band, brothers, blog

Behind The Stars - ep

New Music Tuesday!

We are very proud to announce the release of our new 4+1 song EP today, titled Behind The Stars. It is available in Canada and the UK today, and will be available in the US by mid July.

BTS is a handful of songs recorded during the Hauntario sessions in 2009.  There were a number of ideas and plans surrounding these few songs at that time, but as band life got busy they ended up sitting for most of the year, un-mixed and un-used.  The primary hinge for these extras was the recorded version of Neil Young’s “Helpless”, a live-show favorite for the past year which the band had mixed and mastered by John Whynot and Joao Carvalho respectively, along with the rest of the Hauntario tracks, but never included with that record.  For this release an alternate mix was included, done by one of the co-producers, James Murdoch.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Helpless (Hauntario mix)
2. Edith Cavell
3. Woman
4. Evangeline (Hauntario alternate version)
5. Helpless (EP mix)

During the Hauntario sessions it was conceived to record a series of extras.  There were several alternate versions of songs going on Hauntario that the band didn’t want to do away with, such as “Two Far Apart” – a slower, sombre version of the radio-rocker “Too Far Apart”. The band felt strongly enough about the recording of the alternate, and its perfect placement at the end of the album, that they opted to pluck it from the “extras” list in exchange for the original tune “Edith Cavell”. That song was written by Mike for another band member’s wedding. (trivia – what other TWP track was written for a friend’s wedding?)

“Evangeline”, another alternate version of an original and stripped down/slowed down, is actually the original version of that song. It was originally recorded on a self-made EP by Mike Angus, titled Yellowhead Diaries, produced before TWP came together (also featuring versions of Township tracks “Whyte Avenue” and “Evergreen”).

“Woman” is a favorite, written by close friend of the band, Ryan Waye.  Ryan is an incredible singer-songwriter formerly of Edmonton, now Toronto, who used to hang around the same open-stages as the guys, stunning everyone with his bevy of unforgettable new-folk songs.  There is actually a recording of this song by Ryan, done live at the old Red Strap Art Market, captured by Shameless Records, floating around in limited edition somewhere. Ryan is incredible, you should go listen to his songs on myspace.

June 22/2010

So that is the story. It has been released today, digital only.  There will be no physical copies pressed, burned, or otherwise manufactured. So go to your favorite online retailer, use your iTunes gift card, your eMusic credits, etc, and roll a few bucks on a little more TWP in your life.