Distant Stars is either a long EP or a short album. It’s all a matter of (your!) perspective. It’s both a demo tape and a cohesive lo-fi project. I hope you get some enjoyment out of listening; it is always a joy to make these things.

The full EP/mini-album contains a cover of Pavement’s Zürich is Stained. Check that out on the YouTube channel if you desire. www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0-ddYW4XNQ

Distant Stars came to be over March-May during random chunks of free time which probably should have been spent studying. Some of these songs are built around riffs I’ve been trying to use for countless months (Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars), some came out of totally random improvised nuggets that ended up sounding legitimately better than whatever I was earnestly trying to work on during a given day (Frailty). The album doesn’t quite garner the novel-length explication of references and inspirations something that matters did, but it should be clear to fans of a certain school of indie rock that this album’s cover is referencing Yo La Tango’s 1993 LP Painful. It’s a picture I took from the window of a bus which I thought was pretty. Also, the title of Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars is the name of a chapter from Bill Cooper’s Behold A Pale Horse, the granddaddy of modern U.S. conspiracy writing. I don’t know how Bill would feel about my specific viewpoint, but at the very least he and I are both staunch critics of the C.I.A, so there’s some implied brotherhood there.

This project is both a demo tape and an EP/mini-album. Which seems sort of odd, but it’s been done in the past. I intend this as a document of my songwriting and guitar playing that will one day be recorded professionally with a full band, but it’s also a standalone “demos album” which functions as a distinct aesthetic project in and of itself. I credit Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, whose music I have been endlessly obsessed with and inspires much of my own writing and playing, for this dual idea–in the early days of the band, Isaac would record demo tapes but title them and create artwork in such a way that they function as distinct albums. What might be the band’s best recording pre-Lonesome Crowded West is a lo-fi demo entitled “Live in Sunburst MT” which is included as the second half of their EP Interstate 8. It’s seriously awesome stuff. Seriously, listen to that version of Beach Side Property.

A note about Emerson Laura Palmer and the next few months:
Though Distant Stars is a one-man labor of love (please never let me repeat that phrase), Emerson Laura Palmer is now a four-man band, and we’re planning some cool stuff soon, so keep your ears peeled. I’m going out of the country for a few weeks and am unsure what the summer will bring in terms of new music; everything will be announced here on the Bandcamp page.

Dedicated to J.B. and G.J. as always.