So apparently, The Cure just released a new album. No, I haven’t listened to it but I did hear the first single, “A Fragile Thing” and it is good. I haven’t wrapped myself around it yet, probably because I don’t have any tears left. The song is what you might expect from Robert Smith; melancholic, and catchy, with memorable melodies and signature Cure-like guitars. But also, last minute last night I did see an email last night of a new album by Chicago emcee Psalm One. If you listen to anything today, it should be Is This A Safe Space? (Filthē Analects Record Company) with Optiks.

Now, as far as cover records go, I’m RARELY a fan of them. Who wants to hear another cover of a Cure song? With that said, this one is different. It’s more of an artist-covering-artist type deal on this split release. Hot Water Music and Quicksand got together and thought it was a clever idea to cover one another’s songs. If it were anyone else I would say never release it but hey, it’s HWM and Quicksand.  The Split EP (Equal Vision Records) is pretty unique as each artist group makes the other’s songs their own. We recognize the tracks but the delivery, and the reworking of tracks are again, quite unique. HWM starts it off with the band’s popular “Fazer. It’s wild to hear Chuck Ragan sing over an underground classic while keeping the music as memorable as the original. Quicksand takes on the band’s “Free Radio Gainesville” and initially I didn’t think it was going to go their way but they follow the blueprint although there’s an underlying groove it sounds like they toss in. Yeah, we can all appreciate it. Quicksand rounds it all out with its new “Supercollider” which is what we all expect of the band: a sinisterly loud groove, tons of melody, and over-the-top guitars. HWM closes it out with “Undertow” an outtake from the Vows recording sessions that hadn’t been heard before. Ok, The Split EP, is well worth it.

MOUNT EERIE – NIGHT PALACE

Some things are hard to believe sometimes but the fact that Mount Eerie has just released its eleventh long-player is pretty astounding. If you need a little more context, just know multi-instrumentalist Phil Elverum was once a part of the Olympia, Washington The Microphones, which also featured Calvin Johnson (Beat Happening) and Karl Blau, but it’s Elverum and his Mount Eerie we’re here for.

Now with Night Palace, moving almost 20 years since releasing its first album, No Flashlight: Songs Of The Fulfilled Night, through Mount Eerie Elverum continues to prove himself as an accomplished songwriter. Through experimentation at times, Mount Eerie engages in utilizing noise surrounding pop sound sculptures. The opening title track finds melody through the electronic mess surrounding Elverum’s voice, which is barely audible aside from the melody he releases from his words. The bass is tied together with the melodic chaos that encircles it all. Sometimes you just don’t want it to end but if it didn’t you wouldn’t get what would come next. “Huge Fire” is a pop song with indie rock aestheticism. When those chiming guitar strum washes come in, they hit just right as the underscored rhythm entices thoroughly before the distorted keyboards take hold again. THIS is what you won’t want to end. But it does, and things do get somewhat eerie on the sonic sculpture that is “Breaths.” Here Elverum chops his way through the song as if conducting an orchestra filled with percussion but when he sings, it breaks the track up and we do find a song within the chaos. It’s as if it’s a track within another track. Odd but intriguing. Interesting in fact. As the tracks move along, Mount Eerie fills the album with minute-long interludes(?) and songs like the noisy “Swallowed Alive” and its delicate pop counterpart “My Canopy.” By the time the album moves to the halfway point, reality hits that Night Palace holds 26 songs! It doesn’t make any difference simply because the album is intriguing and there’s a plethora of ideas and sonics to explore.

The sparse “I Walk,” light on instrumentation is carried on a light breeze of percussion and guitars while the minute and a half “Empty Paper Towel Roll,” rocks with a ferocious delicacy that could be a pop-rock classic. The rhythm hypnotizes, its melody captivates, and Elverum’s voice is inviting. It’s in and out and much too brief. One thing about Mount Eerie though is the ability to create beautiful songs with interesting instrument work. “Myths Come True,” has a beautiful pop melody held together by piano, a noisy melody, and Elverum’s spoken word delivery. Its brief dynamic change is unexpected but intriguing again. If anything can be said about Mount Eerie, it’s that no two songs are ever alike. Elverum’s talent seems boundless as “Stone Woman Gives Birth To A Child At Night” is testament to that fact. His vocal delivery & subject matter blend seamlessly with the scattered instruments throughout and create beautiful melodies across an interesting backdrop.

There are moments when we don’t know which direction Night Palace is heading into, but that’s ok because whether it’s noise/pop, experimental, pop, or rock, all the songs here are intertwined and cannot be separated. They all gel together with one another. Mount Eerie is probably one of the greatest bands you’ve never heard of but for some reason, I think Phil Elverum might be fine with that. As music listeners, we shouldn’t be, and tout him as one of the best of the best of the best.

VOLUME – JOY OF NAVIGATION (A TRIP THROUGH THE ETERNAL UNKNOWN)

Touting members of Fu Manchu, Monster Magnet, and Nebula, I think it’s pretty easy to deduce what kind of world the band VOLUME lives in. Ok, it’s never cool to make assumptions but this one here is teething with them. It’s literally slapping us all in the face so there’s really no reason why we should avoid talking about it. Yeah, desert or stoner rock is the fine line the band treads. Let’s just focus on what’s at hand here.

VOLUME just released its Joy Of Navigation (A Trip Through The Eternal Unknown), which holds five songs and clocks in at about a half-hour long. Eh, to me, that’s a full-length album and on this recording, the band embraces what it is fully. Through the title track, the band’s approach is direct and in-your-face with psychedelic over-the-top guitar work and one hypnotic rhythm with singer Patrick Brink (ex-Fu Manchu) spewing his words in an almost spoken manner, but works to the band’s benefit. But it looks to be Brink’s M.O. here, blending spoken deliveries with howls as the band blasts through the lengthy “Mercury Pull,” clocking in at just over 9 minutes. There’s a barrage of guitars and drums before it dissipates and we encounter trippy guitar interplay that’s never daunting or repetitious. It drifts and lingers with dynamic changes every so often as Brink sings “Gonna creep into you, make my pain your pain/think that you can help me? Why don’t you help me? Can’t have it, can’t have it. Never will!” He reckons with an angry annoyance as his echoey voice drifts off.

There isn’t any apology for who the band is or what it does. For “Heavy Sunshine,” the band moves at a frenetic pace, through its singular rhythm, just one sonic punch delivered with heavy hands and force. By this point, we get a clear idea of who the band is. The band seems to confuse with “The Golden Age” which moves in a different direction altogether. Comparisons are cheap but sometimes necessary and here the group’s sound seems to take an approach that’s reminiscent of J. Mascis’ guitar play, which leads into Dinosaur Jr. and to a lesser extent, Sweet Apple. It’s not a bad track but diverges from what VOLUME has created so far. It’s back to business after that with the 8-minute long “Spacebaby,” with larger-than-life fuzzed-out guitars, echoing 70s dark metal clashing with mountains & dusty trails in outer space. If there was ever a way to close out a release, this is it.

If you think VOLUME suffers from an identity crisis, think again. The band plays in the backyards of others but always returns back to its own with Joy Of Navigation (A Trip Through The Eternal Unknown). It’s a heavy challenge that you might be willing to take again and again.