Straight out of Detroit rock city, The Silent Years are proud to announce the upcoming release of their forthcoming album The Globe, set for release on August 12th. The Silent Years will also be playing a handful of select dates across the country, starting with their New York gig at The Williamsburg Music Hall on May 16th.
The band has been in the studio throughout the harsh Detroit winter of 2007, making the final touches on The Globe with none other than Chris Coady (!!!, TV On The Radio, Grizzly Bear, Architecture in Helsinki, Blonde Redhead) on their forthcoming album due out August 12th 2008. Critically acclaimed by the press and having been compared to and equally inspired by, artists such as Elliot Smith, Tim Buckley, Flaming Lips and Sunny Day Real Estate; they combine simple and sweet melodies with sharp and powerful bursts of emotion via instrument and vox; leaving even the most stoic of listeners with goose bumps and a smile.
Allow yourself to be taken into the weird and wondrous world created by The Silent Years, a very special band indeed.
The Globe is a collection of songs which reflect on humanity and the human experience itself. Through varying tales which shift focus from the minute (On Our Way Home) to the abstract (The Axiom) and gradually expand to the universal (The Sun Is Alive). Some tales are told through metaphor (World's Worst Birthday Gift) and others are told through personification (Magic Ropes). The most fascinating part about writing this record came late in the process when the band realized they had approached all of the songs from a very set point of view--but that point of view was intentionally shifting--the songs are more open to interpretation and actually work as a whole in many various contexts. For example, "Magic Ropes" is a song about transience: "There are no magic ropes to keep you here, my dear...Everything moves faster than you'd think". “We realized that if taken out of context, one might read these lines as being about lost love. But the beauty of the universe is that lost love is the same as loss of environment, or loss of memory” says Josh Epstein, the bands lead man and main songwriter.
The Globe was chosen as the title because it serves as a very perfect symbol of scale being an integral part of our definitions of self and reality.
The Globe Out Into The Wild On Our Way Home Climb On My Back Black Hole Ropes The Sun Is Alive Goddamn You! The Worlds Worst Birthday Gift Aging Gracefully The Axiom Pay It Back Open Up Your Eyes
“…astute pop craftsmen who should have enough tricks up their sleeves to last beyond a group's initial burst of creativity.” - Pitchfork - 7.3
"Underground Artist of the Year 2007" - Spin Magazine
"Band of the Year - 2008!" - Real Detroit Weekly
"Vocal harmonies punctuate cascading melodic hooks. Intertwining inspirations from Wilco, Radiohead and Elliott Smith, the band crafts a sound that is scientific, yet artful." - Detroit Free Press
Here is an MP3 for their new tune "Black Hole". It's kind of a foot-tapping slightly-twee sound. There are all sorts of neat little percussion elements that come and go (including, I believe, the sound of paper ripping).
( MP3: http://h.zeitbyte.com/o1/cornerstone...black_hole.mp3)
If you want to check out the band a bit further, here is a video for a song off their last album. It's for "Someone to Keep Us Warm", which, if I could only use two terms to describe the video, they would certainly be Paper-Cutouts and Adventure.
( Video:
In 2004, The Silent Years were founded and released their first EP “Stand Still like a Hummingbird”. Straight out of Detroit, Rock City! and heavily influenced by Elliot Smith, Jeff Buckley, Flaming Lips and Sunny Day Real Estate, The Silent Years are a real DIY having created all of their own artwork, website; even hand made their stunning debut video clip for “Someone To Keep Us Warm” for their self-titled full length debut album in 2006.
After touring heavily in the UK and the US playing dates with “The Akron Family,” “The Kooks, “Aqueduct,” “Motion City Soundtrack,” “The French Kicks” and Someone Still Loves you Boris Yeltsin,” vocalist Josh Epstein enlisted the help of keyboardist and violinist Cassandra Verras, drummer Ryan Clancy and bassist Michael Majewski formerly of the acclaimed Detroit band Rescue to help round out their sound. They headed back to their studio to self-record their sophomore album, “The Globe” in which they combined simple and sweet melodies with sharp and powerful bursts of emotion via instrument and vox. Adding to the intrigue are the multiple tempo changes and playful dynamics that are delivered like an amusement park rollercoaster. Chris Coady who has previously worked with artists such as “TV on the Radio,” “Grizzly Bear,” “Architecture in Helsinki” and “Blonde Redhead” was invited to mix the album and add the last touch to the masterpiece.
Lead singer Josh Epstein describes the concept of album as the following:
“We were watching the film 'Powers of 10' which they used to show in middle school science classes. In the film, the camera starts out, framed on a couple having a picnic. Every 10 seconds, the field of view expands by a power of ten — the picnic becomes Chicago, Chicago becomes North America, and soon you’re seeing the Earth in the context of its solar system. This got us thinking about the similarities between mankind and all other components of the universe. An atom is to a cell, as a cell is to a man, as man is to the Earth, as the Earth is to the universe, etc.”
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The Silent Years - new album!
