Karl Blau

Karl Blau is an American indie rock and folk musician based in Anacortes, Washington, United States, and a member of the Knw-Yr-Own/K Records collective. His music is eclectic, incorporating elements of folk, dub, R&B, bossa nova, grunge, hip hop, drone and worldbeat.

Career

Blau is a singer-songwriter who releases his music through a subscription service called the "Kelp Lunacy Advanced Plagiarism Society", retitled from "Kelp Monthly" as new releases were not produced and sent out on time. He has played in several bands over the years, such as D+, Brothers Blau, Captain Fathom and Your Heart Breaks. He also has collaborated extensively with other Washington-based musicians, including Phil Elvrum of The Microphones and Mount Eerie, LAKE and Earth. In addition, he has toured and recorded with Laura Veirs, whose career also began in the Pacific Northwest.

In December 2007, a grassroots online petition drive began gathering signatures urging Knw-Yr-Own Records in Anacortes to reissue the Shell Collection compilation of Blau's early 4-track recordings. As part of the campaign, Blau posted a statement on his MySpace page calling for the release of the album on vinyl, stating "everything sounds better on LP not to mention the art is bigger".

Blau was referenced in a song carrying his name by the London punk band Video Nasties.^[1] The Microphones' album, It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, also has a song titled "Karl Blau".

Discography

LPs

• Doin' Things the Way They Happen (Knw-Yr-Own 1997)
• Shell Collection (Knw-Yr-Own 1997)
• A Second Culling (Knw-Yr-Own 1999)
• Clothes Your I's (Knw-Yr-Own 2001)
• Beneath Waves (K Records 2006)
• Nature's Got Away (K Records 2008)
• Zebra (K Records 2009)
• Introducing Karl Blau (Raven Marching Band 2016)

Singles

• "Slow Down Joe" b/w "Lake King's Daughter" (K Records/OnPurpose Records 2006)
• "That's How I Got To Memphis" b/w "Forest" (collaboration with Mount Analog) (K Records)

Kelp Lunacy Advanced Plagiarism Society series

1. Dark, Magic Sea
2. The Coconutcracker
3. Turning Tutu, Turning Leaves
4. Dunkel Blau
5. Purple Heart
6. Deep Sandwich
7. Remember Tomorrow
8. Lore of Ears
9. Dubble Dooty Booty
10. Trust in Sirens
11. It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water
12. Welsh Phantoms and Other Ghosts of Western Europe
13. Sea/Saw
14. Stereoearrings
15. If I Knew Zen What I Know Now
16. AM
17. Sing Together/Lonely Under the Covers
18. Beer & Chai
19. Flotsam & Jetsam
20. Let It All Out
21. Sigh Lens
22. Bread-n-Grease
23. Trunkal Howl
24. LAKE
25. Free The Bird
26. Dance Positive
27. Good Lovin' County
28. In Return From Ghost Country

References

1. ↑ "Video Nasties - Karl Blau". YouTube. 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2016-06-28. 

External links

• K Records artist biography
• Kelp Lunacy
• MySpace
• KEXP Interview with Karl Blau
• SPIN's Artist of the Day
• Secretly Important Interview with Karl Blau