Julean and the Rai

Julean Rai in Torun

As part of a set of winter solo shows, Julean Rai plays solo at the Orange Piano (Pomaranczowy Fortepian) in Pila on the 19th of December.  This is a free show, a restaurant show; this performance should be open to  all ages.

See more at http://www.pomaranczowyfortepian.pl/

Download a free 128kbps MP3 version of Julean Rai’s last solo show here (link leads to ZIP file of “Julean Rai: Live at the Lizard King, Bydgoszcz” for download): http://ow.ly/ptV5

Also, connect to this event on:
Last FM |  Twitter |  FaceBook |  MySpace |  iLike |  Sell-A-Band

Related upcoming show

• Artist: Julean and the Rai
• Date: Saturday, December 19th 2009
• Time: 9:00pm
• City: Julean and the Rai in Piła
• Venue: Pomaranczowy Fortepian
• Address: ul. Paderewskiego 14
• Venue phone: +48 067 353 23 20
• Country: PL
• Admission: 0.00
• Age restrictions: All Ages/Licensed
• Box office: +48 067 353 23 20
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and downloads of our albums!  If you’ve enjoyed “Muse Tree”, “Here.”, and “Alexandria, Falling”, help us by making a small contribution towards our next project: “Secrets and Stains”.

The “Secrets and Stains” recording is the next upcoming release and we need your help to get it done.  We are currently raising $10,000 for the recording, production/artwork, publishing, and distribution of our next work.

With your contribution of any amount, you will receive a web link and listing on our donation wall, mention in the liner notes, and *one free copy* of the finished physical CD + MP3s for every $15.00 you donate.  Each donation will also receive a free download of each of the other seven (7) albums, with download links sent to the same PayPal address.  Donations above $100.00 will also be receiving 0.2% of all profits from sales of the album — iTunes, Rhapsody and online sales, offline and concert sales, and physical distribution sales — for the lifetime of it’s distribution.  Every $100.00 donation multiplies returns up to $10,000 (e.g., $200.00 is 0.4%, $500.00 is 1%, and so forth).  That means for contributions of this size, every 100,000 album sales (physical, concert sales or digital) returns your donation over 10 times.

Why is Julean and the band taking this approach?

Over the last year, our albums have received over 200,000 downloads combined.  But only a tiny portion of these have been purchased…the rest were found through torrents and other viral portals.  We love this (Julean specifically), but would love your continued support.  In order to continue touring, recording, and making great music we need the capital to survive!

But instead of becoming a band of salespeople and “pushers”, we like it best when our listeners enjoy what they want and contribute what they feel the music is worth to them.

After some thought, we decided that we rather enjoy it that way.  There really was never a price to enjoying what Julean does…it is what it is.  Julean Rai writes and performs just for the sake of what he does (and that’s no exaggeration…he really is “that way”).  But we decided it was best to simply “go with the flow” and allow what was already happening, to happen.  In return, we’d just hope that fans who are enjoying the music want to help us make more.  We are also independent, so capital is a big issue when it comes to recording, travel, and distribution.  So we have decided to take this approach.  Hopefully, with the help of those who enjoy what Julean and the Rai does, we can move things forward with a new, polished, studio recording and tour.

“Secrets and Stains” is a 13-track, full-band recording project, and a darker, more powerful rock-oriented installment in the CHRONOLOGY (Vol. III).  The track listing for “Secrets and Stains” is as follows:

01. Renee
02. A Little Espanol
03. Secrets and Stains
04. Redefine the Answers
05. Counterpart
06. The Only Way
07. Plate Glass Window
08. You Rang Us
09. Trouble Yourself
10. Face the Roses
11. Tara Lee
12.Today
13.The Windfall

The “Secrets and Stains” recording is preceded by “Here.” (Vol. II, 2008) and “Muse Tree (Vol. I, 2007), and followed by “Leaving Gomorrah” (Vol. IV) and “Effortless” (Vol. V), as well as four more full-length albums of unrecorded material.

In total, Julean Rai has seven (7) unrecorded albums (around 76 songs) following the recording of the last three.  Some of these songs have been recorded as demos, performed live, or used elsewhere as promotional material.  To contribute to this project or other projects (or to the band as a whole), check out our donation and support page to get started: http://www.theraiband.com/donate-support/

“Secrets and Stains” demo single on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2XmVvfY58

Also, make sure you’ve taken advantage of all the (current) albums and recordings available for free download:

“Live at the Lizard King” (First Set Only): http://ow.ly/papo
“Muse Tree” (LP)(2007): http://ow.ly/hjx0

As an independent band, there is no record company to cover these costs for us, and over 200,000 people have downloaded the previous three releases for free!  If you enjoy what we create, help us move to the next level by making a contribution of any size towards the next project!

