The Emerald Down >> Heavier than heaven

The Emerald Down - "Heavier Than Ether, Lighter Than Air"

(POPsound Records, 2001)

I already told you about this band in one of the very first posts on this blog, so go back and read it by clicking the tag "the emerald down" at the bottom of this post, or find it by any number of other ways.  This is the song that got me into TED back in '02 or '03, and it's from their only full album, Scream The Sound.  I've been badgering people to check out this song for so many years that it's nice to finally post it here and be done with it.  Rebecca's vocals are just otherworldly, but I can't make out a single word she's saying, even while using the "Vocal Booster" EQ setting on my iTunes player.  Hopefully the CD has a lyric sheet, but I just have it on mp3's, which I obtained this very year.  I kinda like the concept of wordless vocals, though, e.g. Sigur Ros, early Cocteau Twins, etc.  (Update, 8/29/11: While drinking a swig of orange juice in the other room, I figured out that starting at the 1:05 mark, she says the song's title.  It only took me about 100 listens to figure this out.)  This song's brevity is its only downside, so someone out there needs to get an extended mix together, and I shall post it on here with much fanfare.  Since it has such an ominously delicious bassline, I used part of the song title in a list I made of my favorite basslines: Heavier Than Ether, Serious As A Heart Attack.  High-quality speakers, preferably including a subwoofer, are a must when listening to all songs on Blowtorch Baby.

The slow, stalkerish tempo of the song is so freaky and nerve-wracking.  Seriously, this deserves to be the theme song for some low-budget neo-noir flick.  Few songs have ever been as aptly-named as this one, and rarely has a music video been as minimalistic or as fitting as this one:

According to the band's MySpace, "The album was released on September 11th, 2001 - not the best day for a CD release!"  Then it was apparently reissued in 2003 with slightly different cover art, but I'm not sure.  All I know is I've seen two different covers, and I've seen this album assigned the release date 2001 and also 2003.  Here are the two cover designs I've found:

Apparently the original 2001 cover

The 2003 cover?

The two other awesome songs on this album are "Recondite Astral Traveler" (with the most amazingly sensual, extraterrestrial guitar textures ever) and the aggressive, jagged "Perilized."  Most of the other songs are very similar to Slowdive, for better or for worse; mainly for the better, if you ask me.  The disc was recorded and mixed at Engine Studios in Chicago in a mere four days.  As far as live shows, they opened for other Pacific NW bands like Unwound, Hovercraft, and The Posies before and/or after moving from Washington to Ohio.  The Hovercraft influence is prominent in "Heavier"'s intergalactic ambient guitar.
Their bassist was definitely their secret weapon, and their guitarist(s) pretty much stayed out of the bassist's way by playing high, trebly feedback/noise (sort of mimicking the singer's super-high voice).  The band broke up in 2003 (according to a post on their MySpace in 2005), and their other website, www.theemeralddown.com, is mothballed.

Undated live photo from their MySpace page, showing only Chad Williamson & Rebecca Basye.
Possibly from the same practice room gig as the "Recondite Astral Traveler" link I gave above.

They're probably in my U.S. shoegaze top 5, with Colfax Abbey, Stella Luna, Hum, For Against, and I forgot the others.  Maybe Tamaryn will make it someday?

Fun Quiz: Did this song invent chillwave?  Y/N

Cacti I bought yesterday in Gonzales on a cloudless 96º afternoon:
Mammilloydia candida
Mammillaria haageana subsp. elegans
Parodia werneri (a.k.a. Notocactus uebelmannianus) (already had 1)
Parodia magnifica (a.k.a. Notocactus magnificus) (already had 2)
Mammillaria hahniana (already had 1)

Planets with similar climates: ILYA - "Isola" (2002), Slowdive - "Losing Today" & "Albatross" (1991), Juned - "Titanic" (1995), My Bloody Valentine - "To Here Knows When" (1991), Tagging Satellites - "Five Star Memory" (2000), Ciccone Youth - "G-Force" & "Platoon II" (~1988).