Photo: Kyle Matteson (@solace)
Fans who bought advance tickets to this summer's second annual Eaux Claires festival in Eau Claire just got a collectible surprise in the mail. The festival sent out exclusive mixtapes (literal tapes, as in cassettes) to early ticketholders, featuring "B-sides, demos, home recording and spontaneous contributions" from some of the artists who will be featured on this year's lineup.
Among those artists are Justin Vernon, who contributes an old Bon Iver track he dates back to 2009 or 2010 and a new song from his Fall Creek Boys Choir collaboration with James Blake; festival co-curator Aaron Dessner and his brother Bryce Dessner; and quite a few acts who didn't play the festival last year, including Tenement, Har Mar Superstar, Bruce Hornsby, Phil Cook, My Brightest Diamond, Shabazz Palaces and Nathaniel Rateliff. According to a note included with the nearly two-hour mixtape, the festival's full lineup will be revealed on Thursday.
Of course, this being the Internet age, nothing is truly exclusive anymore, so it was only a matter of time before fans posted rips of the tape online. Given that the festival's official Twitter feed has been re-tweeting those links, we're assuming they're alright with us sharing them. You can stream the mixtape below, and check out a photo of the tracklist here, courtesy of Twitter user @joshranft_.
