out October 25th on Fire Records
Inaccurately yet affectionately dubbed the Godfather of Alt. Country by the British press, Tucson, Arizona-based musician Howe Gelb has remained the sole epicenter and creative force behind the ever-fluid configurations of Giant Sand for over a quarter century. 2010 marks the 25th anniversary of the bands 1985 debut long player “Valley Of Rain” - the point in which Howes music visions began - and will see the release of the complete works of Giant Sand, Howe Gelb, Arizona Amp and The Bands Of Blacky Ranchette – a collection of works that maintains its own genre-defying singularity drawing on the not-so disparate threads of his south western roots, lo-fi, country, jazz, and punk ... “Giant Sand is a mood," explained Howe, as if to simplify the dizzying breadth of his prolific output as an artist.
2010 will also welcome the release of the new Giant Sand record Blurry Blue Mountain – the follow up to the bands critically acclaimed 2008 album ProVisions
“These recordings were done in the space between the waking world and the sleeping one. there exists a point there with a broad landscape that has seldom been loitered in. as with every previous album, none of this was planned. every record has its own atmosphere. for me they are always a new place to live in and spend some time before moving on. On this album, it happened that every session we were able to record came between work loads that rendered us at that point of sleeping and waking. like the poppy fields in wizard of oz, we went in and out of consciousness at various times during recording. This is not a bad thing. nor does it make the record sound like we’re asleep. it has the momentum of that place between sleep and being awake. and in that narrow slip of existence lies a landscape of reason that most of us hurry past in daily lives. this record is planted firmly there”
“Between the crystal clear focus of your day to day and the luxury of sweet fuzzy sleep, we welcome you to the blurry blue mountain”. - Howe Gelb
Tracklisting:
1. Fields Of Green
2. Chunk Of Coal
3. The Last One
4. Monk's Mountain
5. Spell Bound
6. Ride The Rail
7. Lucky Star Love
8. Thin Line Man
9. No Tellin'
10. Brand New Swamp Thing
11. Erosion
12. Time Flies
13. Better Man Than Me
14. Love A Loser
There'll be a feature on Giant Sand in a forthcoming issue of Bucketfull. I had a long chat with him when he was over in July for the Barbican show. Aside from this new record there's a massive reissue programme taking place over the next year and a half - more info here
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