Archive for ep

Glassjaw speaks on forthcoming EP

Posted in Music News with tags , , , on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 by Ryan Buege

Glassjaw frontman Daryl Palumbo has revealed through several recent Tweets that the band has completed work on their long-awaited new EP. Palumbo said:

Beck and I are sitting in his car listening to the new Glassjaw EP that we’ve just completed. Shit SLAMS.”

When this hits stores, it’ll be Glassjaw’s first new release of material since 2002’s Worship and Tribute full-lenghth album (although El Mark, an iTunes-only EP of Worship leftover material, appeared in 2005). Needless to say, there’s many souls that were stirring when the band went on hiatus, and the music that will culminate from these sessions is sure to quiet many people who were worried that we’d never hear from the band again. Be on the lookout for more updates in the future..

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Finch makes self-titled EP available for free download

Posted in Downloads with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on Friday, June 5, 2009 by Ryan Buege

To the satisfaction of many and ire of few, Finch regrouped last year and released a self titled EP to followup on their 2005 opus Say Hello to the Sunshine. If you missed the release the Cali-based post-hardcore-rock-prog-punk-psychedelic-whatever quintet has now made the album available for free download via their newly relaunched official website. Those who are interested, head over here to download one of the four file formats for the enire 2008 EP for free (including a few “goodies”, as well).

DOWNLOAD: Finch, Finch EP

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Cave In ends hiatus and prepares 2009 EP for release

Posted in Music News with tags , , , , , on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 by Ryan Buege

An official statement from Cave In reads:

“After 3 1/2 long years, Cave In has decided to end its hiatus. Please join us for an EP release show at Great Scott’s (1222 Commonwealth Ave., Allston MA) on Sunday, July 19th @ 9PM. Also playing will be our friends Disappearer and Phantom Glue. Copies of the Planets Of Old limited 12″ (recorded by Adam Taylor, Alex Hartman & Johnny Northrup @ Camp St. Studio) from Hydra Head Records will be available that night.

We hope to see your lovely selves.

Steve, Adam, J.R., Caleb
CAVE IN”

Hell yes! I knew it would be long (seriously, this band sounds too awesome live to be separated forever). The visionary indie/space/hardcore/roc/metal legends are back and it’s good to see that J.R. Connors is in the saddle for the ride.

Expect a preoder of Planets Of Old to be up on Hydra Head’s online store any time now..

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Modest Mouse prep 7″ for Record Store Day and rare B-Side surfaces amongst cumulative EP

Posted in Audio, Downloads, Music News, News with tags , , , , , on Monday, April 13, 2009 by Erik Burg

Record Store Day is fast approaching (April 18th) and with that comes some new Modest Mouse material. As my love for this band has grown over the past year or so I’ve dug further back into their catalogue and also anticipated their upcoming releases as well. News that they had did a video Directed by Heath Ledger was beyond interesting, and now their series of four vinyl singles sparked my interest as well. 

modestmouse

The first of the four single series is slated to be released on Record Store Day, as I mentioned, and will be packaged in a nice three panel sleeve with accompanied orange 7″. The two tracks featured will be “Satellite Skin” (which the band performed on Letterman and you can see here) and also “Guilty Cocker Spaniels.” 

The order in which the other vinyls will pour out has yet to be determined, but all four of them are part a cumulative effort that will lead to an eight track EP entitled No One’s First And You’re Next in August. So it’s all part of a cumulative effort that will eventually make me spend a lot more money than I should, but will be an awesome keepsake for die-hards. If your record player is broken though, the first of the 7″s will be released digitally on April 21st. 

An MP3 has surfaced as well of one of the tracks listed later on in the sequence. “I’ve Got It All (most)” is an interesting choice, it was originally released with Good News digitally as a bonus track but was very quickly removed by the band and has been hard to find ever since. But alas, I Guess I’m Floating was lucky enough to snag it when It came out and now you’re all lucky enough that they he re-posted it.  It’s an awesome cut too, and hearing it for the first time is getting me crazy excited for the EP. Sounds a lot like everything on Good News and it’s a mystery why it wasn’t included on the album, but at least it’s finally getting an official release on the less. 

MP3: Modest Mouse – “I’ve Got It All (most)”

No One’s First And You’re Next track listing:

1. Autumn Beds 2. Guilty Cocker Spaniel 
3. History 4. I’ve Got It All (most) 
5. King Rat 6. Satellite Skin 
7. Tie The Lake Down 8. The Whale Song

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Hunting Club plan work on first album and offer up awesome single “Yours Truly”

Posted in News with tags , , , , , , , , , on Wednesday, April 8, 2009 by Erik Burg

hunting-clubMinneapolis rockers the Hunting Club have been busy as of late. While planning the recording of their first full length album, slatted to begin in late May with friend Jeff Halland, the band has still been playing in support of their debut EP. 

The album is an excellent romp through indie stylings with a mix of good modern rock elements as well. Tracks like the slower “Deep Sea Diver” are marked by deep mellotrons outlining the skeleton for the song and are coupled by a guitar that’s straight-forward and almost shoe-gazingly mesmerizing. 

But it’s the cut “Yours Truly” that stands out more than anything on the album. Starting with a minute of purely instrumentation, the track immediately reminded me of some of the Kings of Leon’s better material. The track takes a bit of a turn at the two minute mark, slowing down a bit and bringing in  a more percussion driven verse as opposed to the guitar driven intro. The vocals hit hard half way through too, as the singer belts out “I fell light years in your eyes, forgot my mind and now, I love you I love you I love you…” the entire track comes alive and is pulled together. Hunting Club really seem to find their sound on “Yours Truly,” a sound that feels familiar and yet surprisingly powerful at the same time. If their full length is anything in line with this single I can’t wait to hear it, at any rate though, these guys are looking to make waves, and have started off pretty successfully. 

