- Release Info -------------------------------------------------------------- -
Artist: The Kingsbury Manx
Album: Ascenseur Ouvert!
Label: Odessa
Playtime: 44:39 min
Genre: Indie
URL:
Rip date: 2009-04-11
Street date: 2009-04-21
Size: 60.30 MB
Type: Advance
Quality: 177 kbps / 4410kHz / Joint Stereo
- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------- -
It has been four long years since we last heard from The Kingsbury Manx. But
if the strength of this new batch of songs is any indication, it has been
well worth the wait.
At the end of 2005, things were good in Manxville. The four North Carolina
lads made the jump to a larger label (Yep Roc) for the release The Fast Rise
and Fall of The South. The record was produced by Wilco keyboard player, Mike
Jorgensen. The press was good, and a short stint on the road with Wilco and a
full US tour with then label mates The Standard followed.
The dust settled, and things started to change. Marriages happened. Houses
were bought. Children were born, and for the first time, there was a second
generation of lilÆ Manxers crawling around. Priorities shiftedùor did they?
A funny thing happened. Main songwriters Bill Taylor and Ryan Richardson
wrote more prolifically then ever. The Manx muse kept busy. Before long, the
band re-convened and began playing again, working out the new material. But
this time, rather than book a straight week in an out of town studio, the
boys re-visited the site of their original genesis and started booking the
odd day or weekend at Duck Kee.
The return to Duck Kee in late 2006 felt like home all over again. Over the
course of the next year and a half, 14 brand new songs were recorded. These
songs are unmistakably the same band that started recording at Duck Kee back
in 1999, but Ascenseur Ouvert! is no mere re-treading of old territory. Their
sound has expanded, shifted, and moved into regions hitherto unexpected.
From the upbeat Brill-pop of Over the Oeuvre to the spidery guitar hooks that
punctuate the shuffle of Well, Whatever to the somber chamber-creepiness of
Minos Maze, this is an al-bum of pleasant surprises. Fans of the vocal
harmonies will be smiling ear to ear upon hear-ing the six part vocal rondo
in the coda of Indian Isle.
Ascenseur Ouvert! is broken French for Elevator Open! and is meant as a
command. The Manx are too slow moving a band for the stairway, so they have
bypassed it for the elevator. Up! To where? To inspiration, to newness. To
take a hold of oneÆs own destiny and realize that victory is not in sound
scans or opening up for Coldplay but in a babyÆs first step or the pleasure
of fixing a leaking sink in your own house. The relief of getting off work at
midnight and running into an old friend. Of still being tuned in to the
celestial radio station and giving its harmonies form.
ôThe sky wonÆt yield / inches for the fieldö sings Taylor in the beautifully
literary Well, what-ever. And itÆs okay. The tapestry of life is rich, and
the Kingsbury Manx knowing their place in it, have new resolve never to
forget what was always important in the first place.
- Track List ---------------------------------------------------------------- -
01. Walk On Water ( 3:01)
02. Over The Oeuvre ( 3:31)
03. Black & Tan ( 1:46)
04. Well, Whatever ( 3:11)
05. If You're On The Mend, I'm On The Move ( 2:55)
06. Crest ( 4:22)
07. These Three Things ( 4:57)
08. Minos Maze ( 3:15)
09. Galloping Ghosts ( 3:02)
10. Clean Break ( 3:30)
11. Shoulder Stories ( 2:45)
12. The Whip & The World ( 2:20)
13. Indian Isle ( 4:12)
14. George Closing ( 1:52)
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