Des Ark just finished their third full length album, Everything Dies, with a host of collaborators and engineers including Andy Lemaster (Bright Eyes/Drive By Truckers), Jonathan Fuller (Engine Down/Denali), Brian Paulson (Wilco/Beck), Jordan Geiger (Shearwater/Hospital Ships), Taylor Holenbeck (The Appleseed Cast) and Thor Harris (Swans). Everything Dies will be released October 6 on Graveface Records.
Noisey premiered “Ties” from Everything Dies and said, “Des Ark, the musical alias of North Carolina’s own Aimée Collet Argote, has many faces. There’s solo Des Ark, which keeps things acoustic and personal on songs like “Peace to You, Motherf*cker.” From here, Argote gets herself across through hushed minimalism. Then there’s full band Des Ark, in which Argote is happy to show up your basement show and handily mop the floor with the bill of boring punk bands with her ferocity and no bullshit attitude. Over the years, the two sides have had an intertwining relationship, and “Ties,” the first song off of Des Ark’s third album, Everything Dies, perfectly flexes this duality of Argote. It’s a blend of both sides-some parts soft, some parts biting, all parts Des Ark.” Ties is now available to post and share via SoundCloud.
Over the past decade, Aimée Collet Argote has howled and jerked in sweaty houses and rock clubs, backed by a drummer, another drummer, yet another drummer and a second guitarist, and a small symphony. She’s brought big crowds to a whisper with nothing but her voice and a banjo or a tiny guitar that kept slipping out of tune. And though it perennially confuses the crap out of crowds expecting one thing & getting the other, she somehow manages to maintain these two separate Des Ark’s — different songs, utterly different audience experiences — and the dissonance & tension in turn somehow bind together in a brilliant display of songwriting. Everything Dies is the much anticipated follow up to 2011’s critically acclaimed Don’t Rock The Boat, Sink The F*cker. The Independent Weekly says, “it’s a fitting if tempered distillation of Des Ark’s two principal modes-as a hair-raising, pensive acoustic soloist and as a room-razing rock bandleader.”
Stream: “Ties” via Noisey or SoundCloud