Ice Palace Release New Disc "Wonder Subtly Crushing Us" on Earthology Records

DOWNLOAD: Ice Palace - "Thoughts/Facts" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ice Palace - "Phonebook Pillow" (MP3)

I missed the Cloud Cult/Ice Palace show when they played MHOW in April but I've been recently checking out Ice Palace's latest disc.

Wonder Subtly Crushing Us is Ice Place's second CD and their first for Craig Minowa's Earthology Records. The band's music has a lush melancholy overtone that brings to mind comparisons to The Decemberists or Neutral Milk Hotel. The Onion said "[t]he group's bipolar folk-rock hints at what Nirvana might have been if Kurt Cobain had had the chance to grow out of his angst and settle into his mid-thirties."

Ice Palace are currently touring around the Mid-West:
July 25, 2009 -- 11:00PM, Red Stag, Minneapolis
July 31, 2009 -- 8:00PM, Turf Club, St. Paul
Aug 28, 2009 -- 8:00PM, 7th St. Entry, Minneapolis
Aug 29, 2009 -- 8:00PM, Schubas, Chicago, Illinois

Links:
Ice Palace's MySpace Profile

New and Interesting CD Releases This Week

There are a handful of interesting new and reissued CDs that are coming out tomorrow:

New CDs:

Horse the Band - "A Natural Death"
It is kind of cool that a metalcore band is featured in this week's Best Buy ad. The Best Buy version is $7.99 and it has 3 exclusive bonus tracks.

Iced Earth - "Framing Armageddon"
"Ripper" Owens and Iced Earth - what more needs to be said? The version from Newbury Comics comes with a signed CD booklet

Pinback - "Autumn of the Seraphs"
Pretty cool metal band who is putting out their second release on Touch & Go. The first pressing will have a bonus disc with three songs not on the LP version of this release.

Tiny Masters of Today - "Bang Bang Boom Cake"
Very cool Brooklyn band makes their Mute Records debut. Band features Russell Simins (from JSX) on drums

Reissued CDs:

Cloud Cult - Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus
Reissue of the band's gem from 2005

Elvis Costello - "My Aim is True"
Ok, this has been reiussed like 500 times but Hip-O has dug up some pretty cool bonus tracks. This is a double-disc (like the past Rhino reissue) and it contains 4 demos that were previously unreleased along with a live recording of one of the earliest Attractions show that was recorded at the Nashville Rooms on August 7, 1977. This set is $19.99 from Newbury Comics and comes with a limited edition pint glass

Cold War Kids and Cloud Cult - Legal Music Download

I think I must be the few bloggers who have never what the Cold War Kids sound like so I was looking forward to hearing Cold War Kids lead singer Nathan Willet perform on The Interface. Willet performed two songs, We Used to Vacation and Hospital Beds. Unfortunately neither song did much for me. I didn't like Willet's voice and didn't find the lyrical content that interesting. It was all just a bit too "emo" for my tastes so, while I'll give the full band a listen, I am going to pass on Willet's solo work going forward.


BrooklynVegan has been a big fan of Cloud Cult and, based on this podcast, I can see why. This podcast was recorded on March 17th, 2007 as part of WOXY.com's live broadcasts from Austin, Texas during SXSW 2007. (There are some pictures from the recording session on Flickr.) The music is very interesting and obviously carefully arranged. It seems as though every note and every vocal has a purpose but no one sound overpowers another. I also enjoyed hearing what the band had to say during their interview. They have some pretty positive views on operating the band as a non-profit and maintaining an strong eco-friendly stance. On this podcast, the band performs Chain Reaction, Pretty Voice, Chemicals Collide, Washed Your Car and Son is Watching.

I'm very interested in hearing more from Cloud Cult.

Links:
Cold War Kids Main Website (link)
Cold War Kids MySpace page (link)

Cloud Cult Main Website (link)
Cloud Cult MySpace page (link)