Debut album provides an enlightening experience, full of atmospheric, electro-pop waves
and sonic exploration; premiered on PopMatters
For Fans Of: Ought, Mac Demarco, Palm, Future Islands, Talking Heads
SARANAC, NY | JUNE 1, 2018 – A refreshing wave of introspective reflection and sonic exploration, upstate New York outfit The Mountain Carol present their debut album Starkiller and the Banshees today. Blending atmospheric electro-pop and avant-indie rock elements, the band defies a single genre, and bring together an impressive fusion of sounds. PopMatters, who premiered the album, described them as, “offering a consistently intriguing hodge-podge of charming stylistic fusions that cement the trio as equal parts imaginative, go-getting, and skilled.” Released via Third Eye Industries, the album provides a decadent and enlightening journey for each listener to explore.
“At this point in our lives, influences cross-pollinate freely and change rapidly. Influences may also be channeled in an oblique way so that you would never suspect the origin of certain artistic decisions,” shared guitarist Austtin Petrashune, on the development of the album. With each member bringing their own preferences, history and interpretation to the process, the band’s songwriting process remains open and unhindered. “The resulting combination of hidden influences makes the songs greater and keeps the group unspoiled by the limitations of our original influences.” The band cites their proximity and closeness to nature as another key element to their sound; disconnecting from media, culture, and technology, to simply be in solitude, reflecting and experiencing the natural world. “Picture music barreling down from a high, snowy peak: isn’t that special? That’s where it all comes from. We just reveal the music of the future that has always existed.”
Singles “Dino” and “Sway” were both accompanied by narrative music videos on their releases, and the band has more to come, with a visual to accompany each track off the Starkiller and the Banshees. Each video provides a tease of a story, drawing you deeper into the music and mystery. Indulging in the chase, the band has given little direction as to the larger image of where they may lead. Prompting each to take their own interpretation, The Mountain Carol seek to awaken and guide from the slumber of modern life.
Starkiller and the Banshees was recorded with engineer Jamse Ward at Wayward Sound Studio in Plattsburgh, NY and was released under Third Eye Industries. It is available for stream and purchase everywhere today, including Spotify, Apple Music, and physical and digital formats on Bandcamp. With an impressively striking debut, The Mountain Carol have promised that they’re just getting started. Fans can catch exclusive content, additional material, and more through the band’s subscription fan-club The Divine Council. The Mountain Carol celebrate with a release show tonight at Monopole Bar in Plattsburgh, NY.
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WHAT THE PRESS ARE SAYING:
“…offering a consistently intriguing hodge-podge of charming stylistic fusions that cement the trio as equal parts imaginative, go-getting, and skilled.” – PopMatters
“The group expands its hybrid sound — ambient-occult-new-wave-progressive-pop, if you will — by scores on the new album…. Starkiller is a confident, tripped-out voyage through a cosmos brimming with glistening keys, stormy riffs and dark incantations.” – SevenDaysVT
About The Mountain Carol: Quite possibly the most important band to come out of the North Country, The Mountain Carol broke all pre-existing rules of regional success with their atmospheric, jazzy electro-pop and quickly found themselves at the top of the heap with few true contenders.
Forged from the ashes of Townshendesque power-pop group The Tavi in 2011 and led by two reclusive musical stalwarts from the backwater town of Saranac, NY, a name more associated with a popular beer than popular music, the project took shape after guitarist Austtin Petrashune returned home from a hiatus-causing 2-year stint as a costumed fiddle player in a Hong Kong amusement park. Meanwhile, in between shifts at his day job as a parcel delivery driver, keyboardist and primary songwriter Bruce Wilson had forsaken the drums to hone his chops on the piano, developing a playing style reminiscent of jazz maestro Dave Brubeck while retaining the best of his long-beloved 60s pop influences, in particular the compositional ambition of Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, crafting danceable epics accompanied by the quaint drum machine of a broken Casio MT-500 keyboard.
After a period of in-studio experimentation, gig-seeking frustration, and failed attempts at past-present reconciliation, Petrashune and Bruce struck oil when they reached out to upstate indie impresario Matt Hall, a multi-talented and well-connected Syracuse-cum-Plattsburgh native creative known for his innumerable bootstrapped musical releases under several aliases including, but not limited to, Marco Polio, Chakra Abuse, and Antwon Levee (not to mention his notoriety as auteur of the satirical online variety show affectionately titled “TRASHburgh”). Although a seasoned gigging drummer with Adirondack punk firebrands Comrade Nixon, infamous defunct rap collective Plattsburgh Home Team, and a short service in retro yawn-rock royalty Broken Arrow Hearts, among many others, Hall left his comfort zone to accept a position as The Mountain Carol’s percussionist, manager, and, for their first demo, de-facto producer. A Roland Octapad now pollinating The Mountain Carol’s spacious downtempo surf-funk with heavy accents equally inspired by dub and doom metal, the group was able expand their tonal palette far beyond their local contemporaries while keeping the edgy, improvisatory sensibility congruent with both the stoned Bonnaroo attendee and discerning hipster alike. While the band’s eponymous debut EP was released in a relatively straightforward manner, The Mountain Carol seems intent on manipulating the modern music consumer, releasing a trickle of live recordings, music videos, and cryptic artistic statements through a variety of media channels, and often first via their mysterious subscription fan-club “The Divine Council.” Their debut album, Starkiller and the Banshees, was released June 1, 2018 on Third Eye Industries.
