Posted on: June 26, 2012 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

A Lull‘s Meat Mountain EP, the latest from the Chicago-based 5-some consisting of Nigel Evan Dennis, Todd Miller, Mike Brown, Ashwin Deepankar, and Aaron Vincel, is out tomorrow, June 26th on Lujo Records. The new release is a demonstration of a band that is always changing, trying to evolve from what it was, into something exciting and new signifiying a freshness, as well as growth and maturity.  Meat Mountain can be heard in its entirety, streaming in full via the Meat Mountain streaming player made by the band themselves, with the single “Summer Dress,” available for download and stream here.  In addition to playing Pitchfork Music Festival on Sunday, July 15th, on a day that also includes Vampire Weekend, The Field, Beach House, Oneohtrix Point Never, and many more, A Lull will be playing the Pitchfork After Party on July 15th in Chicago as well, at Schubas along with Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Dirty Beaches. They’ll stay busy beyond that into July as well, with a group of tour dates with Maps & Atlases recently announced. See below for the full list of dates.

During the recording of Meat Mountain, the quintet sought to achieve more by using less. While previous recordings often relied on creating “walls of sound,” Meat Mountain employs open space as an instrument as well.  Most of the core instrumentation was written live, recording demos, rehashing and rebuilding. The band continued to diversify its sound by discovering synth tones that seemed to almost feel like throwback sounds, but new all the same. There was more experimentation with elements such as saxophone solos, flute riffs and even cymbals into the recordings for the first time. The resulting music has a distinctly sincere quality, and is more transparent than any of A Lull’s previous work.
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A Lull – Summer Tour Dates
7.15.12 Pitchfork Music Festival – Union Park / Chicago, IL**
7.15.12 Pitchfork After Party @ Schubas / Chicago, IL***
7.16.12 Mickey Finn’s Pub / Toledo, OH*
7.17.12 Horseshoe Tavern / Toronto, ON*
7.18.12 The Loft @ Harem / Lansing, MI*
7.20.12 The Cactus Club / Milwaukee, WI*
7.25.12 Beachland Tavern / Cleveland, OH
7.26.12 Kung Fu Necktie / Philadelphia, PA
7.27.12 Pianos / New York, NY
7.28.12 DC9 / Washington, DC
7.29.12 Galaxy Hut / Arlington, VA
7.31.12 Brillobox / Pittsburgh, PA
8.1.12 Cafe Bourbon Street / Columbus, OH
8.2.12 MOTR Pub / Cincinnati, OH
8.3.12 Magic Stick Lounge / Detroit, MI
8.4.12 Founders Brewery / Grand Rapids, MI
* w/ Maps & Atlases
** w/ Vampire Weekend, The Field, Beach House, etc.
*** w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Dirty Beaches
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More info on A Lull:
After extensive touring throughout 2011 and early 2012 with bands such as Cold War Kids and Gauntlet Hair and the release of A Lull’s debut full length album, 2011’s Confetti on Mush Records, the band dedicated time in early 2012 to record five new songs. The Meat Mountain EP was written, recorded, produced & mixed by the band. Recorded in the unseasonably mild winter months of Chicago in 2012, some songs feel warm, while other songs tread into darker territory. Lyrically, the songs of Meat Mountain create pictures of scenes, fears, obsessions, love and longing.  And the album artwork?  That was created by scanning a chuck-eye cut of steak. The steak was then cooked to medium doneness and eaten. Utilizing illustrations by Bill Connors, the art matches the overall feeling and aesthetic of the EP: some things that are hopeful, some things that we are all scared of and some things that are a part of everyday life.  Released on single-sided LP, the package was meant to be seen in this scale.
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