After months of annoying e-mails and shameless begging, multiple pitches and steady follow-ups, I finally agreed to interview Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie/The Microphones "fame." Blehhhh... Not like I don't have enough shit to do around TMT. Look, I don't care if he wrote "The Universe Is Shown" or "Antlers" -- shit, I don't even care if he wrote "November Train (Choo Choo Choo version)" -- I'm a busy guy! Do you know I edit practically everything on the site? Yep, that's right. I mean, just imagine how many e-mails I get daily in my seven inboxes. It's ridiculous. And guess what? So are the e-mails. Just this week, a writer (David Nadelle) said "Sorry this is written poorly. 'Twas in a rush. Fix it, please. Thanx..."? Fuck that noise. Hey, ever gotten a call from a publicist (Anna "Stupid Head" Bond, this time) saying "look, either you review their disc, or we ain't doing that $2,500 ad in July"? Didn't think so. BUT I HAVE.
Though, I'm not one to complain. In fact, there are good things about being editor-in-chief of possibly the most important, most culturally significant online magazine of all-time. I got an e-mail once from Ray Romano (dude from Everybody Loves Raymond) saying he loves when we cover DVDs and asked if we could write a review of ELR season 3 (best season, by far, IMO). And we recently hired one of the guys from The Strokes (can't remember which one). He can't write worth shit, but whatevs -- he looks great. My overall point is that being Mr P can be bittersweet.
I know what you're thinking. Oh P, tell me more please. I want to know more about you, you're amazing, great editor, blah blah blah. Visit my blog here; it's Mount Eerie time now! (Oh, forgot to mention that the whole TMT staff looks up to me, so...) Speaking via e-mail, Elverum says a hardcover, 132-page photo book, titled Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7, is being bound right now in Vancouver at the "best printer in North America on recycled paper and everything." No words, just photos, though the last page features a 10-inch picture disc of music, tracks "Mount Eerie Pt. 6" and "Mount Eerie Pt. 7." According to Elverum, the music is a vague continuation of the themes left off from The Microphones album Mount Eerie. "The songs are about 'the known world' of living in the house while the 'unknown world' (eerie mountain) is going on out the door. Comfort vs. learning, certainty vs. rich chaos, etc."
Elverum's also busy preparing a three-vinyl, two-CD reissue of The Glow Pt. II with K Records. "The vinyl was gone and the CDs were almost gone and all the packaging was gone, so we figured if we had to manufacture everything again, why not make a new version?" The new version will contain an extra record of "un-mixes" (e.g., vocals only), as well as demos, outtakes, and other "weird shit."
In other news, P.W. Elverum & Sun is also re-releasing a "20th Anniversary Platinum Series Digitally Remastered Double Gatefold Album" version of Thanksgiving's Welcome Nowhere (this album is GREAT, by the way). Look out for a DVD and new music eventually, too, and if any of you work at a "amazing periodical or literature distribution company" and want to carry Elverum's "weird booklets" or Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7, get in contact with Elverum.
Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7 and Thanksgiving's Welcome Nowhere are set for release July 19 at What the Heck Fest 2007. No date has been set for the The Glow Pt. II reissue. As for me? Well...
