at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater. In case the news of the brief “hibernation” has you down, RadioMilwaukee broadcast the whole performance live. And we can now share the stream of the show with you thanks to the fine folks over there. Enjoy, or drown your sorrows, or do whatever it is you do. Regardless, click away.

Justin Vernon and his guitar-noodling buddies from Wisconsin known as Collections of Colonies of Bees are joining forces as Volcano Choir for an album called Unmap. The musicians have known each other since the days when Vernon was just a dude in a band unfortunately named DeYarmond Edison, and these songs originate from those days. After the jump you can see the album cover and tracklisting for Unmap along with video of
Collections of Colonies of Bees’ recent show in Tokyo.
Jagjaguwar will release the first project by Volcano Choir, Unmap, on September 22nd (21st in the UK), worldwide.

Unmap:
1. Husks and Shells
2. Seeplymouth
3. Island, IS
4. Dote
5. And Gather
6. Mbira in the Morass
7. Cool Knowledge
8. Still
9. Youlogy

So Bon Iver’s folk masterpiece For Emma, Forever Ago was our #3 album of 2008 and all-round really damn awesome. So it’s no surprise we’re anxious to keep you updated on lead songwriter Just Vernon’s various happenings: jamming with his high-school band, performing at charity benefits and rocking out on David Letterman. Now comes word of new material — both solo and now with a band.

The latest update comes from Pitchfork’s mini-interview with Vernon after the Dark Was the Night performance. Vernon spoke about writing material with his new band called the Volcano Choir which is “mostly choir stuff”, which makes me think (and hope) it’ll be basically the intro to “Lump Sum” on repeat. As for new Bon Iver material, he’s “working on stuff.” Fuck yeah! What kind of stuff? Acoustic? Ambient? Folk? DUB?! We’re just going to have to wait to find out.

Here are selected excerpts from the interview.

Pitchfork: Have you been working on any new music out there?

I think if you feel weird and self-conscious about that kind of stuff– which happened to me at some points last year– that means your ego is really kicking in. You can understand how people get to be assholes in this business because it’s like you’re getting pumped full of your own thing so much, you get ungrounded. That’s a dangerous place to be.

Ten years after he graduated, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon went back to his alma mater, Memorial High School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, this weekend. It may not have been a reunion, but we would’ve voted him best dressed — Vernon (snazzy white suit and all) joined his former high school jazz band Sunday night for a benefit show to raise money to send the ensemble to a prestigious jazz competition.

The competition is Essential Ellington. Hosted annually by Wynton Marsalis, the band has gone six times in the last ten years, with their very first trip featuring Vernon himself on lead guitar as a senior. Sunday night’s performance featured one full set by the jazz band featuring Duke Ellington tunes before Vernon took the stage alongside Bruce Hering, the same band director who’d taught Vernon 10 years prior.

Vernon performed “Lump Sum” (from For Emma, Forever Ago), four standards — Ellington’s “Rocks In My Bed,” Nina Simone’s “Since I Fell For You,” Ella Fitzgerald’s “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “Miss Otis Regrets” — and another of his own songs, “For Emma,” which you can check out below (and for more video, head here). Following some light applause (read: standing ovations), Vernon wrapped up the night with Frank Sinatra’s “The Lady Is a Tramp” and Mahalia Jackon’s “A Satisfied Mind.”

Two crucial factors skew my critical eye when writing on Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago is my favorite album in recent memory and I really want to like everything Justin Vernon stamps his name on. After exorbitant listens, I find For Emma as compelling as my first and after reading countless interviews, I find Vernon, more and more, a deserving artist. So, as with other Bon Iver fans, the pertinent question asked of Blood Bank, would it convey the similar winter solitude to which we grew accustomed, or the fuller sound of Bon Iver’s live band? The answer is probably neither; yet, Blood Bank feels quintessentially like a Bon Iver record in its formula and sonic identity.

The title track, supposedly written during his well-documented retreat, is darkly melodic and structurally similar to tracks like “Lump Sum” as it is pushes along, chorus-less, anchored on a consistent arpeggio. Lyrics of uncertainty and frustration end with Vernon humming “I know it well” and segue into “Beach Baby”, which trots along rather blandly. Vernon’s token falsetto sings quietly over a continuous guitar line, singing to an ex-lover. These two songs compile the first half of the E.P. and certainly sound like b-sides. They are well-kempt but don’t capture the evocations of For Emma. It’s the album’s second half that introduces a new Bon Iver. “Babys”, in particular, showcases a fresh direction. If we remained in a cold Wisconsin cabin during the E.P.’s first half; then the bright, staccato insistences of “Babys” allow us to exit. “Summer comes,” Vernon sings proudly, “to multiply!” It all makes sense: snow melts, broken hearts mend, anxieties heal when summer arrives. The triumphant “Babys” brings us to the Auto-Tune laden “Woods”. Undoubtedly, the closer will incite loud detractors arguing, perhaps reasonably, that Bon Iver’s charm lies in his organic sensibilities, not Pro Tools manipulation. Nor does it help that the entire song repeats the same four lines. Yet, “Woods” captures a certain exorcism in its digitally-amplified reiteration.

Once again, Vernon’s lyricism toys with the oblique and the outspoken. It’s difficult to discern specific meaning behind songs like “Blood Bank”, but “Babys” and “Woods” borderline on the confessional. “My woman and I know what we’re for,” Vernon says delicately until exclaiming, “to multiply!” And “Woods” is a synopsis of For Emma: “I’m up in the woods/ I’m down on my mind.”

Blood Bank does not attempt to duplicate For Emma, nor should it. The latter achieved an inimitable sound and personality, and Blood Bank serves as a strong transitional E.P. Most of all, it proves that Vernon and his belatedly formed band are not merely for a winter niche.

Jagjaguwar

Justin Vernon and Bon Iver doing “Skinny Love” (from For Emma, Forever Ago on Jagjaguwar) on The Late show With David Letterman last Friday, December 12.