December 8, 2006 | Posted by Blair at 3:45 PM

EITS-itus

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Explosions in the Sky - Welcome, Ghosts

The west-Texas foursome Explosions in the Sky aren't exactly a household name, but they are definitely a well known band in indie rock circles, and most of you probably know, or know of, them. Their name usually appears in sentences with things like "powerful" and "explosive" in front of the requisite "instrumental rock", and are referenced along side bands like Sigur Ros and Mogwai. Their first official album, 2001's Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever is simply awesome, as is the follow-up, 2003's The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place.

They are dedicated to the "indie" part of indie rock, staying with Brooklyn indie label Temporary Residence, avoiding Clear Channel and LiveNation venues for their concerts (and they are known for putting on some fierce live shows), and none of their songs are likely to end up on the radio, not only because there are no words in them (when is the last time you heard a non-classical or jazz instrumental song on the radio?), but because they can be super-long. Their music often gets called "cinematic" by critics, so it was quite a coup when they were asked to score the critically acclaimed Peter Berg film Friday Night Lights in 2004. Throughout this time, they've maintained quite a following, which will be all the more rabid when their newest full-length album, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, is released in February.

Like the first album, it is just six songs, but I will tell you it is a wonderful six songs. Just beautiful stuff, even when the band is roaring at full blast, making your hair stand on end (I cannot wait to see them play this stuff live, jesus!). The opening song is a real killer, and this song is track-2, followed by a thirteen-minute-plus epic, so you can imagine where things go (hint: skyward). All of a Sudden... doesn't come out for a while, so you'll have to satiate yourself with this tease of a song until then. When the album does drop, it will also be available as a limited-edition double-disc version that will include an entire album of remixes by Jesu, Adem, The Paper Chase, Mountains, Four Tet and Eluvium, and the first pressing of the vinyl version features an etching on the fourth side, and will be on colored vinyl (light yellow and navy blue to match the artwork), and will also include the bonus CD of remixes.

Wow. Sounds dreamy right? Visit their webpage for dates of the upcoming tour and more information on the band and their albums (their stories about the albums are all good, and the one about scoring FNL is worth reading for sure). Stay tuned - it will be worth the wait.

Comments

uhhm..can't seem to download. I'm getting a m4a.txt file. I'm I doing something wrong?

Posted by: ibeat at December 13, 2006 1:46 PM

ibeat - are you using Safari or another browser?
I found that Safari appends ".txt" to the end of .m4a files... if you remove the extension it should still open properly (in iTunes)

Posted by: robot Blair at December 13, 2006 2:37 PM
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