Contrary to popular belief, Nick Thorburn of Islands (and previously The Unicorns) was not born a unicorn. Indeed, after last night, it would appear that he was born a cat burglar. You see, according to several witnesses, a masked man with a build suspiciously similar to Thorburn’s broke in to my home and made off with my humidor, my smoking jacket, and my other humidor! The worst part? None of my friends believe me! Needless to say, I am stricken. My closest friend, who I’ll call Skipper here for the purposes of anonymity, called me this morning to explain why he didn’t believe me. “Dear friend, I can tell by the tone of your voice and by the content of what you’ve said that you weren’t seriously robbed, but that you are instead working on your next news post for Tiny Mix Tapes, and I’ll have none of it!”
“But, Skipper! I would never do such a thing!” I complained. Skipper replied, “Enough! You and I are both well aware that Thorburn’s follow-up to last year’s A Sleep & A Forgetting with his rotating cast of collaborators in Islands is called Ski Mask. Do you honestly expect me to believe that he’s been running around the country burgling people? Did he wear the titular ski-mask while he made off with your humidors? Next you’ll tell me he invited you to spend a weekend skiing with him in Aspen! Because you are as dapper and knowledgeable as you are tricksy, I’m sure you’re well aware that Ski Mask will be out September 17 on Thorburn’s own Manqué imprint.” After tracing the shape of a SoundCloud embed box in the air, he continued, “And I’m sure you’ve heard the tropicalia-inflected ‘Wave Forms’ that is currently streaming on the band’s site? And I trust you know about their North American tour beginning in September?”
After Skipper impressively recited the tour dates from memory, I told him that I did indeed know all of this, and I thanked him for basically writing my news post for me (I had been recording our conversation, as I do with all of my friends). I thought about protesting, saying that perhaps Thorburn was robbing gentle music news writers because of his pent-up anger. After all, Thorburn described Ski Mask as an album that is both a summary of his “experience thus far with being in a band,” and “really about being angry.” However, I chose to stay silent, and Skipper graciously invited me to join he and his roommates for an egg cream at the local soda fountain later that day. I accepted the invitation, all the while plotting my revenge against Thorburn.
Ski Mask tracklist:
01. Wave Forms
02. Death Drive
03. Becoming the Gunship
04. Nil
05. Sad Middle
06. Hushed Tones
07. Here Here
08. Shotgun Vision
09. Of Corpse
10. We’ll Do It So You Don’t Have To
11. Winged Beat Drums
Dates:
09.18.13 - Visalia, CA - The Cellar Door
09.20.13 - Seattle, WA - The Vera Project
09.21.13 - Vancouver, BC - Media Club
09.22.13 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir
09.24.13 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
09.25.13 - Santa Ana, CA - The Constellation Room
09.26.13 - Los Angeles, CA - Eagle Rock Center for the Arts
09.27.13 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
10.08.13 - Boston, MA - Great Scott
10.09.13 - Montreal, QC, Il Motore
10.10.13 - Toronto, ON - The Garrison
10.11.13 - Detroit, MI - The Loving Touch
10.12.13 - Madison, WI - Der Rathskeller
10.13.13 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
10.14.13 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
10.16.13 - Washington, DC - Empty Bottle
10.17.13 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
10.20.13 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
• Islands: http://islandsareforever.com
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