Elder

My time is winding down here across the Atlantic (I leave early tomorrow morning), and I hate packing more than anything, so I figured I'd procrastinate further by putting up something new. I took my final this morning (which I almost missed- long/horrendous story) and really have nothing to further help me idle away my time as I caught up on all the Project Runways I missed since winter break last year.

Given the fact that I watched nearly a whole season of Project Runway, it follows that I didn't really study too much for my exam. I figured it didn't matter too much as I did pretty well on the midterm for this classwhile using punk subculture as an anthropological example and comparing European and American hardcore scenes (I'm often determined to get away with using kind of ridiculous & unrelated examples). Anyway, when I actually do study, I often like to listen to kind of heavy stuff- doom, drone, sludge, and so forth.

Yesterday, while "reading" over some notes, I listened to a bunch of Elder. They were introduced to me some time early second semester by Alexandra when we were first coming up with possible acts for Record Hospital Fest. Out of Philadelphia, Elder features members of Towers (Craig) & Balboa (Armando & Drew).



On their myspace Elder describe themselves as "ambient/shoegaze/screamo." While this seems really odd, I would actually say it's a pretty accurate description. They take some of the more doom/metallic parts of Balboa and incorporate but sort of make it softer; I can't quite explain. The vocal combination of Armando and Craig really brings everything together.

Earlier this year they released a self-titled 10" on Forge Again Records. Only three tracks, but they're all really solid. "Golden Flower" starts things off pretty hard while "Shifting Gaze" is a nice transition to that more ambient-shoegazey post-rock (I really hate that term) feel. "Town of Clay" serves as a good combination of these techniques and a great end to an impressive EP.



Hopefully, they'll tour or we can get them up to Boston some time this year because I really would like to see them live. Elder don't have any dates coming up, but Towers are playing with Who Calls So Loud and Algernon Cadwallader in Brooklyn on the 27th and Balboa have a bunch of dates coming up.

Elder- self-titled
Buy it from Forge Again (you get a CD & a 10")

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I've been meaning to post this for a while- check out Delocator. It helps you where to find locally-owned coffee shops. While I don't drink coffee, I enjoy other beverages at such establishments and have been spending a lot of time at a cafe around the corner from where I've been living here.

And if you haven't discovered the magic that is google reader, do it.