City of Echoes
Encyclopedia
City of Echoes is the third full-length album by American post-metal
band Pelican
, released in June 2007 on Hydra Head Records
. The album's thematic center is one of globalization
; critics received this intention with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
City of Echoes was leaked onto the Internet in early 2007. Five color variations were released for the album's vinyl format
. This includes black, silver, translucent blue, clear and black "splatter," and light pink and black "splatter" record designs.
On a more literal level, Laurent Lebec states that "I had no idea where we were going with the music when we started doing these songs [...] [t]he changes were pretty subconscious at first, then looking back we realized what was happening and we just went with it." He continues to add "when we were touring for our last album, The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw
, even if we had a 75-minute-long set, we could only play five songs because they were all so long, and that can be tiring for an audience." They are also intent on making it clear that the album is not simply negative in message. "The title also pays tribute to how amazing touring most often feels. It's also a tribute to the joy that burns inside when you reach a place and people who don't speak your language are rooting for your songs and welcoming you into their unique environment".
debut of Pelican. Its first release, premiered on May 15, 2008 through the Headbangers Blog, would be for "Dead Between the Walls." Directed by David Kleiler, it was intended as an homage to Kyuss
’ "Green Machine
" video with "sand, fast cars, blistering colors, and just a focus on rockin’." It features the band performing in a sunny California desert and humorously plays on the concept of their purely instrumental band; as the video reaches the end, a bearded man with a microphone approaches the group and, to his disappointment, stands ready to sing just as the song ends. "Dead Between the Walls" found moderate airplay on Headbangers Ball
in 2008.
"Lost in the Headlights" would make for a second video and storyline sequel of sorts to its predecessor. It was shot on the rooftops of downtown LA
at night and in the Angeles National Forest
by Kenneth Thomas' Scrouge Productions. The video begins with the same bearded man, regarded as "some jackass taking up precious screen time," watching the end of the previous video on a household TV set. Visibly annoyed, he grabs his microphone stand and again begins searching for Pelican. The man searches throughout the video and indeed finds the group but never manages to perform with them. This video debuted on November 13, 2008 on the Headbangers Blog and made its on-air premiere two nights later on Headbangers Ball.
album," in reference to the fact that it classifies as their most accessible to a mainstream audience. As such, it can be differentiated from earlier material as it consists of "shorter songs and expanded catchiness." Tom Lynch of Newcity Chicago describes is as a "colossal departure, a seemingly blatant shun of everything that came before. But not necessarily in a bad way". To that end, it has been praised as a rarity, as an instrumental album "you actually want to listen to over and over again". A Spin
review attributed this to a "maturer" approach, "with the title track and the strongly melodic "Bliss in Concrete" achieving in five- or six-minute mini epics what used to take the band twice the time and effort."
The album's message was one decrying globalization, yet some critics were disappointed with the results. Joe McLaughlin notes: "when Pelican claim the record focuses on the 'homogenous effects of globalization', I think I am excused in wanting a touch more than an intricate guitar riff and a thumping bass line to ponder over [...] I struggle to gain a tangible meaning solely from crashing cymbals underpinning distorted guitars."
Much criticism has been leveled at the drumming of Larry Herweg, with Grayson Currin writing for Pitchfork Media
that he "has consistently prevented his Chicago-based instrumental four-piece from being as transcendent as they've long been touted," and that on this album "it's worse than it's ever been, largely because it now seems that the excellent and consistently developing guitar duo of Laurent Schroeder-Lebec and Trevor de Brauw are better than they've ever been." Pelican themselves are aware of this ubiquitous criticism. Guitarist Trevor de Brauw states in a Decibel
feature that "on the first two records, Pelican was a guitar band. On this one, we’re an actual band, which makes a world of difference to me", and that "some people think of instrumental music as music where the players need to be shredding constantly. That was never the direction of Pelican—we never wanted to be like Don Caballero
or Hella
." An Allmusic review posits that on this release "Herweg is allowed a far greater range of expression, and actually plays against the beat in places, seeming to be out of time, while creating a new space for the guitars to enter in terms of tempo and texture."
Decibel
placed the album at number thirteen in its list of the top 40 albums of 2007.
