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Following the departure of the original bassist Dave Marchese and drummer Mike James, Longwave returned to the studio to record There's A Fire (RCA, 2005) with producer John Leckie (John Lennon, Radiohead, Stone Roses). Jason Molina joined on drums as the band set out on tour, playing with The Doves, Spoon, Kasabian, and The National. Sony had merged with BMG the prior year and the band found themselves and their new album caught in the wake of a major corporate shuffle. The band was then struck with a stretch of horrible luck, concluding with a series of dispiriting tour cancellations that ranged from natural disasters to co-headliners who had their tour support pulled days before they were set to head out. Shortly thereafter, Longwave lost their deal with RCA.
Disheartened and wracked with bills, Longwave were at a crossroads. Schiltz toured for the better part of the next two years as a guitarist with Albert Hammond, Jr. and Teddy Thompson; Ferguson and Molina continued to play together in the band Falcon. In 2007, the band revisited a couple of songs they had written and recorded in late 2005 with Fridmann, one of which was appropriately named "Life Is Wrong." Noisy, crazy, and thundering, (musically, vocally, and production-wise), the song was different from anything Longwave had recorded before. This song sparked another, the shimmering "Sirens In The Deep Sea," and convinced the band it was creatively time for another album. The band's publisher, Chrysalis, offered to help them make a fourth record and Secrets Are Sinister was born.
In early 2008, producer Peter Katis (Interpol, The National, Tokyo Police Club,) and Ferguson set up the band's practice space for recording before Katis departed, leaving the band to their own devices. All the drum and bass parts, as well as some guitars and overdubs, were recorded there in Brooklyn before the band traveled to Bridgeport, CT to finish the guitars, vocals, and mixing with Katis. Morgan King joined on bass during the recording period, playing on "Shining Hours." In two months time, the newly realized band had completed Secrets Are Sinister and by late summer, they had signed with indie label Original Signal Recordings, home to Ingrid Michaelson and David Ford, among other
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Longwave's fourth album Secrets Are Sinister doesn't waste any time introducing the band's newly expanded sound. Opener "Sirens In The Deep Sea" sets the stage with a brief, dueling jangle of chords before exploding into a cosmic crash of pounding drums, falsetto, and larger than life fuzzed out guitar. The band's trademark sound is all still there - atmospheric, arena-sized guitars that build to an epic swell - but now their penchant for dreamy landscapes gives way to an equally dynamic but louder, noisier, and more driving sensibility. Recorded predominantly by the band in their Brooklyn, NY studio (with help from producers Peter Katis and Dave Fridmann), Longwave returns from a three-year hiatus - self-imposed though sparked by a series of unfortunate events - with their most varied and strongest album to date.
Mar 19, 2009
home again. last night shannon and i were at the studio until 2am mixing a song that didn't make "secrets are sinister", called "missing days". it is a very old song, before "there's a fire". from the "tidal wave", "strangest things" days. i guess it was left off THOSE …
Mar 16, 2009
Hey friends fans and followers,
Become our follower on Twitter and get an exclusive MP3 of "Sideways Sideways Rain", available for the first time ever in the US.
https://twitter.com/Longwavetheband
Jason is our resident tweeter, give him a nudge!
Mar 16, 2009
Longwave is now doing a tour blog for Blender.com from their current tours with OK Go and Bloc Party.
Click the image below to read their first installment from Towson, MD.
day off today in portland, ME. we drove from northampton, MA, where we played last …
Angelina, Jan 27, 2009:
:)!