Call me crazy, but I kind of like the delayed vinyl shipment thing. It allows you to have another mini album release feeling when it arrives.
Snagged the yellow with the bundle. I couldn’t justify spending over $100. I’m happy with my purchase!
Honestly if we just got this EP I wouldn't be that upset this is soooo good. If the other 12 tracks are this level of quality this album is gonna be so huge
Site description says the album is the chaotic part of this recording session as opposed to the softer EP.
full e.p. lyrics - sorry bout the long post Bethlehem, WV To which shepherd’s field did which angels descend? & what’s this about eternal non-existence at the end? a stranger’s face appeared--they say he lost his mind (or too much found his mind?) I hear it all the time. vibrations rose in waves from a sea of discontent dad used to talk about for days, I finally tasted what he meant. Your carcass on the ground brought vultures to their eyes, my frontal lobe is shutting down. I bet you hear it all the time. To which shepherd’s field did which angels descend? Or is blessedness revealed to those of us who best pretend? Some counterfeit ideas form ideas all their own I watched them spread for years to my unsuspecting bones and the nights my heart was tired you sang your saccharine song, but when your mouth was quiet was the sweetest sound of all “soon our ransomed souls will leave this age behind for streets of solid gold,� I hear it all the time. on a West Virginia road, I did just as I was told. Winter Solstice (alt. version) Winter solstice, the earth open wide with a heart crushed like footsteps in snow (((fictitious persons disclaimers implied to all listening from rooftops below))) it had rained and the air was like perfume outside as the sky changed we began when the ground was still dry planting vineyards where vineyards don’t grow shaping cypress with pitch on both sides for the nights when our trumpets won’t blow that regret still there circling like vultures inside as your face changed? They don’t stay inside. (there but for Thy grace go I...) through the eyes of machines immaculate scenes that had already passed me by all the stars on the ground, Noah’s ark in the clouds set sail in the flood of my mind, the other animals drowned in blasphemous towns and asked as they passed me by “was to do as I please a European disease?� Winter solstice, the earth open wide with a mouth closed and face carved like stone dressed the dawn in the air drawn designs as the sounds rose in waveforms unknown and you smile but your vampire complexion still shows so the past goes. August 3rd, all the earth had closed down, so with breastplates of righteousness low searched for streams in the caves underground where the Baptists and bootleggers go when the sun hits Deer Flat your reflection still shows and your past shows. It’s really all that shows (so often unrecognizably so) We gave up on our dreams for those projected on screens that had already passed me by with further suffering found in our insufferable sounds and the thought in the back of my mind: “does my misery feed a metaphysical need that’s long since passed me by, neither reasoning why nor offering reply?� Dirty Air Something in the vein of the cities on the plain containing decades knitted into single thought before your empty hearse contributed a verse it drove in figure 8’s of endless parking lots our songs stood idly by as they raised the ridge beam high and once the recompense of senses had begun your maladjusted eyes shouted out “anaesthetized castration en masse, anyone?� ce n’est pas une chanson sur une peinture d’une pipe [don’t you think it’s time?] Something in the vein, a blockage in the brain and if it’s all the same I’ll graciously decline that dread night you heard I heard you came with tender words and all the proper paperwork to sign Now when his ghost comes in to finally rest its phantom limbs and I again begin to fill your flask with tea: “you think you’ve spent your years in search of something real? but you would’ve failed the same, child, if you were me.� ce n’est pas une chanson sur une peinture d'une pipe ce n’est pas une chanson sur une peinture d'une pédophile ce n’est pas une chanson sur une peinture d'une pipe [don’t you think it’s time to take your fangs out of my mind?] Cities of the Plain PHARAOH SONG: is there a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul and make the wounded whole? Thirty sons’ thirty towns’ mournful sounds formed beneath the sword and crown--- caught up in the green screen clouds FIREY RAIN: brimstone came pouring down on the cities of the plain came down? on children of the same came down? But Mary, don’t cry please don’t you cry Mary, please don’t you cry BRIDE [adorned in garments of salvation, torn]: A promise to an air sign born on the cusp of Capricorn? DAUGHTERS (of Jerusalem): Arouse, ye love! SONS (overusing sounds like “love� w/ its permission or an emphatic absence thereof): Harvest past, summer’s end, if we still are not saved, was I not sufficiently ashamed? neither did I blush save to speak your name? SERAPHIM & CHERUBIM: [serving Arab wine from Hebrew skins in whose anger you’ll find no sin]: Now’s as dreadful a time as any to begin But Mary, don’t cry, please don’t you cry Mary, please don’t you cry. Existential Dread, Six Hours' Time Nexus-6 Replicants aligned existential dread, six hours’ time preconscious insect, red glowing eyes. I gladly would’ve let you fall, wouldn’t drag my conscience down at all, halfway integrated circuits paltry as we are, are we never gonna be the same? From what the rest of us could tell dad tried his best but finally fell apart at just my age. August 6th Aug. 6th, carved in desks with old knives: “Back when our common cause was alive, and--let’s say--the hyacinth fields were in bloom, children watched as the soldiers marched by, all the birds fell like frogs from the sky, prostrate in the streets every crescent moon, lonesome offspring of which still resound with the victimless sins of their authors passed down and the remnants of loathsome, disjointed worlds along the short path round the lily pad pond with off-white deerskin wedding dress on, German songs, homemade bonnets like old-order Amish girls jilted by squirrels in the parks of Sioux Falls haunted by church bells like ghosts of applause and the earth deep down tire-stacked walls like New Mexico, peaceful as moth-bitten pincushion dolls making up myths about wounds without cause...� and sometimes when it’s quiet my heart feels like Guernica. [scenes from old air raid] on screens in blue dusk perfumed neighborhoods/graveyards the breath feels like flies in my lungs, voice like ambulance sirens whose light floods the ground (“praying mantis spreads arms� said the lines of whose palm?) skyline shifting like clouds became “airplane descends� [fade to scenes on the ground] human foreheads all smashed, foreign cars upside down, insect mouths open wide I stared down a huge insect bright red-glowing eyes, [does it feel wrong to say a thought “metastasized�?] legs on both highway sides, s a i d i n s e c t w a s m e c h a n i z e d ! ! ! ! ! ! Kristy w/ the Sparkling Teeth Brand new bright lights of Arco, Idaho go dim One delusion runs its course, its companion thereupon begins Old ghost white face of impatience wearing thin, casting quiet curses as of course they came back round again in spite of wonders, disbelief We spent our nights climbing towers built on songs from the obsolete inscriptions of the sons of Babylon Were you not carved among the hunters and their king w/ their chests adorned in necklace & their arms like falcon wings? were you not forged in grief, avenging lions in the alabaster bas-relief? Kristy with the Sparkling Teeth!
The only thing I remember them saying is that there was one track that had this heavy trippy vibe, but I can't remember anything that's been said about the record as a whole. I'd be kinda into it though if they put all the easy listening on the EP and the LP was just 12 rippers
10-03 Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere 10-04 Boston, MA @ The Sinclair 10-05 Pawtucket, RI @ The Met 10-06 Ottawa, ON @ Babylon 10-07 Toronto, ON @ The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern 10-08 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place 10-09 Columbus, OH @ Skully’s 10-10 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Small’s 10-31 Grand Rapids, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme 11-01 St Paul, MN @ Turf Club 11-03 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater 11-04 Salt Lake City @ Metro Music Hall 11-06 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom 11-07 Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile 11-10 San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Shop 11-12 Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom 11-13 Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom 11-15 Austin, TX @ Mohawk 11-16 Dallas, TX @ The Curtain Club 11-17 Memphis, TN @ Hi-Tone Cafe 11-19 Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge 11-28 Akron, OH @ Musica 11-29 Indianapolis, IN @ The HiFi 11-30 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall 12-01 Lexington, KY @ The Burl 12-02 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Hell) 12-4 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar 12-05 Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of the Living Arts
This is maybe the most perplexing and interesting thing they’ve released — it’s a lot looser than anything else they’ve done, and Aaron is almost singing straight-up hooks. I fucking love it. ‘Dirty Air’ is such a jam.
