East River Pipe "Make A Deal With the City"

The new release from F.M. Cornog, who records as East River Pipe, is set to drop in early 2006. Cheekily titled What Are You On?, it apparently structures itself around all sorts of drug use, but not in the way one would think. Merge’s artist bio explains: “Cornog rewrites the musical drug book, and perhaps it’s about time that someone recognised so transparently that drugs are not only celebratory. The drugs here are not glorified in the traditional rock ‘n’ roll sense. They’re taken for desperate reasons, simply to allow life to become bearable.” I haven’t had the opportunity to sample the new one yet, but I’ve been a big fan of ERP for a while now, and I’d like to highlight one of my favorite songs from his first official record, Shining Hours in a Can. Originally released on cultishly adored indie pop label Sarah Records, Shining Hours compiled all of Cornog’s early recordings, and was reissued by Merge a few years later. The most surprising element of East River Pipe’s music is that it sounds anything but “lo-fi”. His magnificent, instantly memorable chiming guitar lines reverberate from speakers with a resonance rivaling anything Pro-Tooled to death, and his delicate wisp of a voice wraps itself around lyrics like “Sometimes just blow up/Sometimes just deflate/Sometimes just hang on/Sometimes pull away” from the wonderful “Make a Deal With the City” (mp3). Fans of fellow Merge-rs The Clientele should find much to like here.

Bonus: ERP’s stranger side–the earworm “Psychic Whore” (mp3)

Buy all of your East River Pipe music, including Shining Hours and What Are You On? from Merge here.

Filed under: East River Pipe  Merge  Old-School