MP3: Hunting Club – “Yours Truly”

They’ve got a few shows coming up as well if you found yourself loving that song. The first on April 24th at the Nomad World Pub playing alongside Man is Doomed and Invincible Kids. And if you can’t make that you can find them May 17th with Chooglin and Private Dancer at Art-a-Wheel.

Check out the MP3 and see what you think, and be on the lookout for more information as they roll out their first full length later this year. Enjoy!

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Album Review: Wolves in the Throne Room, Malevolent Grain

Posted in Music Reviews with tags , , , , , , , on Wednesday, February 4, 2009 by Ryan Buege

Besides hearing a song or two on a mix from a friend in the past, I’m really not familiar with much from Wolves in the Throne Room’s previous output and didn’t really know what to expect when I was introduced to this album this week. However, with that said, after hearing this two-song EP a couple of times, I think I’m going to have to go check out their earlier releases.  Malevolent Grain is the Olympia, Washington-based “ambient black metal” band’s second EP, a prelude to their third long-player Black Cascade which is due later this year.

Right off the bat, I want to acknowledge how much I reallllly love the sound on this album. One reason I’ve never gotten into black metal so much in the past was because the production always (for better or worse) sounded so thin and gritty that the musical appeal was totally lost on me. In the last few years, many black metal bands have overcome this trait and have released albums that are much more heavily layered than the cheap recordings of the early years, and I think the current activity in the USBM scene is evidence of this. Wolves in the Throne Room this approach of density and orchestration to another level entirely, Malevolent Grain has a sound that is as thick as ever with ferocity that is unmatched to boot. In fact, in many ways this album reminded me as much as (or possibly even more than) my favorite orchestral post-rock innovators like GY!BE  as it did of the scathing black metal of Mayhem, Gorgoroth, or Burzum.  To be fair though, many of these bands are now dead or dying. Wolves in the Throne Room are now in a league of their own, following their own vision and innovating on the headbanging classics of these greats with some unparalleled epic blackened rockers of their own.

The album is divided in half, with the first song “A Looming Resonance” beginning the vinyl with a natural, folksy, brooding ambience. Eventually the orchestral buildup is aided by vocals from Jamie Meyers, and as her strong vocals resonate with a Celtic tinge, the song segues into a more viscious psychedelic black metal groove. The entire mix feels more removed from black metal than I could have imagined.  By the end of the song, the increasingly intricate dynamics and dense layering have taken this epic a soul-stirring peak that could replicated by few bands in the world (honestly, only GY!BE comes to mind..). “Hate Crystal” begins in much more tradtional black metal fashion with a blasting rhythm section, sinster riff, and wraith-like vox. As majestic as it is brutal, “Hate Crystal” was the perfect cap to my introduction to this band and faded this sinister EP out brilliantly.

(thanks to Bryan for borrowing the album!)

DIG DEEPER: Buy Malevolent Grain online! –  Official Website – MySpace

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Album Review: Of Montreal – “Jon Brion Remix EP”

Posted in Music Reviews with tags , , , , , , on Monday, February 2, 2009 by Erik Burg

David Barnes delivers again with the album art

David Barnes delivers again with the album art

Following the release of one of 2008’s best albums Skeletal Lamping, Of Montreal recruit Mr. Everything Jon Brion to mix up some of the albums better tracks. Having worked in the past with Elliott Smith, Kanye West, and Spoon, and also helping produce the soundtrack to Boogie Nights, Eternal Sunshine, and Magnolia Brion certainly has a hand for crafting magnificent tracks. So my hopes were undoubtedly high for those various reasons.

Disappointment from Of Montreal, however; is few and far between. Any band that covers “Day Man” is in good regard for a long time. This EP follows in that pattern pretty well, delivering to fans of the LP some pretty good material that’s a little more ready for the dance floor than the original recordings. The one downfall of this release is that it really doesn’t offer much in the way of anything “new” at all, like I said, the tracks just get a nice shape up for dj’s planning to play their most sexually explicit set of all time.

The reconstruction of “An Eluardian Instance” really doesn’t deviate from the original at all, but what it adds in the repetition and tempo change is welcome. The acoustic version of Eluardian though is quite a treat. The track isn’t stripped down to its absolute bare bones, and I might dispute calling this “acoustic,” but the slow rythm brings out the beautiful voice of Kevin Barnes and more importantly the lyrics become more apparant than ever. And what is Skeletal Lamping worth without the lyrics? Not much.

“Gallery Piece” gets the Brion treatment next, and the last three tracks all play off the same cut. Including the remix and the extended remix is an instrumental of the remix. It’s an exhausting task trying to listen to all three of these front to back, taking away from the feel of this actually being an EP rather than a single or a 12″. The original remix is great though, and it’s definietly the higlight. This cut gets the biggest mix treatment, shortening from the lengthy album version to a more friendly version that plays pretty quickly. The extended cut repeats itself so much that it’s almost annoying to listen to after the five minute mark, but die-hards will still love. (I kind of still did).

If you listened to Skeletal Lamping and loved it, or maybe even just liked it, this EP should definetly be in line for a purchase. The tracks are fun and play fairly fast, catering to the busy lives we all lead. So save some time, practice your dance steps, and come 200 times a day with the Jon Brion remix EP.

7.5 sexual escapades out of 10

mp3: Of Montreal – “An Eluardian Instance” Acoustic Version

Dig Deeper: Jon Brion Wiki Of Montreal Site

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