The Music Tapes release Purim's Shadows (The Dark Tours the World) EP!

I love The Music Tapes. Period. Seeing them live and interviewing them was pretty much how this blog came to be. Their records spin endlessly in my room, and their performance as part of the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour was one of my musical high points of the year. They are wonderful, and the only thing I wished from the band was that they would release more music, seeing as they have only released two albums in eleven years.

Thankfully, all my wishing has payed off in the form of Purim's Shadows (The Dark Tours the World). A digital EP, it is a collection of songs that have been floating around along with new ones to tide people over until the brand new Music Tapes records start pouring in later this year. However (and this is a big "however"), don't even think about writing this EP as a something to download and listen to haphazardly.

"So Long the Day" opens the release, possibly The Music Tapes catchiest song to date, which is such a paradox to describe a Music Tapes song. Julian Koster's falsetto rises and falls over acoustic guitar sounding banjo lines before cumulating with joyous horn blaring and subtle bells ringing as the song fades. The trapped-in-the-past sounding lo-fi sounds that make up part of the essence of The Music Tapes' sound is reinstated in songs like "A Lighting's Cheeks (Everything Gets Born Here" and "Night and Day", with sad organ keys and weeping singing songs persisting throughout. It ends with "Nantasket", a slightly epic (at least for the band) 6 minute song that captures the same sublime feelings that were created in "Song for Oceans Falling", the center piece of their album Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes.

It's a short, but sweet release that I'm happy actually happened with the band's track record for actually releasing material. Best of all, as part of The Music Tapes standard procedure of including some type of goodie with their releases, the "physical" release of this EP comes with a Music Tapes kazoo! Yes, I know that sounds very dorky, but it is equally awesome and I can't wait to play it whenever I'm listening to the band.

Links:

The Music Tapes' Website
Stream/buy/download Purim's Shadows (The Dark Tours The World) here, from Merge