Pillars and Tongues – Lay of Pilgrim Park: In stores 2/9/10 (presale available)!

Empty Cellar Records is stoked to announce the release date for Pillars and Tongues – Lay Of Pilgrim Park: February 9th, 2010!

Reserve your presale copy now at the Endless Nest Store. All presale orders ship before the release date.

About the record:
After spending more than a third of 2009 touring the United States and Europe, including a month-long tour supporting Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Pillars and Tongues returned to Chicago and executed, in two days, Lay of Pilgrim Park. Recorded primarily live, Lay of Pilgrim Park reads like a map, like a document of a certain space. Rich string textures molded by violinist Beth Remis and bassist Evan Hydzik and fluid vocal improvisations by all three members of the trio flow alongside deep, primal, danceable grooves; percussionist/singer Mark Trecka’s bold lyrical enterprises, styled like a cross between Pandit Pran Nath and Tim Buckley, explore concepts of constant mystery, the impossibility of absolute knowledge, and the purging of those unwanted or crippling things acquired along the way. The music on this record is not easily situated within genre constraints, but has drawn comparisons to music as varied as Dirty Three, Dead Can Dance, the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir and Moondog. Pillars and Tongues has shared the stage with a great variety of artists, from Tuvan
throat-singing icons Chirgilchin to feral instrumental-rock pioneers the Dirty Three. This Empty Cellar release of Lay of Pilgrim Park marks the band’s first time on vinyl. This LP comes with a free CD-quality digital download of the entire album. Limited to 500 copies.

---

New Additions to the Endless Nest Family!

We are proud to announce two recent additions to the Empty Cellar roster:

Pillars and Tongues
and
The Cairo gang.

Pillars and Tongues will be releasing a full length LP, Lay of Pilgrim Park, and The Cairo Gang will be releasing a 7″ e.p., Holy Clover, this winter on Empy Cellar Records (Holy Clover is released in collaboration with Tin Angel Records). It will be the first – long overdue – vinyl release by either of these artists. Paul Oldham recently finished mastering both records, which will be at the pressing plant next week, and available sometime in January. Until then, you can watch the lo-fi gem above by The American Opry of The Cairo Gang performing “Holy Clover” in New Mexico.

Both bands hail, at least in part, from Chicago and have played with each other across the country. Their music is some of the most thoughtful material we have heard in a long time… so, we are genuinely stoked! Coincidentally, they are both featured on Joan of Arc’s forthcoming release Don’t Mind Control.

---