The show up in Northern Poland went well, and as promised, the performance has been captured, mastered, and this week released to the public. “Live at the Lizard King” includes 21 tracks from the August 28th, 2009 show and is available online as a single instant download for only $10.  Purchase using the option above via PayPal and download your album immediately after buying it. This album can be purchased at this link or using the cart below:

Download part of the first set of the show (30 minutes) free here: Julean Rai – Live at the Lizard King, Set One

For fans on the official mailing list, “Live at the Lizard King” is available free after confirming your email. Fans can find the mailing list in the right sidebar column of each page on the website. Download links for this and other shows will be sent to your email as a welcome to the fanlist.

Live at the Lizard King runs one hour and fifty-five minutes (01:55:00) and has performances of 11 originals from the “Here.”, “Secrets and Stains”, and premiered or unrecorded songs, as well as 8 covers throughout the show. Tracks on the live album include:

1. Mountains of Anastasia (Live)
2. Darlene (Live)
3. Redemption Song (Live)
4. Big Time (Live)
5. Some Plans (Live)
6. Sin (Live)
7. The Dusty Boot Song (Live)
8. Wild World (Live)
9. Secrets and Stains (Live)
10. Black Sea (Live)
11. Kristin (Live)
12. Tear In Your Hand (Live)
13. Secret World (Live)
14. New York State (Live)
15. I Know (You Used to Know) (Live)
16. Aint No Sunshine (Live)
17. Wonderful Tonight (Live)
18. Just Like a Woman (Live)
19. Alexandria, Falling (Live)

Cover for the Julean and the Rai album "Here."

Last week, the 2008 LP “Here.” (Vol. II) was released at the official store at TheRaiBand.Com, alongside “Muse Tree” (2007, Vol. I) and “Alexandria, Falling” (2007, Instrumental EP).  The album is Julean Rai’s ninth recording release, and the second release in the seven-album CHRONOLOGY project, which includes “Muse Tree” and the upcoming album “Secrets and Stains”.  Available in both download and physical formats, “Here.” is the story of the “Muse Tree” character beginning the process of growing up and separating from his hometown and his past, and is a sequel to 2007’s “Muse”.

Lately, aside from opting not to add this album to thier iTunes, Amazon, and eMusic catalog, the Rai Band has made some interesting decisions regarding their discography releases, including offering 2007’s “Muse Tree” as a free download.

“Offering up [Muse] and making “Here.” only available at the website was kind of a choice of my own,” Julean stated in a recent interview. “Since we’d been a while without an official website, I wanted more of the focus to be on the new site.  I also want to experiment with the band maintaining full control of the album sales for a short time.  “Muse Tree” is a great to get to know my music, and I see no reason that can’t be free for at least a little while as we’re getting the site together.  It’s just a way to reach more people.  I don’t plan to do that with any of the other albums, expect for maybe the live shows.” (more…)

“Alexandria, Falling”, an instrumental EP originally crafted by Julean Rai in 1999 and recorded in 2007, has officially been released in the online store at TheRaiBand.Com. Both downloads and physical CD distribution is available for this release. The full EP can be downloaded for $4.49 (payments are processed securely through PayPal and downloads are available immediately following order and checkout) and individual tracks for $0.79 ea. This release includes two sub-tracks not available on the Amazon, iTunes, or eMusic releases.

The “Alexandria” EP, which began solely from the single track, “1:1 Alexandria, Falling” was written in 1999 by Julean Rai as Julean’s only political piece.  Later, with the popularity of the song in live shows, ringtones, and among fans, Julean expanded the (previously 9 minute opus) into an experimental concept album based on the same theme.

Julean explains his motivation for redefining the song “Alexandria” and giving a new home on an EP:

“It was always something I had considered, even when I first started performing the song with [previous band] AXIS in Colorado.  The idea was, to take the one idea, that always had several movements and many things being said at once, and split them up into more…more definitive themes with a more fleshed-out concept and a well thought-out package.  Instead of dragging one song through seven movements, for a recording it was probably better to have seven short, strong songs that really echoed the concept that they were written to explain..”

In the end, the tracks on the “Alexandria, Falling” EP neatly fit together to form one song, with each concept bleeding into the next and performed in real-time (one take, 42 minutes total).  On several songs, the tuning and detuning begins or ends the movement and becomes part of the song, taking us from one idea into the other.  The music itself is an ecclectic fusion; a mix of indian and egyptian rhythms with a slight touch of arabic rai — all against the backdrop of orchestral soundtrack-style rock.

