6.11.02
"Microphones to Unveil Mt. Eerie in 2003
Removal of giant hand-painted sheet to take strength of all members
Ryan Schreiber reports:
The Microphones have officially completed the follow-up to last year's stunning The Glow, Pt. 2. Phil Elvrum holed up over the spring in K Records' Dub Narcotic studios to work on the album, and emerged with three separate versions in mid-June: there's the album itself, titled Mt. Eerie, an a cappella version titled Singing from Mt. Eerie, and a drums-only edition titled, naturally, Drums from Mt. Eerie, which Phil has curiously referred to as "the techno version." The a cappella and drums-only versions will be released exclusively on 10" vinyl through the Secretly Canadian-owned St. Ives label, which issued the super-limited-run Blood LP earlier this year.
The album is titled after Mt. Erie, which looms over Anacortes, Washington, where Elvrum spent his childhood. Speaking to Pitchfork last month, Elvrum revealed that this is the fourth installation in what has inadvertently turned out to be a series of records about each of the four elements. "I sort of realized after I'd finished The Glow, Pt. 2 that was about fire. And I realized that Don't Wake Me Up was about air and dreaming, and It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water was about water and swimming. So the new one is more consciously about mountains and earth-- though it turned out to be more about space, so maybe I should try again."
There are some major differences this time out, though. Whereas past Microphones albums have been comprised of several short tracks, Mt. Eerie features five long ones, each containing multiple shorter songs within. And while it continues the Microphones tradition of revolving around a base plot, this outing takes the idea to a more literal extreme. "It's a linear story, and so I wanted to have these other characters for part of the plot," Elvrum said. "I assigned roles to [friends]. I told Kyle from Little Wings, 'Okay, your role is death. You have to kill me. Write a song about it, and we'll record it as a Little Wings song that's gonna be on the Microphones album.' I also gave Karl Blau the role of the birds that eat me after death kills me, and he recorded the song by himself on his four-track and sent me the master tape. So it's not even really a collaboration; it's more like a compilation. And then there are other parts of the album where I have people playing roles, but more like I'm telling them what to sing, just with little short bits."
In fact, from how it sounds, it appears that one of the very few ways the album remains true to previous Microphones releases is that it features a wide array of guest appearances from Elvrum's circle of friends: Mirah Zeitlyn, Yume Bitsu's Adam Forkner, The Blow's Khaela Maricich, Kyle Field of Little Wings, Karl Blau, Anna Oxygen, and K Records founder Calvin Johnson who "plays the Universe". When asked if he thought Mt. Eerie to be more experimental soundwise than The Glow, Pt. 2, Elvrum quickly responded, "Yeah, definitely. I recorded it all in order on a 16-track, like not separate songs, so when I mixed it, I had to mix it all at once, in two sections: side a and side b. So there's no quiet space in between songs, everything flows into each other, and it's sort of like a heavy load to listen to. I'm still in the headspace of working on it so I don't really have a perspective on what it's like, but I think it will take more work for people to enjoy."
This is followed, on our cassette, by nervous laughter from our interviewer. However, if nothing else, it certainly sounds original, which is itself quite a feat for indie pop these days. And if the Microphones have proven anything over the span of their six-year career, it's that Elvrum is capable of executing ideas that sound sketchy on paper and turning them into wildly creative and wonderful music. Mt. Eerie is scheduled for release on K in January of 2003. Tracklist:
01 The Sun
02 Solar System
03 The Universe
04 Mt. Eerie
05 The Universe
[Note: The fifth track is not a typo. There are two songs titled "The Universe".]"
Removal of giant hand-painted sheet to take strength of all members
Ryan Schreiber reports:
The Microphones have officially completed the follow-up to last year's stunning The Glow, Pt. 2. Phil Elvrum holed up over the spring in K Records' Dub Narcotic studios to work on the album, and emerged with three separate versions in mid-June: there's the album itself, titled Mt. Eerie, an a cappella version titled Singing from Mt. Eerie, and a drums-only edition titled, naturally, Drums from Mt. Eerie, which Phil has curiously referred to as "the techno version." The a cappella and drums-only versions will be released exclusively on 10" vinyl through the Secretly Canadian-owned St. Ives label, which issued the super-limited-run Blood LP earlier this year.
The album is titled after Mt. Erie, which looms over Anacortes, Washington, where Elvrum spent his childhood. Speaking to Pitchfork last month, Elvrum revealed that this is the fourth installation in what has inadvertently turned out to be a series of records about each of the four elements. "I sort of realized after I'd finished The Glow, Pt. 2 that was about fire. And I realized that Don't Wake Me Up was about air and dreaming, and It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water was about water and swimming. So the new one is more consciously about mountains and earth-- though it turned out to be more about space, so maybe I should try again."
There are some major differences this time out, though. Whereas past Microphones albums have been comprised of several short tracks, Mt. Eerie features five long ones, each containing multiple shorter songs within. And while it continues the Microphones tradition of revolving around a base plot, this outing takes the idea to a more literal extreme. "It's a linear story, and so I wanted to have these other characters for part of the plot," Elvrum said. "I assigned roles to [friends]. I told Kyle from Little Wings, 'Okay, your role is death. You have to kill me. Write a song about it, and we'll record it as a Little Wings song that's gonna be on the Microphones album.' I also gave Karl Blau the role of the birds that eat me after death kills me, and he recorded the song by himself on his four-track and sent me the master tape. So it's not even really a collaboration; it's more like a compilation. And then there are other parts of the album where I have people playing roles, but more like I'm telling them what to sing, just with little short bits."
In fact, from how it sounds, it appears that one of the very few ways the album remains true to previous Microphones releases is that it features a wide array of guest appearances from Elvrum's circle of friends: Mirah Zeitlyn, Yume Bitsu's Adam Forkner, The Blow's Khaela Maricich, Kyle Field of Little Wings, Karl Blau, Anna Oxygen, and K Records founder Calvin Johnson who "plays the Universe". When asked if he thought Mt. Eerie to be more experimental soundwise than The Glow, Pt. 2, Elvrum quickly responded, "Yeah, definitely. I recorded it all in order on a 16-track, like not separate songs, so when I mixed it, I had to mix it all at once, in two sections: side a and side b. So there's no quiet space in between songs, everything flows into each other, and it's sort of like a heavy load to listen to. I'm still in the headspace of working on it so I don't really have a perspective on what it's like, but I think it will take more work for people to enjoy."
This is followed, on our cassette, by nervous laughter from our interviewer. However, if nothing else, it certainly sounds original, which is itself quite a feat for indie pop these days. And if the Microphones have proven anything over the span of their six-year career, it's that Elvrum is capable of executing ideas that sound sketchy on paper and turning them into wildly creative and wonderful music. Mt. Eerie is scheduled for release on K in January of 2003. Tracklist:
01 The Sun
02 Solar System
03 The Universe
04 Mt. Eerie
05 The Universe
[Note: The fifth track is not a typo. There are two songs titled "The Universe".]"
1.11.02
afinal foi mais grave que isso
