Since they released their amazing 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons in 2008, the members of Montreal post-rock group Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra have been busy with various projects, including their second collaboration and tour with Vic Chesnutt. Now, the band have regrouped with three less members, dropped the "Tra-La-La Band" from their ever-changing moniker, and prepared a new album for the start of 2010.
Titled Kollaps Tradixionales, the album is the band's first with front-man Efrim Menuck as sole guitarist. According to a press release, however, the shrunken band "has lost none of its raw and frazzled anthemic power and continues to forge bold new ground in its search for a unique hybrid of punk, blues, psych, folk and modern orchestral idioms."
The press release continues, describing the album's subject matter. "As the lyrics to 'There Is A Light' attest, these are no simple paeans to the human spirit, but songs of complex, desperate and thorny hope. The words to this song (and so many others too often poorly understood in the SMZ canon) should at least give the lie to the oft-repeated charge that Menuck is some sort of miserablist or glib pessimist. This time around, they are also legibly printed for all to see and read in the accompanying insert. "
In typical Constellation fashion, the label will release the album in a flurry of beautiful packaging. The CD, if you still buy those, will come in a gatefold, paperboard jacket. More importantly, the vinyl will be available as a double ten-inch that includes a copy of the CD, a 16-page art book with found collages made by Menuck and filmmaker/photographer Jem Cohen, and a limited edition poster.
Kollaps Tradixionales will be available on February 16 in North America, and February 8 in Europe.
Kollaps Tradixionales:
1. "There Is A Light"
2. "I Built Myself A Metal Bird"
3. "I Fed My Metal Bird The Wings Of Other Metal Birds"
4. "Kollapz Tradixional (Thee Olde Dirty Flag) "
5. "Collapse Traditional (For Darling) "
6. "Kollaps Tradicional (Bury 3 Dynamos) "
7. "'Piphany Rambler"
Titled Kollaps Tradixionales, the album is the band's first with front-man Efrim Menuck as sole guitarist. According to a press release, however, the shrunken band "has lost none of its raw and frazzled anthemic power and continues to forge bold new ground in its search for a unique hybrid of punk, blues, psych, folk and modern orchestral idioms."
The press release continues, describing the album's subject matter. "As the lyrics to 'There Is A Light' attest, these are no simple paeans to the human spirit, but songs of complex, desperate and thorny hope. The words to this song (and so many others too often poorly understood in the SMZ canon) should at least give the lie to the oft-repeated charge that Menuck is some sort of miserablist or glib pessimist. This time around, they are also legibly printed for all to see and read in the accompanying insert. "
In typical Constellation fashion, the label will release the album in a flurry of beautiful packaging. The CD, if you still buy those, will come in a gatefold, paperboard jacket. More importantly, the vinyl will be available as a double ten-inch that includes a copy of the CD, a 16-page art book with found collages made by Menuck and filmmaker/photographer Jem Cohen, and a limited edition poster.
Kollaps Tradixionales will be available on February 16 in North America, and February 8 in Europe.
Kollaps Tradixionales:
1. "There Is A Light"
2. "I Built Myself A Metal Bird"
3. "I Fed My Metal Bird The Wings Of Other Metal Birds"
4. "Kollapz Tradixional (Thee Olde Dirty Flag) "
5. "Collapse Traditional (For Darling) "
6. "Kollaps Tradicional (Bury 3 Dynamos) "
7. "'Piphany Rambler"
