The Microphones News

The words "indie" and "lo-fi" may be the most bastardized in the rock 'n' roll lexicon, but you've got to hand it to Phil Elverum for keeping them truthful.

Scandinavian legend has it that in April of 1991, the lead singer of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem, who went by the name Dead, committed suicide in a remote cabin owned by the band outside Oslo.

Mount Eerie represents the latest evolution of Phil Elverum's musical vision. Formerly known as the Microphones, Phil changed his project's name to Mount Eerie.

Thick with reverb, swirling Rhodes piano and a chorus of distorted bells, Continental Divide 's Golden Throats is a shabby collection of five imperfect songs - which isn't meant as a slight.

Anacortes, Washington-based musician Phil Elverum has a strong sense of identity- although at first glance, this indie-rocker may not seem to have any clue where his music will take him next.

Why? frontman Yoni Wolf is one of the best lyricists in indie rock right now, a tongue-tying fast-talker who twists hiphop cadences and tightly-wound couplets to his own compellingly morbid, hyper-self-conscious ends .

"I am thinking of myself as a sound mirror to this continent and its many voices distributed throughout the earth." It's a ballsy statement for a white Pacific Northwesterner to make.

Lo-fi is a term that gets tossed around a lot these days. It seems like everyone is eager to grasp at the DIY authenticity implied by the label.

"It's essential to test mics in the real world. We learned a lot from this experiment." - Bruce Bartlett Engineers from Bartlett Microphones recently ran a live comparison between their TM-125 stage-floor microphone and the well-regarded PCC-160, a mic they designed several years ago for Crown.

A friend told me she likes Throw Me the Statue because they remind her of Guided by Voices.

Though it's tempting to assume that vocalist Julie Doiron was unearthed by Microphones/Mount Eerie mainman Phil Elverum -- in the manner of Vashti Bunyan and Devendra Banhart -- to put down vocal harmonies for last year's stellar Lost Wisdom album full of gorgeously mordant duets, the truth is that the former frontwoman for Eric's Trip could have ...

This is still the Mount Eeriephones, though, so don't go expecting an album of Dimmu Borgir covers.

This is still the Mount Eeriephones, though, so don't go expecting an album of Dimmu Borgir covers.

Phil Elverum is drawn to forces that are bigger than himself. Throughout his discography as Mount Eerie and The Microphones, death is often personified as an unconquerable mountain, while booming tympanis signal frenzied funeral marches and failed relationships serve as metaphors for mortality.

All Songs Considered , July 20, 2009 - They call themselves The Monsters Of Folk : Jim James, frontman for the band My Morning Jacket , Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes , and singer-guitarist M. Ward have joined together to form a kind of folk-rock dream team.

Last year Phil Elverum put out Lost Wisdom , a collaboration with Eric's Trip's Julie Doiron and Fred Squire, but the dark, multi-textured, black metal and folk-inflected Wind's Poem feels like the true heir to The Glow Pt.

When Phil Elverum released his awe inspiring Mount Eerie album, it felt a little like a black-metal record.

Jonathan Hape raised his right hand to high-five me. I had just pointed out that his new album, Carnivore , sounds like a high-fidelity version of the Microphones' The Glow, Pt.

"The PL80 has a very warm-sounding high end - you get all the top end you want without any shrillness." - Sean Peel, FOH Engineer With an original sound that is equal parts indie rock and hip-hop, duo Chester French has been on the fast track to fame ever since their first hit single "She Loves Everybody" debuted last November.

Also, one of my favorite local party bands, the Coconut Coolouts , play a show at the Sunset Tavern tonight with Dreamdate, So Cow , and Sandy City at 9 p.m. for $6 . Peaches, Drums of Death at Showbox at the Market, 8 p.m., $20, all ages Berlin-based electroclash artist Peaches was working the whole sans panties shtick light years before Lady GaGa ...