Mount Eerie’s Song Islands Vol. 2
is out October 19 2010 on P.W. Elverum & Sun, ltd.
Tracklist (from pitchfork.com):
01 Where?
02 Calf in Pasture
03 The Intimacy
04 I Whale
05 O My Heart
06 Instrumental
07 Where Is My Tarp?
08 Don’t Smoke
09 Get Off the Internet
10 Cooking
11 Give Totally Up
12 Do Not Be Afraid
13 Voice in Headphones (singers)
14 Cold Mountain
15 Cold Mountain’s Song #286
16 Heart Lake at Night
17 You Turn Me On
18 A Sentimental Song
19 Mystery Language
20 Waterfalls
21 This Is the Same Ocean
22 In the Rain
23 In Moonlight
24 Thanksgiving
25 Instrumental
26 Uncertainty
27 Limp Climbing
28 Grave Robbers
29 Lost Wisdom
30 (Wind Lyrics)
31 Small House
I’m excited (because I’m too poor to purchase these songs separately, but this I can swing).
music i listened to at some point in the last decade pt. 4: The Microphones
#4: The Microphones, “Solar System” (2003)
[download]
Phil Elvrum is often unfairly pegged as a ‘lo-fi’ artist. While his early years found him dabbling in cassette tapes and his post-Microphones output is mostly minimalist, during the golden age of the Microphones (It Was Hot…/The Glow Pt. 2/Mount Eerie) Elvrum was given access to Calvin Johnson’s world-class Dub Narcotic recording studio, and while critics praise The Glow Pt. 2 most universally, it was on Mount Eerie that Elvrum most perfectly married art and technology. A textually and conceptually dense concept album about the human life cycle, Mount Eerie could have easily toppled under its own weight (how many records that open with fifteen minute drum solos could be considered un-pretentious, other than this one?). But, incredibly, as its narrator sets out on a trek up the mountain, Mount Eerie sets out to achieve—and does achieve—every one of its goals.
“Solar System,” is the most accessible moment on Mount Eerie—it’s the only song on the record that sounds like a song, and not part of the larger concept—and most likely it will be the moment that draws you in. “Solar System” begins with a burst of white noise (from the last track, signaling Elvrum’s spotting of death on the shore of a lake in the form of a black ship, and beginning to ascend Mount Eerie… it’s a long story) which gives way to pulse-like acoustic guitars and Elvrum’s perfectly-imperfect voice, humbling himself: “Oh no, I’m lacking | I want what I see.” Who hasn’t felt like that?
“Solar System” is also one of Microphones-era Elvrum’s more subtle tracks. Without the listener even necessary noticing, he piles acoustic guitars, tambourines, electronic wave-sounds, background singers and god knows what else into the mix, which never loses its ‘cool,’ so to speak. Aside from the ear-splitting white noise in the beginning, this track seems to rock the listener back and forth, and slowly to sleep.
Mount Eerie is a record I really think everybody should try, at least once. During the summer of 2003 I listened to Mount Eerie, in its entirety, every single day; thus was the power Mount Eerie had over me. As added incentive, it even features most of the people you’ve heard of from K Records: Calvin Johnson, Mirah, Kyle Fied and Karl Blau all make appearences (most notably Field, as the devil).
I thought it fitting that Phil Elvrum, after making this record, changed his band name to Monut Eerie, declaring the Microphones “completed.” I can’t blame him: after making Mount Eerie, a concept album where he kills himself and descends to the cosmos, where is there really left to go?