For Julean Rai, known primarily as a singer-songwriter, “Alexandria” is Julean’s second album (“Pretty Things / Shanna’s Planet” being the first, from 2000) where lyrics play only a minor role; appearing briefly in only two of the seven tracks.  In fact, apart from the background vocals heard during the bridge in “1:3 The Handbasket” and the “blow-out” vocal performance on “1:1 Alexandria, Falling”, Julean’s voice is rarely heard during the album.

“I wanted to keep things like lyrics and vocals out of the mix, this time.   I mean my first love was piano, and I didn’t really sing much if at all back then when I played that instrument.  For me, things like this, which is really more of a soundtrack, should tell their own story.  Too many lyrics would be cheating; like a narrator [...] I also almost left the lyrics out of ["1:1 Alexandria, Falling"] too, honestly, but I thought that fans of the song who’d been waiting for this recording would be kind of upset about that.”

But what is it all about?  Is the album political?  Besides the raging Indian sitar-esque guitar solos and the wall of Dumbeks, is there a message or angle behind the “Alexandria, Falling” album?  Julean says that he will never tell:

“Honestly, there’s definitely a message, for me, especially as I was recording and separating [Alexandria] into different movements the message itself became clearer and clearer — I only helped it along.  But it’s one of those things that dies or is meaningless if you tell about it, really.  I think I didn’t spend an enormous amount of time cloaking the album in mystery or anything, I … I mean “Alexandria” is pretty loud and vocal and “Closing” doesn’t hide much, but…think of it, as I do, as something you kind of “get”, or you don’t.  It’s not really something to be discussed.  I will say it’s about my country, and there’s a slight, dark, prophetic edge to it, but … that’s it.  It’s satire.  That’s important to know.  But other than that … I’ll probably never tell if I can help it –”

Fans can stream the entire EP for free and download the “Alexandria, Falling” EP by going to the discography page / shop at:

http://theraiband.com/julean-and-the-rai-shop-discography/julean-and-the-rai-alexandria-falling-ep/

“1:1 Alexandria, Falling” Copyright 1999 Julian Rai (BMI). “Alexandria, Falling” EP Copyright Julean Rai (BMI), Julean and the Rai (BMI) 2007, All rights reserved.

Album artwork for “Alexandria, Falling” by Benjamin Bader (http://www.benjaminmbader.com/).

To commemorate the new website, I’ve decided to once again offer up the “Muse Tree” LP as a free download…temporarily.  Download the 2007 LP ZIP file here: http://ow.ly/hjx0

The album will be made available to keep spreading the word and the sound to new visitors, friends, tweeters, FB fans, and newcomers to the website.  It’s a 95MB download, so be prepared.

The “Here.” LP, “Alexandria, Falling”, and others will still be in the store / discography for sale.  Keep your eyes on this space for more spontaneous freebies and discounts, as well as special demos, as I plan to be taking “Muse Tree” back to the regular catalog very soon. 

To download the popular “Muse Tree” album, please use this link:  http://ow.ly/hjx0

The “Muse Tree” promotional download will expire soon, so please get your copy when you’re ready but as soon as you can.

-J

The OFFICIAL shop here on the website was just opened yesterday. We have downloads, previews, free tracks, and you can even buy an actual CD of the last two LPs. I will be sure to add the rest of the discography as soon as possible, keep tuned to our twitter page (@juleanandtherai) or find us on Facebook or Myspace (check out the top of the screen) for updates as we add these.

Also available is AN EXCLUSIVE ALBUM, only for sale and download here at our home on the web. Get your genuine release copy of “Here.” (2008) at the store:

http://theraiband.com/julean-and-the-rai-shop-discography/julean-and-the-rai-here-current-2008lp/

More updates available soon here at TheRaiBand.Com

After the long search for the right software, look, design and designers, and a whole bunch of other things, Julean and the Rai finally gets a new website. Currently, the discography pages, stores, and categories are still being created and added, and although updates are a snap now (used to be a manual chore), you know Julean and creative types…you should give it time.

In the meanwhile, if you found this website looking for more music by Julean and the Rai, please use our BandBox for downloads, freebies, and streams. Buying and streaming from BandBox is buying direct from us, and is currently the ONLY place to find the “Here.” LP from 2008. Thanks for your patience, and please have a look around while we get everything completed and fill up the content pages.

The recording process has begun recently for the demo takes for three upcoming new albums, including “Secrets and Stains” (III off VII), “Candy” (EP), and “Salvaged Dementia” (the absolute most recent songs from this year). We hope to get these recorded and even uploaded to give fans a taste of the new music while we work out the composition and kinks for a true studio take. While no plan is a solid plan, “Secrets and Stains” aims for being recorded by the end of this year or the beginning of 2010, while the latter two will hopefully go into production at the time of this release and released themselves simultaneously in 2010. Subscribe to this site and we’ll have everyone updated the moment these demos are finished to give you a taste of the upcoming recordings.