Video: Celebration - "Kilamanjaro"

A new card in Celebration's Electric Tarot has been dealt, this time coming in the form of a video for Hello Paradise closer "Kilamanjaro". The video is by Sophie Hamacher.



Hamacher's video is for the The Moon card in the Electric Tarot, and features footage from the band practicing in the depths of the G Spot for our Halloween bash last year.

Celebration's Hello Paradise is out now on Friends Records.

Celebration - "Kilamanjaro" Hello Paradise - Electric Tarot Out Today

An album that has been almost three years in the making -- Celebration's Hello Paradise - Electric Tarot is officially out today. Friends Records and Celebration are giving away the entire LP digitally online for free, and offering the chance to purchase the record on vinyl -- the band's first physical offering since 2007's The Modern Tribe out via 4AD.

Fader just premiered the last remaining card to be dealt for this LP, which came in the form of the last track on the album, "Kilamanjaro". A fitting capstone to this grandiose affair, "Kilamanjaro" is an epic psych rock ballad that churns your deepest illusions and glorifies your most vivid dreams. Hear for yourself.



"Kilamanjaro" represents the The Moon card, which singer Katrina Ford's painting below depicts. Katrina illustrates this card as "Self deception, Illusion,Waxing and waning of emotion, Dreams, Memories, Subconscious, Facing your fears, Nightmares, Different sides of you crying out, A karmic relationship, Losing touch with reality." 



Celebration play tomorrow, February 4 in Philadelphia at The Ox, February 19 in Brooklyn at Death By Audio, and will have their release show for Hello Paradise on Saturday, March 5 at the 2640 Space in Baltimore with Future Islands and Arbouretum.



This record comes wrapped in a gate-fold jacket that includes 150 gram vinyl, a CD of the album, and an insert which contains the key to this tarot spread. Check it out here.

Video: Celebration - "Honeysuckle Blue"

Celebration's Hello Paradise - Electric Tarot is just days away from it's official vinyl release, which means the full LP is almost available for free digitally online. One of the last tracks to be unveiled comes today via the full moon, and is called "Honeysuckle Blue". In addition to offering the MP3, YVYNYL and Friends Records are premiering the new video for the song created by Baltimore's own Miranda Pfeiffer.



"Honeysuckle Blue" represents the Alchemy card in their Electric Tarot deck, which is depicted up top in Katrina Ford's painting. Miranda Pfeiffer was asked to illustrate the themes that come with this card, and she chose to do that by highlighting the relationships we have between two separate urban environments. Here's Miranda's take:

“This animation was made using a stop motion process. While the Soft Cat video capitalizes on freeze-frame images juxtaposed with fluid animated movement, in this animation every hand-drawn frame is included so that all of the every motion is fluid. I used many different mediums to get a range of blacks from the colors. Some of these materials were ball-point pen, sharpie, graphite, chalk, and sum-i ink. I drew on both sides of frosted papers like vellum and tracing paper to get additional differentiation among the shade. This added a depth from the paper in the image.

The song itself was inspired by the tarot card, Alchemy, which illustrates two seemingly absolute opposites merging together. The video compares two aspects of Baltimore, interior and the exterior spaces. Because of the desolate nature of this city, a lot of social interaction occurs inside. For example, at night, there are places in Baltimore that aren’t safe to walk through alone. Because Baltimore has very few open spaces that are accessible and inhabitable by all its dwellers, residents often form special relationships with their apartments, with large-converted warehouses, and with interior spaces in general. The couple in the video is an average example of this kind of citizen.

Still, the interiors and exteriors reflect one another. Though seemingly opposite, the little room in the animation is similar in nature to the shots of the exterior city. In the video, all of the exterior shots show some form of plans made by humans that didn’t turn out like society imagined. The roaches reflect a sense of wilderness inside man’s habitat and man’s failure to truly plan a city. Simultaneously, the roaches traverse both the inside and the outside…the only creature able to fully do so. Because of the nature of the exterior spaces, the inside is also somewhat barren and scary. The female character cuts her hand when sawing a log…presumably one that came from the outside. Time is a theme. In the interior this is shown through the many clocks on the wall, ever ticking. In the exterior, the moon’s changing state represents another kind of cyclical time.

There’s a lot of charm in this world. It’s not an overwhelmingly bad place. Even the ugly bugs when viewed with a little tenderness are actually pretty endearing.”

Celebration's Hello Paradise will be available on vinyl with CD at the end of January.

Show: Celebration, Future Islands, Arbouretum Hello Paradise Album Release at the 2640 Space

original painting by Katrina Ford

GET TICKETS HERE RIGHT NOW, OR AT RED EMMAS STARTING JANUARY 6.

Celebration have been working on the follow up to 2007's The Modern Tribe for three years here in Baltimore, an LP that is to be the first installment in their Electric Tarot.



