naturalismo

Jana Hunter and Castanets had most of their gear stolen this past Friday while passing through Tucson, Arizona. Damn the thieves! The following was sent out by Jana Hunter and includes an e-mail address if you want to help out. I actually have some friends out there who visit the thrift/pawn shops so I’m going to tell them to keep an eye out for their stuff. You can do your part by looking on eBay or if you’re in the area doing the same. I was fortunate enough to see them a little over a week ago and took some pictures. If you want to see their gear click the photo above. The place was nearly pitch black (and at other times, literally was- when the lights were turned off for Castanets murky riffs) but I think you can get an idea.
“So, the story is, last night we played in tucson at solar culture. Afterward, we loaded our stuff up, went downtown, had a drink, and went to a house to crash on the floor. en route, we damaged a door, making it such that the door won’t close and such that eventually, before we return the vehicle to the rental company, we’ll have to pay on the order of 2 grand to replace the door.

“Seeing as how we had an unsecured vehicle, ray (castanets) slept in the van. sometime during the night, some brave fug(s) very quietly opened the back door and took what they could carry. we assume their were more than one of them given all the stuff they managed to walk away with.

All this after we had to fly our friend/drummer to the airport yesterday morning so he could go to the hospital. pretty big bummer all around.”- Jana Hunter

This is what was stolen
Jana Hunter’s:
fender classical guitar (serial # 9505151116)
boss rc-20 loopstation (serial # 0860399ev16879)
boss reverb/delay pedal
original digitech whammy pedal
original b k butler tubedriver overdrive pedal
peavey 6 mixer (serial # k0344300)
shure beta 98/s (serial # 4421303325)
custom flashlight circuit-bended thing
briefcase with “houston deserves to be a better place to live” sticker (full of Jana Hunter CD’s, T-shirts and stickers)

Castanets’:
late 60’s blue fender music master guitar
line 6 delay pedal
boss tremolo
mutron volume/wah pedal
boss tuner pedal
digitech metal master
ebow
slides/cables

Anyone with any information regarding the stolen goods should contact Jana at: jana.hunter@gmail.com

Thanks!”

If you’d like to donate some money to help them get back on their feet you can send a paypal donation to mutualincarnation@gmail.com.

or go see them on the rest of their tour:

Jana and Castanets:

06-25 Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves
06-26 Austin, TX - Mohawk Place *
06-29 Houston, TX - The Orange Show *

* with Pink Nasty

Jana:

06-25 Dallas, TX - Good Records
07-07 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick *
07-08 Chicago, IL - The Abbey Pub *
07-10 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater *
07-11 Kansas City, MO - The Record Bar *
07-12 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre *
07-13 Colorado Springs, CO - The Black Sheep *
07-14 Park City, UT - Suede *
07-16 Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater *
07-17 Seattle, WA - Neumos *
07-20 Houston, TX - DiverseWorks

Ray Raposa of Castanets and Jana Hunter not only toured and recorded together on a boat, but also seem to be sonically connected in some odd way. It seems whenever news for one of them arrives, the same is true for the other. To bring you up to date, Castanets is prepping his new album for release sometime in the next few months. In the meantime you can read about his job as a surf instructor here and download a track from his recently released EP. Meanwhile, Jana Hunter has recorded a live session where she played some new tracks from her upcoming EP. You can listen to the session in full here, or download one of the new songs she played below. The same website has a new recording session up with James Blackshaw.

Castanets - One arm around the sinner

Jana Hunter - Untitled (from upcoming EP)

Jana Hunter has announced the tour dates for her new album, There’s No Home. In a recent interview with stereogum she talks about her day job of working at a pizza place. If you missed my first post on There’s No Home a bit back you can see it here. After repeated listens, There’s No Home has become one of my favorite records of recent memory. Her hauntingly beautiful melodies take time to sink in before you truly appreciate them. There’s No Home sees Jana’s reedy vocals and gentle guitar plucking at their best. I honestly cannot think of another artist who deserves more recognition than they’re currently getting for their music than Jana Hunter. Listen to two new tracks off of There’s No Home:

Jana Hunter - Bird

and

Jana Hunter - Vultures

Buy it here.

Tour Dates:

Jana Hunter’s new album There’s no home hit the internet this week but will not see an actual release until April 2nd. Initial responses online are that it’s a grower. I haven’t had time to fully digest it yet but my upon my first listen I was completely blown over with how great it sounds. But why listen to me or anyone else…judge for yourself: Here’s two new tracks from Jana Hunter’s There’s no home

Jana Hunter - Bird

and

Jana Hunter - Vultures

Meanwhile, fellow boat mate and There’s no home contributor Castanets (Ray Raposa) has a new tour only split album with Shapes And Size out on Asthmatic Kitty. Castanets contributes 2 new songs to the split, as well as 2 covers. Here’s his great new cover of Viking Moses’ “One arm around the sinner:”

Castanets - One arm around the sinner

As for Castanets new songs on the split, all I can say is that they’re mind-melting and hauntingly dark. (In a good way)

Visit Jana Hunter @ myspace to order her new album.

and

Castanets @ myspace