a small guide to Mount Eerie

Regular noctos visitors will have noticed we have a soft spot for Phil Elverum, former Microphones frontman, now recording albums under his Mount Eerie moniker.

Apparently Phil has been real busy again and is releasing albums like crazy. Take a peek at his pwelverum & sun website. And as you can see on this next picture, he's keeping up with the DIY attitude.



Now let me try and offer some links and information on these albums because the pwelverum site wasn't that clear to me at first.

MOUNT EERIE - NO FLASHLIGHT
Okay so the most essential release for now is the 1st full album release by Mount Eerie called No Flashlight.

You can order this album via pwelverum & sun if you want a handmade LP & CD or get the european CD version in september through the danish play/rec label.

The album comes with this huge foldout artwork (5 ft. x 3.5 ft) which features track explanations, lyrics, photos, and excerpts from other sources.

The European CD version will be released September 5th 2005 on Play/Rec and contains 4 extra songs compared to the US edition, 19 songs in all. (I'm not sure if this version also has the foldout artwork).

I have seen two reviews so far: a very good and a very bad one.
- Tiny Mix Tapes praises the album and provides good notes.

- Pitchfork makes another mess review which is totally beside the point and they should stop expecting another Microphones record.

No flashlight is obviously a different direction than the old Microphones stuff. The music is much more stripped to the bone and Elverum is really tackling more conventional singer-songwriter material (but in his own idiosyncratic singing manner which makes it so interesting).

"I hold nothing" is already becoming one of the most beautiful songs of 2005 so far. So my suggestion is to go and get this album. (dutch readers should also check this interview)



Now let's take a look at all the other releases:

MOUNT EERIE - DRUMS OF NO FLASHLIGHT
as the title suggests, only the drums. Available through pwelverum.

MOUNT EERIE - SEVEN NEW SONGS OF MOUNT EERIE
This seven new songs album is now available as a free download on archive.org. It had a limited run on tour but now forever available for free. (check the song "with my hands out"!)

As Phil explain himself:

Seven songs recorded for the July 2004 tour of Australia by Mount Eerie. They were recorded "Nowhere" in Anacortes, Washington in the months of May and June 2004. The release was in an edition of 196 CDRs and sold out on tour.

MOUNT EERIE - DANCES WITH WOLVES
A 12" EP featuring only two songs. It was recorded live to vinyl at a pressing plant in Australia. 2 long songs that had just been written being sung/played by a large band of Australians, with horns and chorals.

You can order this one through Krecs

MOUNT EERIE - SINGERS
For now only available through pwelverum & sun. It has been described as more traditional Microphones stuff and it features quite a lot of good old guests such as Mirah & Calvin Johnson. There are extensive notes on who did what for each song on the album.

(I guess this album will also get a proper distribution deal in Europe, so wait a little longer for that)

MOUNT EERIE - 11 OLD SONGS (not released yet)
This album is not released yet but should be available in November. From what I read this album features apparently songs that are just phil and a casio keyboard. So that should be interesting!

Anyway everyone who wants to have more information or wants to chat with other fans should check this Mount Eerie fan forum.