Phil Elverum, Karl Blau, & Bret Lunsford’s D+ Sell New Album As Custom-Destroyed CD-R

Phil Elverum, Karl Blau, & Bret Lunsford’s D+ Sell New Album As Custom-Destroyed CD-R

Phil Elverum — he of the Microphones, Mount Eerie, and secretly marrying Michelle Williams fame — is in a band called D+ with Karl Blau and Beat Happening’s Bret Lunsford, two other veterans of the Anacortes, Washington DIY-indie scene. Although the minimalist pop project has been around since the late ’90s, they haven’t released any music since 2008, and until now, they’ve seemed content to go their separate ways and pursue their own musical projects.

Now, though, they’ve suddenly announced a new D+ album. It’s called Destroy Before Listening, and that name’s no joke: They’re selling the CD version of the album for $10, but for $20, you’ll receive it as a “custom-destroyed” CD-R with a reused Arigato Pak. “Who knows what it will look like?” the description on Bandcamp reads. “For $10 extra you can get the CDR pre-smashed and receive plastic shards in the mail,” Phil Elverum adds on Twitter. “Irresistible, right?”

Although the physical CD and/or destroyed-CD version of Destroy Before Listening is already ready to ship, there are only three tracks available to stream on Bandcamp right now — “Oh Well,” “Witch Key,” and “Tao Of Ursula,” all lo-fi numbers full of acoustic guitar and handclaps. “These songs were important to me/us when recorded in our imitable way five years ago,” reads the Bandcamp description, presumably written by Lunsford. “Thinking the D+ grade might be raised somehow, I delayed the release to our imagined community. As you consider disobeying the album’s puzzling name, you have our thanks. It is now here to do or not with it what you will.” Listen below.

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