sufjan listening party goodness

best uber special listening party: "the lonely man of winter", unreleased track from sufjan stevens. alec duffy won a contest put on by mr. stevens back in the winter of 2007 and won an amazing unreleased track. instead of posting it on some blog, he decided to host listening parties in his own home. listen to the story on studio 360 below.


my buddy adam invited me to this uber special occasion and funny enough the location of said party was literally 2 blocks away from my home. alec and pal dave welcomed us with fresh baked cookies and tea. i felt totally bad empty-handed and even worse when the other guests caroline and anthony brought homemade chocolate chip cheesecake. i promised to return to alec's with brownies. we sat and discussed our affinity to sufjan and i told adam to tell the sad story about his lost sufjan ticket on his bday. there was sweet redemption this evening. anthony said how he missed him back when he played at his university and alec said how he saw sufjan at bowery with pep squad in tow. adam added that he drove down from sf to sd to see sufjan play his first gig on the west coast at the casbah. apparently sufjan was uber nervous and shakey.

alec explained the reasoning behind the intimate nature of the dispersion of this track. he and dave had discussed incorporating with a play, but after some threats of youtubing the play and spreading through the interweb. alec decided on the personal listening sessions, which i openly appreciate. after the convo, alec passed around the letter and packaging with the track.

after some technical difficulty with the headphones, we listened to 3 minutes and 13 seconds of lush layered melancholy lyrics of wintry solitude. we were fortunate enough to get a second listen to swap headphones. a discussion about what we thought about the song followed. i distinctly remembered the line "driving to denver" and wanting the track for my very own. adam, the musician that he is, was thorough in his description about technique. alec added that he was impressed by the care and complexity of the composition. we signed a guest book before departing.
we said our goodbyes and am sad i can't recall the lyrics - only a fleeting melody. caroline was able to sing the chorus. thanks alec and dave for being such great hosts. thanks adam for inviting me. i'm forever indebted to you, which means you are welcome to rooftop beers whenever.