Skip to main content

The Return Of I Mother Earth Showers Fans With Love, Riffs

You have to feel bad for any band that slowly and helplessly falls into obscurity, especially a band as musically gifted as I Mother Earth.  After all, this is a band whose first two albums (1993's Dig and 1996's Scenery and Fish) not only kicked ass back in the day, but completely hold up nearly twenty years after the fact.  However, when you're on a roll, sometimes egos come into play.  Once Edwin defected to flirt with mainstream acceptance in the late 90's, taking much of the fairweather IME fans with him, the band's hand had pretty much been dealt.  Their decidedly difficult, meandering and considerably mellower debut with new singer Brian Byrne, 1999's Blue Green Orange, didn't exactly do them any favours.  Tragically, their last album (2003's The Quicksilver Meat Dream) was simultaneously their most musically satisfying and most commercially disappointing release.

As is so often the case, interest waned, the money started drying up, and I Mother Earth decided to take a break.  That break lasted over eight years before it was finally announced in January that new music was being written and new shows were being planned.  The first taste of what to expect from I Mother Earth circa 2012 surfaced online March 21 in the form of new song We Got the Love, which you should take six minutes out of your day for the sake of the awesome:




It's a refreshing and energetic track, throwing back to the band's classic sound while refusing to simply rehash it; it's a testament to Byrne's acceptance that you can listen to a track that musically could have sat alongside Edwin tunes on Scenery and Fish and not actually miss Edwin on it.

Perhaps more awesome than the song itself is the attitude of the band.  Having resigned to the fact that making a living at music is probably no longer an option, it's been announced via Jag Tanna's IME blog that any proceeds from the sale of We Got the Love will simply go toward the recording of the next song.  This is genius in a way; rather than sinking thousands of dollars into recording an album that in this day and age likely won't sell, they've instead made the promise to keep songs coming as long as their fans support the cause.  It's a simple concept that you almost can't believe hasn't been done on a wider scale.

If you support the band and want to hear more, you can download We Got the Love here.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Year in Rock 2025

  Alright, I've got some explaining to do.   By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but:   a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Year in Rock 2013 Nominee: Arctic Monkeys

ARCTIC MONKEYS Do I Wanna Know? From: AM Released: September 10 That Year in Rock 2012's Single of the Year R U Mine? ended up on this album is pleasing, and it fits the motif well enough. But R U Mine? isn't what makes Arctic Monkeys' fifth album an Album of the Year contender. Sweaty, sultry and pulsing with sexual energy, AM is the kind of record that's just as effective whether you're chilling out after a long day, staring into a mirror prepping yourself for a late night clubbing session or setting the mood for some escapades in the boudoir.
Post a Comment
Read more

Year in Rock 2023: Album of the Year #10-1

Now we're getting somewhere; the top ten, where there are no duds or mids, only bangers. Also, no more teasing it out; let's wrap this up!  What I've learned this year from my ten faves this year is that it is indeed still possible for a dude approaching his fifties to more or less stay up to date on the new school. Of course, there are some listed here that got a boost from playing tribute to the old school, but there is an undercurrent happening in rock that points to the future. But, I'm getting ahead of myself; here come the champs. 10 MILITARIE GUN Life Under the Gun June 23, 2023 • Loma Vista Highlights Very High Will Logic Never Fucked Up Once Rising from the ranks of the still-potent L.A. hardcore scene, the debut record from Militarie Gun (following a trio of EPs) bears a dash of polish that's expected with backing from a larger label; the tension and energy remain, though, resulting in one of the catchiest hardcore albums I can think of in recent years. 9 ...
Post a Comment
Read more