Joan Of Arc :: Cassette Box Set :: Joyful Noise Recordings

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Joan of Arc
Cassette Box Set

Catalog Number: jnr50
Release Date: 09/14/10

DOWNLOAD SAMPLER

COMING 09/14/10

Track List:

Albums included in this Box Set:

[Two days after it began, pre-orders for the Joan of Arc Cassette Box Set sold out. In order to get your hands on a box set at this point you will need to get lucky at a JOA show, or find a badass record store who managed to get their hands on a copy. HOWEVER all of the cassettes are still available for individual purchase, and even though you may have missed the boat on the custom wooden box, you can still pre-order all l0 cassettes for $49 here:
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Please note that this package deal does not come with special packaging. All 10 cassettes are individually packaged with original artwork and download codes, and housed in a white cardboard box. Individual cassettes will be available for pre-order soon]

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Jumping between mathy ballads, acoustic meanderings, minimalist experimentation, and post-rock-indie-epics, Joan Of Arc have exhibited a fearless artistry in their 14 years of existence. A seemingly inseparable appendage of the group's only consistent member Tim Kinsella, JOA is, in our humble opinion, one of the most unapologetically prolific bands of our generation - both in output and artistic vision.

From the Califone-produced "In Rape Fantasy and Terror Sex We Trust" to the sleezy rhythms of "So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness" to the trendsetting "How Memory Works" and the eclectic "Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain" - JOA is a band that is not averse to excessive growth and one that is not afraid to baffle their audience. The perfect example may be 2000's "The Gap" which prompted a 1.9 Pitchfork rating ("Joan of Arc make unlistenable faux-art records") and a glorious example of JOA's inherent divisiveness.

Their records are inconsistent in genre, perspective and purpose, yet consistently challenging, unadulterated, and honest. As their current label Polyvinyl says, JOA possesses "a mentality that embraces contradictions and tears apart common musical structures, only to rebuild them without a blueprint."

Contained in this collection are the 10 full-length albums from JOA, beginning with 1997's "Portable Model Of" (Jade Tree) and ending with 2009's "Flowers" (Polyvinyl). Over a decade of JOA material, released here in the formats of the people for both 1997 and 2009: Cassette and Digital. Don't know where to start in their catalog? Start here. With all of it.

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ABOUT THIS BOX SET
The collection is housed in a custom-built wooden box, elaborately screen-printed, hand-numbered and limited to 100 copies. Each cassette, individually wrapped and featuring the original album art, will also be available for individual purchase and includes high-quality MP3s and lossless audio. This is the first time any JOA albums have been available on Cassette.

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DIGITAL SAMPLER:
For the uninitiated or casual JOA listener, we have taken the liberty of compiling 10 stand-out JOA tunes (one from each album) into a free digital sampler. Download the zip file and get a taste of some of the albums you may have missed.

Tracklisting:
01. Questioning Benjamin Franklin's Ghost (from Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain)
02. The Hands (from A Portable Model Of)
03. A Tell-Tale Penis (from Boo! Human)
04. The Infinite Blessed Yes (from So Much Staying Alive And Lovelessness)
05. Me And America (or) The United Colors Of The Gap (from The Gap)
06. Explain Yourselves #2 (from Flowers)
07. Eventually, All At Once (from uh, Eventually, All At Once)
08. White Out (from How Memory Works)
09. (I'm 5 Senses) None of Them Common (from Live In Chicago, 1999)
10. Happy 1984 and 2001 (from In Rape Fantasy and Terror Sex We Trust)

"As I noted in the capsule designating Joan of Arc "Best Old Musical Group" in the Reader's recent Best of Chicago issue, the band has earned a reputation for coming up with completely outrageous ideas and then actually following through on them. (Unlike the Judgment Night soundtrack-cover album your band keeps talking about at practice.) Their latest berserk plan is actually relatively marketable for them: reissuing all ten of the band's full-length albums as a cassette box set. Cassettes are regaining currency as a tactile physical representation of the music on people's hard drives, and the JoA set, which according to its PR will be "housed in a custom-built wooden box, elaborately screen-printed, hand-numbered and limited to 100 copies," has "neat music-related tchotchke" written all over it. A complete digital copy in lossless audio and 328 kbps MP3 comes with each one. "
Chicago Reader

"Not too long ago, when I interviewed a record store owner about the effects of the Internet on his business, he joked about an impending cassette renaissance. These days, it seems he was not so far off, with the emergence of cassette-only labels like Bumtapes and Fuck It Tapes bringing back the seemingly antiquated format. Joyful Noise Recordings and Chicago indie stalwarts Joan of Arc are taking the tape fetish one step further by reissuing the band's entire catalog on cassette for the first time in the form of a limited edition box set. The package, limited to only 100 copies, will be housed in a custom-built, screen-printed and hand-numbered wooden box and will include all 10 of Joan of Arc's albums on individually wrapped cassettes."
LimeWire Music Blog

"Remember those rectangle-shaped plastic things that you used to put inside those other rectangle-shaped plastic things with speakers, and then you pressed "play"? Well, if you long for the long-forgotten days of cassettes, it appears Chicago's Joan of Arc have got you covered. The band announced recently their plans to release a cassette box set on September 14 via Joyful Noise Recordings. Not only does the box set include their entire discography (available on cassette for the first time ever), but the collection is packaged in a custom-built wooden box, which is screen-printed, hand-numbered, and limited to only 100 copies. Digital download codes will also be included for those that sold their Walkmans 15 years ago."
Tiny Mix Tapes

"In recent years, there's been no shortage of artists reissuing their old albums on vinyl, but here's something you don't see every day: on September 14, Cap'n Jazz spinoff Joan of Arc will be reissuing most of their catalogue on cassette via Joyful Noise... Wow. "
Exclaim!

"Having been named "Best Old Musical Group" in the Chicago Readers' Best Of Chicago issue, the Tim Kinsella-lead indie rockers Joan Of Arc are keeping with the "old-school" rep they've suddenly earned and will release reissues of all their albums as a cassette box set. Being that this is the first time that any Joan Of Arc album has been released on cassette, they've decided to do them up real nice. Each cassette will wrapped individually with the original album's cover art and will be available to purchase individually as well, which includes high-quality MP3s and lossless audio."
Loud Loop Press

"Tim Kinsella's 14 years of recording music under the heading Joan of Arc has produced a discography that's as compelling and challenging as it is eclectic. Swinging wildly from sparse minimalism to post rock to acoustic balladry Joan of Arc's catalog is a study in fearless self focused song writing. Kinsella doesn't write songs based on what the expectations or desires of his fans might be. And Joan of Arc fans love him for that. Which is why Joyful Noise Recordings is paying tribute to the JOA catalog with a limited edition cassette box set of ten of the band's albums, including a high quality download of each release."
The 1st Five

"Joan of Arc make unlistenable faux-art records"
Pitchfork

"Joan of Arc faces this newer world with smarts, vulnerability and an admirable hard-headedness."
Magnet

"Guitar riffs coil, drums ride a thunderous beat, and glitchy vocals are twisted as Joan of Arc criticizes American conventionality, spits on Main Street ignorance, and mocks celebrity ideals."
AllMusic

"This is Joan of Arc continuing to blaze a brave, new, weird path all their own."
Alternative Press

"...as listenable as it is difficult to pin down: Hearing Kinsella empty out his mind might just calm yours."
Spin Magazine