Audio By Carbonatix
Next month, Denton’s own Shiny Around the Edges‘ “debut album” Holy Roller will be released on Sounds Are Active–the same indie-imprint that’s released material by I Heart Lung, Castanets and The Weird Weeds.
In anticipation of that release, the band was kind enough to send us the mp3 for “Come Closer” this morning.
Shiny’s Michael Seman tells us isn’t available anywhere else on the ol’ interweb, and, up to this point, it was only available for streaming on the band’s MySpace page. So check it out…
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“It’s an interesting story,” says Seman. “The label is run by Chris [Schlarb] of I Heart Lung. And, three or four years ago, the Castanets and I Heart Lung were coming to town, and some other band dropped off the bill. And, I remember, Glen Farris calling to ask if we wanted to take the vacant spot. And I loved the Castanets, so, of course I said we’d do it.”
And that’s how Shiny met Schlarb, Seman says, and after that show, the two kept in touch. Then, last year, after seeing Schlarb perform a solo gig in Austin, Seman presented him with a finished copy of Holy Roller.
Those familiar with Shiny know how intense and transparent the band’s live performances are, but that’s something that Seman says has been difficult to capture when recorded. Until now.
“On Holy Roller, working with Matt Barnhart, somehow, for the first time, we sound exactly how we should sound,” he says. “When we’d gone into the studio to record before, we’d never been able to capture how we sound when we perform live.”
Schlarb liked the album and said he’d like to put it out on Sounds are Active. The rest, as they say, is history. A few months later, Schlarb asked Shiny if it wanted to put together an EP that would be available for download on the label’s Web site before the label released Holy Roller.
“We thought about it,” Seman says. “And instead, we decided that we’d take whatever additional exposure and coverage that we had to get some of that exposure for our friends as well.”
So, in a few weeks, when you’re downloading 20 Bands/74.4 Minutes!, maybe shoot Michael Seman a thank you note…