Press release stolen from Reddit "Since their formation in 2001, mewithoutYou have become a standard-bearer for their genre (whatever genre that may be). Across six full-length albums and a handful of EPs, the Philadelphia band—alternately labeled experimental punk, post-hardcore, indie rock, etc.—have long put a premium on progression, never anchoring themselves to a single sound and instead gracefully wandering across stylistic lines. It’s that same spirit that informed the band’s upcoming seventh album [Untitled], their second for Run For Cover Records, as well as its accompanying EP [untitled]. “It’s a perennial question within the band of how far to push out into the unknown,” says vocalist Aaron Weiss. “Of course it's nice to do something new, but to what extent, and to what end?” For [Untitled] novelty came naturally. Weiss had become a husband and father and relocated to Idaho, where a makeshift home studio rig and MIDI keyboard facilitated lo-fi, synthetic experimentation. Meanwhile in Philadelphia, guitarists Mike Weiss (Aaron’s brother) and Brandon Beaver stockpiled ideas ahead of the recording session with producer Will Yip. And the addition of Dominic Angelella—who took up bass duties while Greg Jehanian was on sabbatical (he’s since returned to the band)—gave drummer Rickie Mazzotta the chance to spread out and explore a new sonic palette. The result is two works of tragicomic beauty, the likes of which only mewithoutYou could create. What begat this wealth of material was not just the band’s distance, which allowed its members to write freely, but personal and social matters that forced Weiss to explore himself in a more granular way. “I thought I was going to write a record about the 'rising political tide,' but that didn’t happen,” he says. Relational turmoil, including certain tensions within the band, were a more immediate catalyst for creativity, as outside forces pushed Weiss to look inward and focus on the things he could change about himself. “Whenever I pointed a finger 'out there,' I tried to pull it back and ask, ‘What does this say about me that I'm having this reaction?’” There was no shortage of material in this self-examination, as Weiss hints at a prolonged, intensely bizarre psychological journey that accompanied the songwriting. When pressed for more detail, he's uncharacteristically guarded. "I'm usually pretty transparent about what inspired a given project, but that's not gonna work this time." The lyrics on [Untitled] are still deeply poetic, and the themes are familiar—e.g., mysticism, metamorphosis, mental illness—but, moreso than recent mewithoutYou albums, are built on Weiss’ lived experiences. He describes his attempts to "go into greater depths of whatever I am and face what's there—however petty, incoherent or humiliating—and emerge with some reason for hope, a reason for joy regardless. To have that be the takeaway, to stare down my deepest misery and sickness and then find a positive resolution, that’s at least part of what I'm going for.” It’s noticeable in tracks like “Julia,” “Flee, Thou Matadors!," and "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore," as mewithoutYou transmute their most primal urges and "non-drug-induced hallucinations" into expansive, all-consuming compositions that feel outright celebratory by the end. While Weiss may appear to be at the center of the journey on [Untitled] and [untitled], his bandmates trace similar paths forward. Beaver and Mike Weiss craft rich, intricate guitar melodies and psychedelic panoramas that quake deep inside the listener's chest, while songs like “Wendy & Betsy," "Cities of the Plain," and “Winter Solstice” find the band at its most chaotic, meditative, and pop-oriented, respectively. This expansiveness can likewise be felt in the rhythm section, as Angelella and Mazzotta guide the albums through a dizzying array of landscapes, anchoring the explosive moments and giving the ambient sections a propulsive heft. With [Untitled] and [untitled], mewithoutYou have created a body of work that is heartbreaking, surreal, and downright revelatory, but still mighty fun. Its scope can be detected in the music as well as Weiss’ words, as he solemnly plumbs the depths of his soul without losing a certain lighthearted optimism. “I guess I need to hit rock bottom and experience some kind of quasi-trauma. It tends to sharpen my senses and strip away what's superfluous and leave me with a more bare bones, crystalline understanding of where I’m at,” he explains. "It also helps my otherwise impoverished sense of humor. After all, it's a pretty silly thing we're doing." Their finest work to date, [Untitled] and [untitled] secure the band's position as a pacesetter in the world of thoughtful, aggressive music. "