SONG OF THE DAY

“40 Day Dream” by Edward Sharpe & The Mag­netic Zeros (Up From Below, Com­mu­nity Records/ Vagrant Records/ Rough Trade Records, 2009). Writ­ten by Edward Sharpe & The Mag­netic Zeros.

WHERE I HEARD IT

This awe­some track was talked over dur­ing a scene from Sea­son 1 of NBC’s Mercy (episode: “That Crazy Bitch Was Right”). Luck­ily for me there exists the amaz­ing web­site heardontv.com, which led me to the song sure enough. I’ve had 100% good for­tune when­ever I ask a ques­tion to those mes­sage boards, so I highly rec­om­mend it!

P.S. This band had SO MANY amaz­ing pho­tos online for press, hence I made a lit­tle col­lage instead of pick­ing just one. Yeah, I guess you could say I’m into that now. Oh, and check out the band’s web­site, it is so beau­ti­ful. Every­thing a band’s web­site should be.

Why you should like this band? Because on the mes­sage board’s of KCRW’s Morn­ing Becomes Eclec­tic, a fan describes Edward Sharpe and The Mag­netic Zeroes as “Poly­phonic Spree meets Queen and has an affair with Hed­wig and the Angry Inch”. If you’re my friend, then that phrase just made you pee. Hed­wig is one of the esteemed women singer’s in this blog’s header for chris­sakes, and as for Queen, well, jesus, they were my first rock love.

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

- Up from Below is the first full length album from Edward Sharpe and the Mag­netic Zeros. It was pre­ceded by Here Comes EP.

- Edward Sharpe and the Mag­netic Zeros is an ensem­ble band led by Alex Ebert, vocal­ist of the power pop group Ima Robot.

- Their first full-length record­ing, Up from Below, was released July 7, 2009, dig­i­tally and July 14, 2009, phys­i­cally on Com­mu­nity Records. Their first show as a full band was played July 18, 2007, at the Trou­ba­dour in West Hol­ly­wood, California.

- Their song “Home” was voted #15 on the Aus­tralian Triple J Hottest 100 of 2009 count­down, the largest music poll in the world, and has also been fea­tured in a trailer for Cyrus.

- Their song “Jan­glin” was fea­tured in a tele­vi­sion ad for the 2011 Ford Fiesta.

- After break­ing up with his girl­friend, mov­ing out of his house, and leav­ing a 12-step pro­gram for addic­tion (he left, as he has said, to live in a more hon­est reac­tion to the truth of the moment, not be bound to cer­tain behav­iors by fear-based dogma), Ebert began work on a book about a mes­sianic fig­ure named Edward Sharpe.

- Accord­ing to Ebert, Sharpe “was sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind…but he kept get­ting dis­tracted by girls and falling in love.”

- Ebert later met singer Jade Cas­tri­nos in Los Angeles.

- In the sum­mer of 2009, as Edward Sharpe & the Mag­netic Zeros, Ebert and Cas­tri­nos toured the coun­try with a group of fel­low musi­cians in a big white bus.

- Their first show in 2008 was Marfa Texas at the Marfa Film Festival.

- On June 5, 2009, the band released “Desert Song”, a music video which is part 1 of a 12-part feature-length musi­cal. Part 2, “Kisses Over Baby­lon” was released Novem­ber 24, 2009 through Spinner.com.

Mem­bers

• Alex Ebert – vocals, guitar, percussion, piano
• Jade Cas­tri­nos – vocals, guitar
• Nico Agli­et­ti – guitar, synthesizer, key­boards, vocals
• Stew­art Cole – trum­pet, per­cus­sion, key­boards, tenor ukulele, vocals
• Tay Strathairn – piano, vocals
• Aaron Old­er – bass, vocals, banjo, percussion
• Josh Col­la­zo – drums, per­cus­sion, vocals
• Orpheo McCord – per­cus­sion, vocals
• Nora Kirk­patrick – accor­dion, vocals
• Chris­t­ian Letts – guitar, vocals

Addi­tional personnel

• Chris Richard – vocals, percussion
• Anna Bul­brook – vio­lin, vocals
• Aaron Embry – key­boards, piano, vocals
• Tyler James – piano, vocals
• Ryan Richter – gui­tar, lap steel, vocals
• Michael Far­fel – announcer
• Scott Ral­ston — Tour Man­ager, Sound Wizard
• Bryan Ling — Manager

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Are they not hav­ing an amaz­ing time per­form­ing this?! My god, this looks like a blast! I would def­i­nitely see them in con­cert, I mean, just watch: