The West Will Rise Again – Thank You Efrim!

At the end of March, I was chatting to friends about music and A Silver Mt. Zion came up, so I thought I’d quickly Google them up. What did I see, but a new EP. A new US/Canada tour exclusive EP. Nightmare. And so I rolled my sleeves up and got emailing.

I started off by emailing Constellation (also home to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Do Make Say Think and Tindersticks), A Silver Mt. Zion’s label, who informed me that the band were releasing the EP through Efrim’s just formed label Ruined City Birdsong Combos.

I emailed about 10 websites who had reviewed the record to see if they would be happy to sell the copy they reviewed. All of the websites who got back to me said the same thing – they’d downloaded the vinyl rip that was doing the rounds and used that for their review,

I lastly had a thought and emailed the band themselves through the link on their website and, in just 20 minutes, who should email me back but Efrim himself:

hey there miles,

yes and yes, we have some left.
would be happy to oblige, but payment would have to be through paypal (apologies).
also, would need yr. address for a shipping quote.

thanks,
efrim/mt. zion

How’s that for a score? A few more emails later (plus shipping time) I received a well wrapped 7″.

The first thing any ardent fans will notice (I sure did), is the very familiar scrawl on the envelope. It’s evidently Efrim who does almost all the writing on the SMZ artwork. I found it quite bizarre to see my name and address written like this (complete with crossed i’s and fullstops)!

Unwrapping The West Will Rise Again

Unwrapping The West Will Rise Again

Unwrapping The West Will Rise Again

(Fight The Good Fight by the way – had to look that one up!)

Unwrapping The West Will Rise Again

I’ve found there are very few images besides the cover on the internet, and with the artwork being such an important part of any SMZ release, I’ve decided I’ll pop some photos and scans up before I go into the music! Enjoy!

The West Will Rise Again front cover

The West Will Rise Again back cover

The West Will Rise Again

To be continued…

 

It’s a Pink Moon

Last night was a Full Pink Moon.

I took one look when I saw this statement on Facebook, and started humming Nick Drake’s Classic to myself…

I’m sure I wasn’t alone in making this connection. So just what is a Pink Moon and where does its name come from? It’s the full moon in April and gets its name from herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox.

From Farmers’ Almanac:

• Full Pink Moon – April This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.

So there you have it.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t believed to be what Drake had in mind when he wrote the song, although nobody really knows!

You can listen to the whole of Nick Drake’s album Pink Moon on Spotify.

To Build a Home

I’ve been loving this song this week. It’s really quite beautiful.

To Build a Home is on The Cinematic Orchestra’s album Ma Fleur which is available on Spotify.