Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart

http://www.exclaim.ca/images/up-black_mountain.jpg

Black Mountain will release their anticipated Wilderness Heart on September 14, courtesy of Outside Music in Canada and Jagjaguwar in the U.S. The album will see a UK release a day earlier.

Wilderness Heart was recorded in Los Angeles, Seattle and Vancouver, and was produced by both D. Sardy (Nine Inch Nails, LCD Soundsystem, Spoon) and Sunn O)))/Boris veteran Randall Dunn in equal measure. The cover, which is once again by Black Mountain synth master Jeremy Schmidt, and which we couldn’t possibly reduce to mere words, is visible above.

Wilderness Heart:

1. “The Hair Song”
2. “Old Fangs”
3. “Radiant Hearts”
4. “Rollercoaster”
5. “Let Spirits Ride”
6. “Buried by the Blues”
7. “The Way to Gone”
8. “Wilderness Heart”
9. “The Space of Your Mind”
10. “Sadie”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmbmOVunEcc

ooooohhh i like that cover.

we need more great-white-sharks on album covers imo.

w/ Daniel on this one, that cover is so cool

that's the kind of cover that's so awesome it makes me want to check out this record way more than I'd want to otherwise

you guys are funny.

well, i kind of like this group, anyway. they're from the non-angular, jittery side of the indie world, no? their sound reminds me of big arena acts of the 70s, and i have a nostalgic feel for that sound.

setting that aside, i still say all albums could use a great-white-shark on the cover. would have enhanced the cover of the new justin bieber disc, for example.

"non-angular, non-jittery," i meant to say.

I saw them on Thursday night. It was rad. Lot of new songs, they played about 5 that I didn't recognize, I assume from the new album.

and yeah, pretty sweet cover. The cover for 'In The Future' was so try-hard 70s stylee I kind of cringed. even though the album is awesome.

saw them open for nick cave last year and they were pretty awesome. i liked their debut, but in the future was such a step up. i'm very excited for this new record.

Tour dates:

6/23 Kamloops, BC - Pogue Mahone @
624 Calgary, AB - Republik @
6/25 Edmonton, AB - Starlite Room @
6/26 Saskatoon, SK - Amigo's @
6/27 Regina, SK - The Exchange @
6/28 Winnipeg, MB - The Garrick Centre @$
6/30 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon *
7/1 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall *
7/2 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick *
7/3 London, ON - Call the Office
7/9 Hultsfred, Sweden - Hultsfred Festival
7/10 Bruges, Belgium - Cactus Festival
7/11 Kinross-Shire, Scotland - T in the Park
7/13-14 London, England - The Lexington
7/16 Suffolk, England - Latitude Festival
7/17 Dour, Belgium - Dour Festival
7/18 Ferropolis, Germany - Melt Festival
7/23 Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern ^
7/24 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom ^
7/26 Des Moines, IA - Vaudeville Mews
7/27 Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room &
7/28 Denver, CO - The Bluebird Theater ~
7/30 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge ~
7/31 Boise, ID - Neurolux ~
826 Los Angeles, CA - Bootleg Theatre +
8/30 New York, NY - The Knitting Factory #
9/4 Oxford, England - O2 Academy 2
9/5 Birmingham, England - Hare and Hounds
9/10 Isle of Wight, England - Bestival
9/11 Dorset, England - End of the Road Festival
9/12 Leeds, England - TJ's Woodhouse Club
9/14 Glasgow, Scotland - Oran Mor
9/15 Manchester, England - Academy 3
9/16 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
9/17 Tilburg, Netherlands - Incubate Festival
9/18 Groningen, Netherlands - Take Root
10/7 London, England - O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

@ with Lord Beginner
$ with Sleepy Sun
* with David Vandervelde
^ with Quest for Fire
& with the Dodos
~ with Spindrift
+ with Lower Heaven
# with the War on Drugs

i liked their debut, but in the future was such a step up

I hate to be that guy but the new single and entire 2nd album don't do anything for me. But I loved their first record.

Heard the album, it's...okay? I can't see myself coming back to it, honestly.

