Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Post Teen Daze Remix of "Life Is Hard" and Video of Live Performance on NYC's WVUF

Original Version:

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros just posted an all new video for the single "Life Is Hard". The video features an acoustic version of the song, recorded live at WVUF in New York, set to the World Press Photo Contest winners of 2013, held yearly to showcase the highest standards in photojournalism and share them with millions.

Lead singer Alex Ebert said of the collaboration, "On some sleepless and homeless night, towards the end of my first trip to Amsterdam, I stumbled into what perhaps was a cathedral. It must have been midnight or thereabouts, but it was aglow and bustling. I entered and never forgot the experience not the name of the experience - it was an exhibit of World Press Photo winners. Years later, I am honored to have been given permission to put some of the photography from this year's winners to an acoustic recording of a song that means a lot to me called 'Life Is Hard'."



Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have always been passionate about the community. From their earliest days in 2007, the band has consistently created music that uplifts and brings people together from all over the world. Individually and collectively, they've actively supported a variety of charitable endeavors, including: Charity Water, VH1 Save The Music Foundation, The American Red Cross, and many more. It is in this spirit that Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have formed the Big Sun Foundation - a non-profit organization that believes in the power of a unified world community. "We will identify causes and social issues that are important to all of us and work together to create opportunities to make a difference in the world one beautiful human at a time," said the members of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. "In joining together, we will bring awareness and support to causes that are fighting for the rights and basic needs of all beings."

The band just successfully wrapped up Big Top, a SOLD OUT self-curated festival featuring an outdoor bazaar with local vendors and a performance stage, as well as music happening all day under a traditional big top tent in Los Angeles.

Links:
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Announce New Self-Titled Disc Out July 23rd (Vagrant) / Only Local Appearance at Governor's Ball on June 8th

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros announced that a self-titled third disc, the follow-up to 2012's Here, will be released on July 23rd. Frontman Alex Ebert said: "These songs mean everything to me. It's the rawest, most liberated, most rambunctious stuff we've done".

Some of the material from this new disc has been part of the band's live set for the last few months...



Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Track List
Better Days
Let’s Get High
Two
Please!
Life Is Hard
If I Were Free
In The Lion
Country Calling
They Were Wrong
In The Summer
Remember To Remember
This Life

The band is out on an extensive summer tour that kicks off tonight in Napa, CA. The only local tour stop is at the Governor's Ball Music Festival on Randall's Island on June 8th (with Guns N' Roses headlining that night) and this show is completely sold out.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Summer 2013 Tour Dates
May 11, 2013 -- Napa, CA, Bottle Rock Festival
May 23, 2013 -- Lake Tahoe, NV, Montbleu Resort Casino
May 25, 2013 -- Portland, OR, The Rose Festival
May 26, 2013 -- Quincy, WA, Sasquatch Festival
May 28, 2013 -- Billings, MT, Babcock Theatre
May 29, 2013 -- Jackson, WY, Pink Garter Theatre
May 30, 2013 -- Salt Lake City, UT, Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre
June 02, 2013 -- Morrison, CO, Red Rocks
June 04, 2013 -- Council Bluffs, IA, Stir Cove
June 05, 2013 -- Des Moines, IA, Simon Estes Riverfront Amphitheater
June 07, 2013 -- Pittsburgh, PA, Three Rivers Arts Festival (Free)
June 08, 2013 -- New York, NY, Governor’s Ball Music Festival
June 09, 2013 -- Portland, ME, State Theatre
June 11, 2013 -- Shelburne, VT, The Green at Shelburne Museum
June 12, 2013 -- Montreal, Canada, The Metropolis
June 13, 2013 -- June 16th, 2013 -- Manchester, TN, Bonnaroo
June 15, 2013 -- Atlanta, GA, Midsummer Music Festival (Free)
June 18, 2013 -- Chattanooga, TN, Track 29
June 19, 2013 -- Knoxville, TN, Bijou Theatre
June 21, 2013 -- Norfolk, VA, The Norva
June 23, 2013 -- Dover, DE, Firefly Festival
June 24, 2013 -- Kalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo State Theatre
June 25, 2013 -- Minneapolis, MN, Cabooze Outdoor Plaza
June 26, 2013 -- Milwaukee, WI, Summerfest
June 28, 2013 -- Chicago, IL, Old St. Pat’s Church Block Party
June 29, 2013 -- Kansas City, KS, Kanrocksas Music Festival


Links:
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Aaron Embry - "Tiny Prayers" CD Review (Community Music)

DOWNLOAD: Aaron Embry - Live on KXLU Demolisten 2-10-12





Former Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes piano player Aaron Embry will release his solo debut, Tiny Prayers, next Tuesday (Sept. 18th) on the Communion Music label. Embry wrote Tiny Prayers in the late summer and fall of 2011, at the tail end of his three-year stint with the Magnetic Zeros. He recorded the album in his Ojai, CA home over essentially four days in April 2012, playing every instrument (including tenor guitar, harmonica, piano, autoharp, octave mandolin, brushes, and guitarrón) on all songs but one.

Referencing Embry's tenure with the Magnetic Zeroes (above) may be somewhat misleading as to the musical direction of Tiny Prayers. Embry's music is predominately stripped-down folk and his acoustic arrangements (guitar and harmonica) bring to mind pre-electric Bob Dylan. Complementing this, the emotional fragility of his lyrics leads to comparisons to artists like Elliott Smith (Embry was part of Smith's touring band) and Nick Drake.