Other personnel
Post-metal
Post-metal is a music genre, a mixture between the genres of post-rock and heavy metal.Hydra Head Records owner and Isis frontman Aaron Turner originally termed the genre "thinking man's metal", demonstrating that his band was trying to move away from common metal conventions...
band Pelican
Pelican (band)
Pelican is a post-metal quartet from Chicago, Illinois.-Biography and description:The band is known for its dense combinations of different melodies and extended track lengths. Its distinctive sound draws from stoner rock, doom metal, post-rock, and other influences...
, released in June 2007 on Hydra Head Records
Hydra Head Records
Hydra Head Records is an independent record label which specializes in heavy metal music, founded in New Mexico by Aaron Turner in 1993...
. The album's thematic center is one of globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
; critics received this intention with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
City of Echoes was leaked onto the Internet in early 2007. Five color variations were released for the album's vinyl format
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
. This includes black, silver, translucent blue, clear and black "splatter," and light pink and black "splatter" record designs.
Theme
Guitarist Trevor de Brauw stated that "City of Echoes is moulded by the experience of touring—the title sort of refers to the feeling you get that, although you go to a lot of different places, one of the effects of globalisation is that you see so many similarities from city to city." Speaking on, the band talks about how "you start to see the spread of the Western world, and you think of current events and raging wars for oil, and you start to get hit with how wrong it is to see the golden arches everywhere".On a more literal level, Laurent Lebec states that "I had no idea where we were going with the music when we started doing these songs [...] [t]he changes were pretty subconscious at first, then looking back we realized what was happening and we just went with it." He continues to add "when we were touring for our last album, The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw
The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw
The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw is the second full-length studio album by Chicago post-metal band Pelican. It was released May 22, 2005 on Hydra Head Records. Regarding the lengthy and unusual name of the album, guitarist Trevor de Brauw joked, "The title is meant to confuse people...
, even if we had a 75-minute-long set, we could only play five songs because they were all so long, and that can be tiring for an audience." They are also intent on making it clear that the album is not simply negative in message. "The title also pays tribute to how amazing touring most often feels. It's also a tribute to the joy that burns inside when you reach a place and people who don't speak your language are rooting for your songs and welcoming you into their unique environment".
Music videos
Due in part to the album's shorter song lengths, City of Echoes marks the music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
debut of Pelican. Its first release, premiered on May 15, 2008 through the Headbangers Blog, would be for "Dead Between the Walls." Directed by David Kleiler, it was intended as an homage to Kyuss
Kyuss
Kyuss is a rock band, originally from Palm Desert, California. After forming in the late 1980s and releasing an EP under the name Sons of Kyuss in 1990, the band shortened its name to Kyuss. Over the next five years the band released four full-length albums, and one last split EP in 1997 with...
’ "Green Machine
Green Machine (song)
"Green Machine" is a song by Kyuss from their 1992 album Blues for the Red Sun. Written by drummer Brant Bjork, it was released as a single that same year.The back of the CD case contains the following review:...
" video with "sand, fast cars, blistering colors, and just a focus on rockin’." It features the band performing in a sunny California desert and humorously plays on the concept of their purely instrumental band; as the video reaches the end, a bearded man with a microphone approaches the group and, to his disappointment, stands ready to sing just as the song ends. "Dead Between the Walls" found moderate airplay on Headbangers Ball
Headbangers Ball
Headbangers Ball is a music television program consisting of heavy metal music videos airing on MTV2, MTV Australia, MTV Two , MTV Adria , MTV Brand New, MTV Portugal, MTV Finland, MTV Arabia, MTV Norway, MTV Sweden, MTV Denmark, MTV Greece, MTV Türkiye, MTV...
in 2008.
"Lost in the Headlights" would make for a second video and storyline sequel of sorts to its predecessor. It was shot on the rooftops of downtown LA
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
at night and in the Angeles National Forest
Angeles National Forest
The Angeles National Forest of the U.S. National Forest Service is located in the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County, southern California. It was established on July 1, 1908, incorporating the first San Bernardino National Forest and parts of the former Santa Barbara and San Gabriel...
by Kenneth Thomas' Scrouge Productions. The video begins with the same bearded man, regarded as "some jackass taking up precious screen time," watching the end of the previous video on a household TV set. Visibly annoyed, he grabs his microphone stand and again begins searching for Pelican. The man searches throughout the video and indeed finds the group but never manages to perform with them. This video debuted on November 13, 2008 on the Headbangers Blog and made its on-air premiere two nights later on Headbangers Ball.
Reception
Reviews for City of Echoes were mixed but generally positive. Guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec has described it as their "popPop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
album," in reference to the fact that it classifies as their most accessible to a mainstream audience. As such, it can be differentiated from earlier material as it consists of "shorter songs and expanded catchiness." Tom Lynch of Newcity Chicago describes is as a "colossal departure, a seemingly blatant shun of everything that came before. But not necessarily in a bad way". To that end, it has been praised as a rarity, as an instrumental album "you actually want to listen to over and over again". A Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
review attributed this to a "maturer" approach, "with the title track and the strongly melodic "Bliss in Concrete" achieving in five- or six-minute mini epics what used to take the band twice the time and effort."
The album's message was one decrying globalization, yet some critics were disappointed with the results. Joe McLaughlin notes: "when Pelican claim the record focuses on the 'homogenous effects of globalization', I think I am excused in wanting a touch more than an intricate guitar riff and a thumping bass line to ponder over [...] I struggle to gain a tangible meaning solely from crashing cymbals underpinning distorted guitars."
Much criticism has been leveled at the drumming of Larry Herweg, with Grayson Currin writing for Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
that he "has consistently prevented his Chicago-based instrumental four-piece from being as transcendent as they've long been touted," and that on this album "it's worse than it's ever been, largely because it now seems that the excellent and consistently developing guitar duo of Laurent Schroeder-Lebec and Trevor de Brauw are better than they've ever been." Pelican themselves are aware of this ubiquitous criticism. Guitarist Trevor de Brauw states in a Decibel
Decibel magazine
Decibel is a monthly heavy metal and extreme music magazine published by the Philadelphia-based Red Flag Media. Since October 2004, Decibel has featured a plethora of extreme metal bands and musicians. Its sections include Upfront, Features, Reviews, Guest Columns and the Decibel Hall of Fame...
feature that "on the first two records, Pelican was a guitar band. On this one, we’re an actual band, which makes a world of difference to me", and that "some people think of instrumental music as music where the players need to be shredding constantly. That was never the direction of Pelican—we never wanted to be like Don Caballero
Don Caballero
Don Caballero are an American rock group from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group took their name from the character Guy Caballero, portrayed by Joe Flaherty, on the sketch comedy show Second City Television...
or Hella
Hella (band)
Hella is an American band from Sacramento, California. They play a technical blend of math rock, noise rock, and experimental rock. The primary members of the band are Spencer Seim on electric guitar and Zach Hill on drums...
." An Allmusic review posits that on this release "Herweg is allowed a far greater range of expression, and actually plays against the beat in places, seeming to be out of time, while creating a new space for the guitars to enter in terms of tempo and texture."
Decibel
Decibel magazine
Decibel is a monthly heavy metal and extreme music magazine published by the Philadelphia-based Red Flag Media. Since October 2004, Decibel has featured a plethora of extreme metal bands and musicians. Its sections include Upfront, Features, Reviews, Guest Columns and the Decibel Hall of Fame...
placed the album at number thirteen in its list of the top 40 albums of 2007.
Track listing
All songs written by Pelican.- "Bliss in Concrete" – 5:30
- "City of Echoes" – 7:06
- "Spaceship Broken - Parts Needed" – 6:04
- "Winds With Hands" – 3:57
- "Dead Between the Walls" – 5:06
- "Lost in the Headlights" – 4:10
- "Far from Fields" – 5:18
- "A Delicate Sense of Balance" – 5:24
Personnel
Band members- Trevor de Brauw – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Bryan Herweg – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Larry Herweg – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
- Laurent Schroeder-Lebec – guitar
Other personnel
- John Golden – masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
- Robin Laananen – photography
- Aaron TurnerAaron TurnerAaron Turner is a musician, singer, graphic artist, and founder of label Hydra Head Records. He is most widely known for his role as guitarist and vocalist for the post-metal band Isis, while also participating in several other bands and projects such as Old Man Gloom and Lotus Eaters.Though raised...
– album art and design - Andrew Schneider – production
- Will Duncan – production and recording assistance
- Greg Norman – production and recording assistance
- Jon Sao Paolo – production and recording assistance
- Stephen Sowley – production and recording assistance
- Jeff Spatafora – production and recording assistance
- Rob Vestor – production and recording assistance