Scripted Failures

So this is sort of week old news, but we’ll pretend like we’re on the cutting edge and this news just surfaced today.  Everyone play along okay?  So here it goes!  Mates of States new record, “Re-Arrange Us” is due out May 20th on Barsuk Records. (You realize this means that May is going to have three straight weeks of killer releases with Death Cab’s “Narrow Stairs” out on the 13th, the aforementioned Mates of State out on the 20th, and then Joy Electric’s “My Grandfather, the Cubist” out on the 27th.  All we need now is something rad to come out on May 6th to have a whole month of badass music!)  Things in parentheses aside here’s the scoop straight from the album page on the Barsuk website:

“Though conceived as a duo, Mates of State have never failed to generate a trademark wall of sound built on dozens of varied voicings of keys, drums, and alternately lushly-layered and playfully-dueling vocals. On re-arrange us they move beyond these boundaries (their traditional organ sound is a distant memory, replaced with organic piano and synth sounds) with additional instrumentation — not to mention a quantum leap in songcraft apparent on instantly indelible gems like now, jigsaw and get better. Throughout re-arrange us, Kori’s piano and the emergence of both Mates’ lead vocals from their trademark harmonizing signal the next stage of Mates of State’s evolution.”

Sounds like this is going to be another curve ball in a month of curve balls, considering the new Death Cab is supposed to be quite the “divisive” record, and the new Joy Electric is supposed to be their most minimalistic ever featuring the truest recordings of Ronnie’s voice ever.  It’s gonna be a good curve ball though, since Mates of State have yet to disappoint me.  Here’s the tracklist for all you crazy Mates kids, like me:

01. Get Better
02. Now
03. My Only Offer
04. The Re-Arranger
05. Jigsaw
06. Blue and Gold Print
07. Help Help
08. You are Free
09. Great Dane
10. Lullaby Haze

The Barsuk website promises mp3s up soon.  Sounds good to me!  And, if you didn’t know Kori has an awesome blog called “Band on the Diaper Run” on Babble.  It’s hilarious and heartwarming.  You should all read it.  As a last odd aside,”Help Help” was also the title of a killer song, written by bassist Jeff Ament, on the Pearl Jam album “Riot Act”.

As you may have heard by now, Death Cab for Cutie recently announced that their new album will be released this May.  This is in addition to Chris Walla’s solo endeavor, Field Manual, which should be coming out later this month (the 29th: excited about that one as well).  Plans was a pretty big departure from Transatlanticism, but was equally, if not more, amazing, and I can’t wait to see where they go from here.  According to Walla, the record will be “polarizing.”  I either absolutely love or absolutely hate the sound of that.  Also, they recorded on analog tape, with little overdubbing.

I’ve enjoyed almost every project Ben Gibbard’s had a hand in, so I’m sure this is going to be a quality record, but what to expect?  If you want a first-hand preview, head on over to their website where they’ve put up some video footage of them in the studio.  You can hear part of one song from the new album.  It sounds pretty cool, but you don’t get to hear much before it ends.

Walla stated that a track called “The Ice Is Getting Thinner,” “just breaks [his] heart every time.”  I can’t wait.  There were several songs one could say  that about on Plans,
but the most intense one that comes to mind is “What Sarah Said.”  I
freakin’ love that song.  If they pull out another one that
heart-wrenching and with that kind of emotional intensity, I’ll be a
happy fan.  Nick Harmer said about the same track: “It’s a really pretty, electric
guitar song … it’s somber like … ‘Brothers on a Hotel Bed.’”  Sweet.

Other interesting quotations:

Harmer: “a sampling of the most uptempo, upbeat Death Cab songs as well as some of our saddest”

Walla: “really weird. It’s really, really good, I think, but it’s
totally a curve ball, and I think it’s gonna be a really polarizing
record. But I’m really excited about it. It’s really got some teeth.
The landscape of the thing is way, way more lunar than the urban meadow
sort of thing that has been happening for the last couple of records.”

Walla: “louder and more dissonant and … I think abrasive would be a good word to use.”

Other track names we know so far:

“Bixby Canyon Bridge” (a likely opener)
“I Will Possess Your Heart” (a nine-minute jam)
“Casino Blues” (previously one of Gibbard’s solo songs)

Supposedly, the album features David Bazan from Pedro the Lion and John Broderick of The Long Winters singing on “a couple of choruses.”

Incidentally, I’m also wondering if “Walking the Ghost” might make it onto this album.  If you don’t know (or forgot), “Walking the Ghost” was a politically-charged song written right after Bush’s re-election (and purportedly about it), and was originally slated for Plans, but it didn’t make it onto the album.  Here’s hoping it shows up on their as-of-yet-untitled May release.  I actually made it to the Ashville, NC show on the Tour for Change when Death Cab open for Pearl Jam back in 2004.  That was a great show.  Here’s hoping they tour closer to home after the album’s release this year.

Read more about it from Billboard.com’s article.