Wow, that video is WAY more QOTSA than I remember them sounding. I only have the one with "Druganaut" on it, and it sounds way more... indie than that.

That album cover is what album covers should be

kornrulez otm. first album had a wit and swagger and pop to it absent from the second one. a lot of the charm on the debut seems to have been siphoned off into solo albums and side projects like pink mountaintops and so forth. here's hoping this new one has more catchy stoner humor like the debut and less self-consciously epic heaviness of the "bright lights" variety

songwriting & arrangements straight in line with previous mountains, but the production is way beefier. so less indie-sounding, but not all that different, really.

i basically like their stuff, always have, but it sometimes strikes me as a little too reverent, too careful. have the same problem with the black angels - great sound, but lacking some spark of wildness or distinctive personality. old fangs is promising, though. and yeah, the cover is awesome. liked the try-hard 70s one, too, though...

happy happy joy joy

so . . . it's good?

sounds heavy, great sign.

thanks for the heads up. that cover is awesome. on first listen, this is a lot better than in the future. the epics on that one didn't work for me, sounded forced, so for once i'm not disappointed there aren't songs longer than six minutes. it doesn't seem as one-dimensional, either, but more varied song to song -- "let spirits ride," "buried by the blues," and "the way to gone" is a great three jam sequence, each one totally different from the last. it's like they don't have as much to prove this time around, just have some good songs to offer. still miss the humor and the swagger of the debut though

i LOVE the last album but the single from this is soooooo bad.

the single is alright, don't think the whole album is in the same vain. i think this album is good and could turn out to be great. the harder songs rock with good groves and the slower songs work really well. i can see this album being one of my favorites for this year.

Not very good. Again.

"Again"? Crazy talk.

Lyrically, they've always been pretty bad ("Angel lay your halo down" anyone? Also, that song was crass attempt at writing a Tom Petty style hit)and the mashup of indie rock and 70's riffage has never sat well with me. Male vocals are too Vedderesque and the female vocals are like salt on a cut in the skin. Their sole saving grace has been the increased use of synths, because their synth guy seems to know his shit. Songs are just not there, I'm afraid.

dude you're crazy. the lyrics on the first album at least rule. the last song was one of the best (of the way too few) gulf war ii protest songs. "druganaut" is top-notch too

this album really sucks

"Rule" is a pretty hefty claim! Everything is better compared to "Angel" though.
"Druganaut" was a great novelty single, yes. So, as far as lyrics to a novelty song go...sure, they're pretty good.

hmmmmm

"old fangs" sounds EXACTLY like if Jon Lord from Deep Purple joined Queens of the Stone Age

overall, not digging this as much as the first two so far

thought this album sounded kinda grungey, or post-grungey, like Verbena or the Vines

it isn't very good

production is really "pro" in a bad way

produced by Dave Sardy, right?

In 2006, Sardy won six ARIA awards for his work with Jet; he also received three Grammy Awards (for OK GO, Wolfmother and Marilyn Manson) and multiple Brit Awards for Oasis, Marilyn Manson and Wolfmother.

sounds about right

hahaha yeah don't know but it has that sorta feel to it

after a couple listens today, disappointment of the year by a long stretch for me....love the shit out of the first two :(

The cover for 'In The Future' was so try-hard 70s stylee I kind of cringed. even though the album is awesome.

ha I'm kinda the opposite. loved the album cover but I just sold that record. couldn't get into it. the first one rocks though.

اشس شىغخىث اثقشي فاث ةخعىف ؤشقةثم قثؤخقي؟

(ahem) has anyone heard the mount carmel record

record store clerk told me to get it over this when i asked about itو siltbreeze iirc & theyve done good this year so far imo

great white sharks are cool.

scary, but cool.

tinymixtapes:

An unmistakable whiff . . . of butt-rock announces the arrival of Wilderness Heart

butt-rock?

it's a thing

So what is this BUTT ROCK, anyway?

yep crap.

Not crap exactly, I'd keep 4 or 5 tracks around, but definitely a HUGE downgrade from the last one.

aw, i love a lot of this disc, and couldn't get much into the last one.

i like wilderness heart. thats about it.