The End of the New Country, the album
September 17th, 2008
It is with much pride, conceit, vanity, and egotism that we announce our debut album The End of the New Country will be available on the mighty Midriff Records come Oct 14. Much to our astonishment, The End of the New Country was picked up early by the extremely, extremely intelligent and all-around-awesome Robin Hilton at NPR, who gave it a pretty positive review. Thus spake National Public Radio:
September 8, 2008 - A self-proclaimed “supergroup of unknown musicians,” Get Help makes gloomy but thoughtful guitar-rock that would fit comfortably in the post-punk era of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Get Help’s two primary members, Tony Skalicky and Mike Ingenthron, were in elementary school when bands like Joy Division were making music. But on their new CD, The End of the New Country, the duo cribs from post-punk with enough honesty and talent to keep from sounding like a cheap knock-off.
Skalicky and Ingenthron, who write and record in New York, take turns on lead vocals. Skalicky unabashedly channels Joy Division’s Ian Curtis (or Interpol’s Paul Banks), and for some listeners, that might be too much of a turnoff to get through the whole album. But Skalicky’s time at the mic fuels the album’s most compelling and memorable moments.
The End of the New Country opens on a somber note with “Traveler’s Shave Kit.” Plaintive guitar strums, gentle rhythms, a little slide guitar and mellotron set an appropriate tone for an album that scarcely cracks a smile over the course of 15 tracks.
The album’s title cut, like much of the CD, is full of resignation, as Skalicky sings about a world on the brink of collapse, with mobbed streets lined by burning buildings. “I think we’ve reached the end of the new country,” he sings. “And I think we know the rest of its history.” It’s grim, to be sure.
But it could also signal a new beginning: By the end of the album, with the dramatic squalls of feedback on the closer “Growing Circles,” the band seems to say that everything is going to be all right. “I am searching in growing circles,” Skalicky sings. “And I will find you, I am certain.”
Despite its darkness, The End of the New Country isn’t a downer, though it’s undeniably brooding and introspective. But there’s enough inspired beauty in the lyrics — and consistently impressive guitar work — to make the music uplifting at times.
When not working as Get Help, Skalicky is the singer and guitarist for the Boston-based group The Beatings, while Ingenthron is in the New York group Strikes Again. The two collaborated on the songs for The End of the New Country over the Internet, with help from Rob Machold, William Scales, Daniel Parlin, Dennis Grabowski and Gene DiAvolio.
Further readings, also by extraordinarily intelligent and wonderful people:
Clicky Clicky Music
Hard Times
Blogcritics.org
The End of the New Country contains many of the lo-fi doodlings featured on this blog, but we took our skeletal laptop recordings into the studio and rebuilt them from the ground up, recording just about everything over again until we reached a Foo Fighterish plain of production value. We’ve posted some mp3s below, and there some new tracks on our Myspace page, where they shall stream for all eternity.
Now, to make the most of this blessed event, we are performing live several times before we retreat into our dens to hibernate:
Sunday, Sept 28, 9:30, $8
PA’s Lounge
345 Somerville Ave.
Somerville, Mass.
Mike and I will be performing an acoustic set as a duo.
Little Symbols
September 5th, 2008
One of the greatest listening experiences in the world is We’re an American Band by Yo La Tengo. There are days when it is, without question, the greatest listening experience in the universe — even without headphones — and nothing else, not even Dave Atell’s “Skanks for the Memories”, comes close. Tied for first is Visions of Johanna. If Jimi Hendrix did to Visions of Johanna what he did to All Along the Watchtower, there would be no need for a top 10 songs in the world, because it would be all ten. Probably more. Top twelves would need to be invented. And Mike and I would probably have to shut down the blog, because, why bother?
None of this has anything to do with anything, but every so often I hear Yo La Tengo in the right light and it makes me very happy. Thank you.
A Brittle World
August 14th, 2008
The building I work in is about the size of a city block, and we share it with a lighting design company. While venturing into the beeping nether regions of our castle in my quest for snail mail, I heard through the walls a repeating bassline from some mix tape one of the lighting design people was playing. Through walls, the guitars, bass and vocals of familiar songs can take on quite enjoyable alien forms, especially when combined with unseen motors, roaring exhaust fans, and the continuous renovation of a workplace’s life-support system. Whatever the song was, I went away humming its bassline, which over the course of the rest of the work day evolved into what we have here for you today. Headphones are recommended, but you should really be a room apart from this one to stay in its spirit. Enjoy.