Alexander (Ebert): Performed "Truth" on Conan O'Brien on Sept. 12th (Edward Sharpe)

DOWNLOAD: Alexander - "Truth" (album version)



Links:
Alexander

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Release New Video for "40 Day Dream"

DOWNLOAD: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - "40 Day Dream"

"40 Day Dream" is the third installment of SALVO!, a 12-part music video series from Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros. "40 Day Dream" finds Edward and Brother hiding out in the desert after their violent jail-break. Jade, having received a telepathic message from Brother, brings them to meet the rest of the Magnetic Zeros. Edward is welcomed by his new family and his troubles are briefly lifted by a healing vision of togetherness. After a night of revelry, Edward is awakened by Angel.



CAST:
Edward Sharpe: Alex Ebert
Angel: Lisa Richards
Brother: Orpheo McCord
Jade: Jade Castrinos
Guard: Tay Stratharin
The Magnetic Zeros: Nico Anglietti, Stewart Cole, Aaron Embry, Aaron Older, Josh Collazo, Nora Kirkpatrick, Christain Letts, Tyler James, Chris Richard, Benjamin Kutsko

Links:
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

Alexander Ebert (Edward Sharpe) Releases First Single "Truth" from Forthcoming Solo Album (Vagrant)

Truth by AlexanderEbert

A Million Years by AlexanderEbert

Alexander Ebert, lead singer of Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, will be releasing his debut solo album Alexander on March 1st via Community Music/Vagrant Records.

The album will include ten brand new songs that Alexander wrote and composed entirely himself. Up until last year, when he started crafting the songs for his album Alexander alone in his bedroom, all of his musical endeavors had been collaborative — including his ten-person band, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. “I’d make demos and sometimes we’d use elements in the demos, but it was never upon me to do the entire thing,” Alex says. “I wanted to be able to build an album basically with my hands, like building a house by myself. And, by the way, building a house is something I’d love to do as well – to just be out in the middle of it by myself and understand what it is to do that.”

During breaks from touring with the Zeroes over the past year, Alex would hole up in his Los Angeles bedroom, working with a bare minimum of recording gear beyond a microphone and simple M-Audio direct box. He had his guitar, a Lowery organ he picked up at a St. Vincent’s thrift store in Los Angeles for seventy bucks, a clarinet he used for the bridge on “Truth” and a violin he’d found somewhere in Tucson on tour. He had his own voice, his breath, his knees to slap, his fingers to snap and his toes to tap.

He explains that some of his inspirations for the “mouth sounds” heard throughout the album come from all-time favorites of his like the 1970 chart-topping ditty “In The Summertime,” by British band Mungo Jerry. “You can find me whistling or singing that song all the time,” says Ebert, who also cites children’s clapping games like Patty Cake and the Disney tune “Zip A Dee Do Da” as loose inspirations.

There isn’t a single sound on the ten-song album that Alexander didn’t perform himself. “I knew I wanted violin on the bridge of ‘Glimpses,’ but I had never played violin,” he says, by way of example. “I was just about to make the call to have a friend come play it, but I first asked myself why I wouldn’t try it myself. I suppose, a fear of sucking. So, as an experiment, I took a walk and filled myself with as much love and fearlessness as I could, just to see what my take on it would be then. Of course, in that state, the adventurer took over and said ‘Fuck, yes, let’s do it.’ After all, I had a violin just sitting in my living room. To me, it’s a very humble album with sky’s-the-limit sort of qualities, and so I didn’t really shy away from doing whatever I felt like doing.”

And though there is tremendous depth, beauty and poignancy to be found in songs such as “Truth,” “In The Twilight” and “A Million Years,” an impish track called “Awake My Body” seems to epitomize the album as a whole. “I was feeling exhausted and wanted to encourage myself and my body,” He says of the tune. “Not in the sense of body image, but more like an appreciation of the cells themselves. It’s about trying to be the physical representation of my spirit, whatever the hell that is, whatever the heaven that is. It’s about what it means to wake up and be really alive and embrace the three dimensional world.”

Alexander will play select shows in Los Angeles and at South By Southwest before returning to the studio to complete work on the upcoming second LP from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.

Alexander track listing:

1. Let's Win
2. Awake My Body
3. Truth
4. In The Twilight
5. Bad Bad Love
6. Old Friend
7. A Million Years
8. Remember Our Heart
9. Glimpses
10. Let's Make A Deal To Not Make A Deal

Links:
Alexander Ebert

Ima Robot Release First Single from Forthcoming CD as a Free Download (Edward Sharpe)

DOWNLOAD: Ima Robot - "Ruthless"

With the rise of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, I assumed that Alex Ebert's previous project Ima Robot was dead. Pleasantly surprised to be wrong, Ima Robot's third disc, Another Man's Treasure, comes out October 19th on guitarist Tim Anderson's Werewolf Heart Records.

“Here we are again- or, more accurately, here we aim to be. What we offer here is a collection of songs from the end of an era. Most were recorded between 2 and 4 years ago, a time when none of us were sure what our band was, a time of transition. We feel they make an album- and, perhaps, the proper eulogy and remembrance of a band that was- and the twinkling of a band to come.” –Ima Robot frontman Alex Ebert

Check out "Skate & Create" video below which was directed by Spike Jonze and features two Ima Robot songs from their forthcoming CD.



There is a humility and honesty to Another Man’s Treasure that reflects a bond that only time and experience can create. Be it the background chatter making the cut or the handmade percussion that powers many of the songs, you will hear creative intimacy of the most comfortable sort. Yet, warmth aside, this is no light fare! When the devastating "Rough Night" morphs from an electronic dirge into aggressive noise and then dead ends as a ticking clock, it is as jolting as anything you will hear this year. Still, amidst the sometimes bleak surface, there are slivers of light; the swirling swish of "Sail With Me”, the hopeful plea of "Shine Shine" and the album's final words: "love will lead us home."

IMAR took to the California desert to shoot the album art with photographer Hama Sanders in early May. They transported souvenirs from IMAR’s past such as instruments and old merch, fusing them with personal items: family photos, letters and such. They arranged them on the desert floor as a survey of their collected past, cloaked by a bright blue sky. Ironically, on that trip whilst scouting for photo locations, the band came across various small towns virtually devastated by the financial crisis. Following a dirt road that seeming led to the middle of nowhere, they came upon what appeared to be an entire family’s abandoned belongings. Report cards, a television and even a boat. It was poignant to realize these were likely prized possessions, treasures even at some point, and with that realization the album titled itself: Another Man’s Treasure.

Links:
Ima Robot