Elephant Tree and Lowrider to Release The Long Forever Split LP Oct. 25
Not going to feign impartiality here. The upcoming Elephant Tree and Lowrider split LP, The Long Forever, is one I’ve lived with for a while. It’s the final release of Blues Funeral Recordings‘ PostWax Vol. II, and a while in the making to say the least. As As has been the case since PostWax’s inception, I’ve handled liner notes — they’ll also be included with the wider release this time, which is fair in context — for the offering, and I don’t mind telling you it was the most difficult time I’ve ever had putting such a thing together.
I spoke to Elephant Tree‘s Jack Townley and Lowrider‘s Peder Bergstrand, and I count both as friends, but it was a hard story to tell between Jack nearly losing his life in a biking accident and the pressure on both bands to deliver after second albums one could arguably call landmarks arriving in much different contexts, both trying to do new things in terms of sound. There being more narrative than room to recount it was only part of the problem. Yeah. I’ll be honest. The notes got turned in like a month and a half ago and I’m still kind of sweating over being dissatisfied with my end of the work. I both hope I get a copy of the CD (in addition to the PostWax edition vinyl) and never see the finished product of those notes printed. A familiar-enough anxiety, heightened in this instance.
Fortunately, I’m relieved to say that backdrop has done precious little to sap my enjoyment of the tracks themselves, which put The Long Forever in obvious, feel-dumb-even-saying-so contention for the best short release of the year (yes, it’s full-length, but I count splits as short releases; if you care, next time we meet in person you can punch me in the face over it). Elephant Tree‘s video for “Long Forever” is streaming now, and I encourage you not to delay in checking it out. I’ll shut the fuck up in order to facilitate.
Info from the PR wire:
Like two timelines converging, ELEPHANT TREE and LOWRIDER come together to present the collaborative album “The Long Forever,” easily one of the most eagerly awaited split releases in the history of heavy rock.
Arriving in the wake of two landmark 2020 releases (“Habits” from Elephant Tree and “Refractions” from Lowrider), “The Long Forever” finds both bands at critical junctures: each has a broad and expanding influence, each is revered onstage and off, and each is delivering its first proper new release in four years to tremendous anticipation.
Despite that pressure, Elephant Tree and Lowrider have seized the opportunity to redefine who they are and declare where their musical voyages will go next.
Bringing these bands onto a shared collaborative platter would be an event regardless of the surrounding circumstances. As it is, though, the significance of this album is even greater.
“The Long Forever” takes its title from the nickname Elephant Tree singer/guitarist Jack Townley gave to the multi-week coma he was kept in for medical reasons following a near-fatal biking accident in early 2023. Dreaming without waking and losing all sense of time as his mind attempted to process and cope with the ordeal, that lyrical description can only hint at the enormity of Jack’s experience.
And yet, the year or so that followed manifested a musical freedom in the bands’ respective approaches. Lowrider has grown more complex and expressive, while Elephant Tree has chosen a rawer, set-up-the-mics-and-go approach.
“The Long Forever” is the vehicle through which the bands meet, subverting and superseding the expectations on them, with a traumatic nexus as the gravitational singularity around which the entire LP orbits, bending and shaping every note that escapes forth.
In the end, perseverance, healing and stubbornness of passion made “The Long Forever” a reality. We hope fans will listen with open minds and love in their hearts!
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