Minus Story

[stephanie]

Bits of good news on an otherwise thoroughly depressing day:  the Zimbabwean government has apparently halted its campaign -- unsettlingly named Operation Drive Out Trash -- to demolish shantytowns there (only after a pretty harsh U.N. smackdown, sure, and a creepy statement saying the "operation" was "now complete" because they have "achieved what [they] intended," but hey).  On the other side of the equator, the IRA has announced its intent to formally end its armed campaign in Northern Ireland (I am a dumbass, thank you Jeb).

And a much tinier bit of sunshine, stateside:  there is a band from Lawrence, Kansas called Minus Story.

They are so fucking good, I am occasionally stunned to re-realise they exist.  But they do.  And they have a new record coming out in a few months.  And the aforementioned record is making me forget that the world is a terrible place for as much as thirty to forty minutes at a time, so I figured I should tell you about it, because who doesn't love to forget about what a terrible place the world is?  The record is called No Rest for Ghosts.  The lyrics are among the most beautiful I have ever heard.
(Please rest assured that I have never even so much as been in the same room with any of these dudes, so there are no personal vendettas on the radar -- not that I would ever do that, ahem.  I just love their records like crazy, and, uh.  You guys know how I get about bands I love.  DON'T YOU.)

As I am entrenched in the most profound case of writer's block I've had in my entire life, I can't really wax as effusively as I'd like to trying to explain what they sound like.  I'll just let the songs speak instead.

-Sum "You Were On My Side" (from The Captain is Dead, Let the Drum Corpse Dance)
-Sum "Joyless, Joyless" (from The Captain is Dead, Let the Drum Corpse Dance)
-Sum "Time Wastes Itself" (from the Heaven and Hell EP)
-Sum "Knocking On Your Head" (from No Rest for Ghosts)
-Sum "Little Wet Head" (from No Rest for Ghosts)

If you have an opportunity to hear the new record outside of the mp3s listed above, please make the most of said opportunity and listen to "Ringing in the Dark" with the volume all the way up.  Shiver.

Please listen, and holla back with what you think.  And please go see them on tour, if they are rolling through yr west coast town.

[old kentucky shark]

Mega love to The Captain is Dead, but the mp3s off the new album haven't impressed me anywhere near as much. I do really wanna hear the whole thing though !

Okay "Little Wet Head" does impress me, never mind, BUT "Knocking On Your Head" seems like kind of a dud

[El_Josharino]

I saw them open for Shearwater and Okkervil River (and I think they may be touring with OR again this fall... not sure though) not long after Captain is Dead... came out last year, and they were really really great.  Afterward, I stopped and talked to them just long enough to tell them how good their album is, and they seemed like very nice fellows.

So yeah, what Stephanie said.

[jebreject]

IRA, Steph.

[stephanie]

IRA, Steph.

See edit.

Um, bands!  Yay!

[SPACERACE]

Well I'm glad you made this thread, Steph, because now I really, really like the Minus Story.

[stephanie]

I can always count on you, Reese.

They'll be touring with Okkervil River in October.  Not sure if they're going that far east, but.. um.. probably?  Yeah, probably!

[jordancgeiger]

hi there!
here's a no rest for ghosts music player thing:
http://countrycore.com/minusstory/nr4g/
jordan

[wubfur]

Just in case I'm not the only one who's been patiently waiting for it, NO REST FOR GHOSTS has finally shown up on eMusic and it is excellent.

That is all.