The disc starts with "Moon Of the Daylit Sky" which is a good indicator of the sound of the rest of this disc. The songs are all rustic, "road weary" folk tunes which are carried by Embry's distinctive vocals and spartan acoustic arrangements. "Moon Of the Daylit Sky" backs Embry's vocals with guitar and harmonica and this is followed by "Raven's Song", where Embry's vocals are backed by an ornate piano. "Good-Red-Road Men" adds to Embry's core sound by bringing in elements of a Western campfire under the stars and "So I Turn" adds just a hint of Southern gospel. The lyrics are all fairly introspective and self-reflective. On "So I Turn", Embry wonders "Is my happiness dependent on it's own design? Am I only wakin up to leave my dreams behind?" On "Your Heart and Mine", Embry reflects on a what appears to be a love gone wrong: "It's like we're playin out the rise-and-fall of Rome again...a saviour comes...you nail her to a tree...the pain that sets you free will turn to love..in time..."



Embry will head out on a support tour for Milo Greene in November. The 11-show run will begin on November 1st at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, MI and wrap up on November 17th at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, CA. He most recently supported Mumford & Sons on a handful of August tour dates and as part of their Gentlemen of the Road Stopover Aftershows, and previously announced September dates with Father John Misty have been canceled due to personal family matters.

Aaron Embry November '12 Tour Dates: (all dates supporting Milo Greene)
NOV. 1 -- ANN ARBOR, MI -- BLIND PIG
NOV. 2 -- CHICAGO, IL -- LINCOLN HALL
NOV. 3 -- MADISON, WI -- HIGH NOON SALOON
NOV. 4 -- MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- VARSITY THEATER
NOV. 7 -- ST. LOUIS, MO -- FIREBIRD
NOV. 8 -- LAWRENCE, KS -- THE BOTTLENECK
NOV. 9 -- DENVER, CO -- BLUEBIRD THEATER
NOV. 10 -- SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- KILBY COURT
NOV. 13 -- VANCOUVER, BC -- THE MEDIA CLUB
NOV. 14 -- SEATTLE, WA -- THE CROCODILE
NOV. 16 -- SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- THE INDEPENDENT
NOV. 17 -- LOS ANGELES, CA -- EL REY THEATER

Links:
Aaron Embry

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

DOWNLOAD: Alexander - "Truth" (album version)



Links:
Alexander

Alexander Ebert (of Edward Sharpe) Offers RZA Remix of "Truth" As Free Download

DOWNLOAD: Alexander - "Truth" (featuring RZA)
DOWNLOAD: Alexander - "Truth" (album version)

Alexander Ebert's solo disc Alexander came out this past March (Vagrant). The song "Truth" was released as an advance single late last year and Pitchfork described the song as an "unlikely hit waiting in the wings, with Ebert whistling around a staggering beat and chalky rhyming that suggest Jason Mraz dazed on Dilaudid. It's sort of perfect." Alexander recently hooked up with Wu-Tang Clan's RZA who remixed "Truth" and contributed a verse to the song. As unlikely as this pairing sounds on the surface, the results are strong (free download link posted above).

For anyone who hasn't yet picked up Alexander, iTunes has the download on sale for $6.99 (click through on the album cover).

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

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros Release RAC Remix of "Janglin" // Show at Virgin Mobile Free Fest on Sept. 25th

DOWNLOAD: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - "Janglin" (RAC Remix)

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros seem to have been on a never-ending tour (move over Dylan) since the release of their debut disc Up from Below just over a year ago. The band was recently in town for a show at Governor's Island which got a great review from Huffington Post. Here is a video from the show of the band performing "40 Day Dream".



The band has announced a cross-country run of Sept. - Oct. dates with the closest show being the Virgin Mobile Free Festival on Sept. 25th.

Upcoming Tour Dates:
Sept 1 - Wow Hall - Eugene, OR
Sept 2 - Wonder Ballroom - Portland, OR
Sept 3 - Wonder Ballroom - Portland, OR
Sept 4 - Bumbershoot Festival - Seattle, WA
Sept 25 - Virgin Mobile Free Fest - Columbia, MD

Oct 7 - Rialto Theatre - Tucson, AZ
Oct 9 - Warehouse Live - Houston, TX
Oct 10 - Austin City Limits - Austin, TX
Oct 11 - The Collective - Shreveport, LA
Oct 12 - The Lyric Oxford - Oxford, MS
Oct 14 - The Howlin Wolf - New Orleans, LA
Oct 15 - DeLuna Festival - Pensacola, FL
Oct 16 - The Ritz - Tampa, FL
Oct 17 - The Social - Orlando, FL
Oct 19 - Culture Room - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Oct 26 - The Grove of Anaheim - Anaheim, CA

Links:
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

The Gulu Widows Group of Uganda Cover "Home" by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

DOWNLOAD: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - "40 Day Dream" (Live on Daytrotter)
DOWNLOAD: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - "Home" (from the Vagrant CD Up From Below)

Former Ima Robert vocalist Alex Ebert has been getting quite a buzz with his new freak-folk project Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The band formed in 2007 and released their debut CD, Up From Below (Vagrant Records), earlier this summer.

At the album release party this past July, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros raised money for the Gulu Widows Group of Uganda. The women used the band's donation to start a farm to sustain their community. They recently had their first harvest; to celebrate and show the band their appreciation, they made this video in which they sing the band's song "Home."



Here is video of Edward Sharpe performing "Home" live on Late Night with David Letterman from this past September.



Links:
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros