Cover of Sufjan Stevens' Illinois
Illinoise? Are you trying to be funny or something?

The title of this article is an obvious reference to Sufjan Steven's album Illinois, this summer's breakaway indie hit.

Who the hell is Sufjan Stevens?

He is a folk musician from Michigan. His last album, Seven Swans -

Whoa! Seven Swans? Christian folk music? Dude, you're losing your edge.

First, I have always maintained a healthy balance between "hard" and "soft" music. Second, it is not as if he's evangelical or anything crazy like that - I can purchase his albums without fear that my money will be used to melt the seperation between church and state or support Romney-Santorum '08. Anyway, while Seven Swans is a Christian album, his albums Michigan and Illinois are the first two entries in his "50 States Project," which is supposedly to chronicle each state in an album, like those state quarters.

Sufjan Stevens' Michigan Militia
Michigan? Illinois? More like the Forsaken States Project.

I know. Look at the pictures of his "Michigan Militia." Ho, what fashion sense!

The word on the street is that he might do Oregon or Rhode Island or maybe even New Jersey next.

Dude, New Jersey's not forsaken. It's fricking Eden on the East Coast.

I know. But while we have good musicians, there are no good songs about New Jersey. If Sufjan Stevens selects the state for his new album, that will mean nearly 80 minutes of Garden State goodness!

So how did you learn about Sufjan Stevens?

I kept running into him on Pitchfork and his albums were recommended for me on Amazon. Then I read about DC Comics threatening to sue his record label (Asthmatic Kitty) for the picture of Kal-El on the cover (which has been removed in recent printings). Then I caught his song The Lord God Bird on NPR's All Things Considered program on the ivory-billed woodpecker back at the beginning of July. His song did what several dry New York Times articles and uneducated Arkansas locals talking about economic opportunity and eco-tourism (perhaps, in retrospect, they were not that uneducated) could not.

Any more free MP3s? I missed the Vanderslice.

Check out Amazon's Illinois download page. "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" is just pure amazing - like aural gold or something. It's so beautiful, I could cry.

You are losing your edge. What about the rest of the tracks on Illinois?

I was purchasing multi-tools on Amazon yesterday, and was about to buy it, but with paying for 2 years of web hosting on Monday, I was worried that I was burning through too much cash (I have spent about $200 this week) and that I should wait a while, especially since I have still not listened to one of the CDs I previously purchased*. Then I listened to "The Man of Metropolis..." last night and paid $4 to ensure that it would be delivered tomorrow.

So if Sufjan Stevens was the pastor of a megachurch...

What can I say? I would probably not only go, I would also tithe.


I hath religion; its name is folk.