Cymbals Eat Guitars: Why There Are Mountains

Holy moley, these guys are excellent

really? i remember hating this album.

It sounds good to me

Its a bit all over the place, but it isn't bad from what I remember. Except that one part in that one song that sounds way too much like Modest Mouse. You know.

New one is so, so good

http://www.npr.org/2014/08/10/338019046/first-listen-cymbals-eat-guitars-lose

I thought this album would get a much more enthusiastic reception than it did

i am pretty enthusiastic about it, it's a very good indie rock record. not a lot of those

new one's even better than lose! wow

the production's much nicer but it hasn't really grabbed me as much as lose or why there are mountains yet. it's still solid enough though

new one's even better than lose! wow

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Friday, September 2, 2016 9:22 AM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i was wrong but it's still great

lose is imo the best indie rock record of the past ten years

it's between lose and why are there mountains for me, both total classics

I remember liking Lose a lot when it came out but I don't think I've listened to it in years. I should get back on that!

pretty years is still very awesome, but i prefer the production in lose. lots more space.

listened to both again today and Why There Are Mountains is definitely my favourite, and best indie rock album of the last decade. the songs cover so much ground and are full of hooks - the way Some Trees is constantly morphing in only two and a half minutes, the jaunty piano emerging from the drone in Indiana that eventually ends in a psych-y explosion of brass, all of Wind Phoenix, the three epics! such an underrated band, never understood why they never got more attention when similar but much worse 90s-ish indie bands got so hype.

if Why There Are Mountains was released in the 90s it would surely be firmly in the indie canon, right? i love it more than most of the big 90s indie rock albums

Why There Are Mountains hit at a weird time; I feel like people were really tired of internet hyped indie rock by 2009, even if that record transcends a lot of the lower quality stuff from around the same time.

these guys also fill a void left by the wrens but idk if the meadowlands came out today it would hit as hard

i love why there are mountains but lose is just such a complete statement to me, especially the first three tracks

lenses alien is underrated but so complicated and hard to hold onto

also guy is an incredible lyricist

Reading this thread made me check just now, once again in vain, if there was any news on a new Wrens (apart from the news being it's delayed again).

Lose is my goto CEG record but the debut hits hard every time.

probably true that The Meadowlands wouldn't quite seem as great if it came out today but i'm still eagerly awaiting that new Wrens album

iirc Charles from The Wrens almost produced Why There Are Mountains but had to pull out after some kind of tragedy i don't remember

the keyboard playing on CEG albums still feels really distinctive as far as indie rock goes, it's much more free-flowing than usual and always an interesting texture

he definitely improved as a lyricist as time went on yeah, Lose is really affecting the whole way through, but i have no idea what a single song on Mountains is about

i think it would seem as great it just wouldn't have the same kind of impact, lost in the shuffle in the way this band is in terms of coverage

https://emptycountry.bandcamp.com/

sounds like CEG are over (RIP!) but there's two new songs from Joe under the name Empty Country with an album coming next year. "Ultrasound" has Charles from The Wrens on backing vocals and both tracks sound like classic CEG to me

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8541174/cymbals-eat-guitars-breakup-empty-country-interview

contains a new empty country song ("marian") that is just wonderful

they were always so good at that slow burn, good to know it seems to have made it to empty country in tact.

love this

the closer "Swim" is gorrrrgeous, holy shit. Album now coming out on Getting Better.

yeah this is beautiful, excited for the alb

https://soundcloud.com/getbetterrecords/empty-country-swim

this has to be one of his best songs, very excited for the record

the empty country album is out now

https://emptycountry.bandcamp.com/album/empty-country

and it's fantastic, one of his best albums

holy crap this album

obviously the songs are great ("change" and "emerald" is such an amazing one-two especially) but I'm really impressed with the mixing also, TONS of range

What a stunning album! Restraint and explosiveness in equal measure. Throughout the many iterations of CEG and now this, his songwriting is still distinguishable as his. 'Diamond' is an early favourite.

I was just thinking about how he makes great use of his limited voice when he went for that high note in "Clearing", a wonderful surprise

yeah "chance"/"emerald" is a stunning centrepiece. i also like the slight turn towards folk-rock

album is fucking brilliant

checking this out now and it's great. the things you can do when you escape the icy grip of john congleton!

i actually loved pretty years, but the new one is much more dynamic and returns to the chiming atmospherics that CEG specialized in on albums like lose.

looking forward to going back to all the ceg records i slept on

lose is one of the best indie rock records of the last decade. it was super slept-on

jackson is one of my favorite songs, sounds so huge.

I don't hear what y'all are hearing. :(

ceg were way too slept on in general

the new one is about as great as why there are mountains and lose

today my favorite song is "southern cloud"

this is like a fuckin red house painters album, that's how good it is

it's both so self-evidently great and also so perfect for this particular moment

weird how i have to play "marian" three times in a row every time i start this record

should i start a new thread

kyle gilbride of swearin' co-produced this record???? goddamn. it sounds amazing

weird how i have to play "marian" three times in a row every time i start this record

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, April 3, 2020 10:44 AM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

def a strong song of the year candidate

maybe we could get a mod to add "also Empty Country" to the thread title

the way "southern cloud" builds in intensity is so good

this is easily my favorite thing that's come out this year. the attention to detail here is the gift that keeps on giving

New Empty Country album is great: https://emptycountry.bandcamp.com/album/empty-country-ii-2

"Dustine" in particular is incredible.

feel like CEG sort of picked up where Superchunk dropped the ball after Here's Where the Strings Come In

idk i don't really hear much resemblance beyond the genre? ceg were much more ambitious for a start

new album is at least his second best, it's like a better version of lose

can't stop listening to this even though i don't think i've wrapped my head around it. certainly makes a lot of choices. lyrics crazy good as usual

lol he said "fla" came from him failing to learn how to play "thunder road" on piano - he ended up with a really wonderful springsteen-esque piano part there and i really love the piercing harmonica part that comes in

"FLA" is wonderful, I like that reading Joy Williams picked him up out of his rut. Took me a little while to wrap my head around the album too. "Lamb" and "Dustine" were early favorites, but lately I get lines from "David" and "Cool S" stuck in my head.

this is def one of the indie rock albums of the year. it is really heavy, but there are plenty of gorgeous touches in the arrangements that keep it from being as relentlessly sad as the lyrics