The first set of nine songs is called Hello Paradise, and it will be released on vinyl via Friends Records in January of 2011. The band will celebrate their new record release at the 2640 Space in Baltimore on Saturday March 5 at 8 PM. Celebration's psychedelic soul enforcers will be joined the post-wave synth cries of Future Islands and the storytelling doom-folk of Arbouretum. Three of Baltimore's best on a massive PA at the Church.





Tickets for $10 are available online right here, and will be made available at Red Emmas in Mt. Vernon on Monday, January 3. More details on this and Hello Paradise to come...

Celebration - "Battles"

Last night a new card in Celebration's Electric Tarot project was dealt by WICV Radio's Secret Pizza. The card was Strength, and came via the new song, "Battles". Above is a sun-lit photo of singer Katrina Ford's painting - her rendition of Strength in the tarot deck. Katrina has painted nine cards over the past few months, all of which are to be shown on the inside of the gate-fold sleeve the vinyl LP will be packaged in.



"Battles" is the eighth song on the forthcoming Hello Paradise LP, and is among the newer batch that was recorded at Night Worm Studios and mixed at Wright Way Studios.

In the Electric Tarot, "Battles" represents the card for Strength. Katrina's painting depicts a pale horse in what seems like an impossible quest. While some of the odds against him are unclear, and others are devious, the horse shows determination through patience and composure through structure. "Battles" withstands the resolve in one's heart.

BATTLES by CELEBRATION (lyrics by KATRINA FORD)

I feel the force
all at once
to ride this lightnin' down
on a pale horse ride right noooooooooooow

IF IT'S NOT IN YOUR HEART SAY IT RIGHT FROM THE START NOW
AND IF IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD RUN TO ME INSTEAD LOVE

THERE'S NOTHING HERE TO SEE

IF IT'S NOT IN YOUR HEART SAY IT RIGHT FROM THE START NOW
AND IF IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD RUN TO ME INSTEAD LOVE

CHANGE, CHANGE COULD BE FINE
JUST GUARANTEE I DON'T LOSE MY MIND
THERE , THERE WILL BE BLOOD
THERE WILL BE BLOOD BETWEEN THE LINES

OH, SO I DRINK THE VINE, BATHE NAKED IN SUNSHINE
OH WHY MUST BATTLES TAKE SO LONG?

I'LL BE STRONG
TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT WE'LL BE AS ONE
LOOK TOWARDS THE FUTURE SO LONG
I'LL BE STRONG [x2]
TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT WE'LL BE AS ONE
LOOK TOWARDS THE FUTURE STRONG
WHY MUST BATTLES TAKE SO LONG?
I'LL BE STRONG...

Pre order the forthcoming Hello Paradise right here via Friends Records.

Celebration - Electric Tarot: Hello Paradise

drawing by Katrina Ford

Baltimore's Celebration began relinquishing tracks from their Electric Tarot project last year, a virtual card deck in which each song represents a different tarot card. The first batch of songs are now complete, and will be band's first physical release since 2007.



The new LP will be out this Winter on Friends Records. Hello Paradise will feature the four tracks already shared, and five new ones that will be debuted in the coming months leading up the vinyl release. All songs will be given away for free digitally.

Other physical releases from the band are also in the works via Friends Records, and shows are brewing locally and elsewhere. The band will also be sharing videos and other new sounds in the coming months, all part of their ambitious Electric Tarot series.

The first available tracks include "I Will Not Fall", "What's This Magical", "Shelter", and "Open Your Heart", and are now available for free in any digital format you desire. All four of these songs were engineered and recorded by Rob Girardi at Lord Baltimore and produced by Celebration.

Listen/download those after the jump, and expect plenty more to come...

Celebration - "Shelter"

One of Baltimore's most beloved bands continues on with their new journey, adding another free track to their site. Celebration have chosen a new path since leaving 4AD, a direction that has found them uploading gem after gem to their website.



The newest track is called "Shelter", and is the fourth track to be added to their Electric Tarot virtual card deck. "Shelter" is certainly one of the more delicate tunes to grace the project, showcasing the more pristine side of Katrina's voice rather than haunts and bellows of some of the more grandiose tracks in the deck. The result is rather beautiful - a song that winds and crawls its way upward, until you've joined the band up in the atmosphere just as they likely intended.

While on the surface the Electric Tarot project appears to have slowed down, I am happy to report that it is still on track. I had the privilege of spending some time in the studio with Celebration last week, where they informed me that they were mixing the last track to be included in the first Electric Tarot physical release.

Peep the video accompaniment to "Shelter" after the jump, more to come soon.

Celebration - "Two of Wands"

With thanks to LTD Comp for the heads up, Celebration has dropped another tarot card on to the interspaces. The deepest so far, this one's an instrumental track that hastily dives into your psychedelic atmosphere with grace and beauty, as only Celebration could.

"Two of Wands" is the first card offered from their Electric Tarot project in awhile, but I've been told that good things are cooking in Sean and Katrina's basement. Peep all the cards that have been offered already after the jump.