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STREAM: “Passport Invalid”

  SoundCloud / Stereogum

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Media Jeweler arose as a veritable phoenix out of the ashes of a revolving-door big band following an unexpected but celebratory funeral pyre supporting A Hawk and A Hacksaw in LA. Calls were made and within two weeks a leaner and decidedly meaner entity emerged, outlook fresh.

2 years later, their debut albumaims to capture the relentless restlessness of being alive on this increasingly weird and overstimulating planet. It was recorded and mixed in a casual and really quite nice three-day session during the dawn of spring at Machines with Magnets by Seth Manchester and Keith Souza (Battles, Lightning Bolt, etc.). It was mastered a week later by XOQ (Liars, Factory Floor, Martin Gore, etc.) The mood varies drastically on each of the seven tracks that make up the narrative of the album. We celebrated its completion with a few dozen jello shots at the local watering hole where we witnessed a man with a voice like crushed charcoal yell and storm out while Kid Rock’s deepest cuts droned.

This week the band shares album standout “Passport Invalid.” Stream the track over at Stereogum.

Please note that Media Jeweler prefers to be referred to as a Rock Band full-stop, jubilantly taking into consideration all the trappings and tropes associated with Rock music. The nuance lost with the variety of modifying adjectives that can precede “Rock” is priceless.

While the underground and DIY music zeitgeist seems to be shifting to the more de rigueur palette of cold synths and hot beats, the poor guitar seems often to be seen as a vestige of something that has seen its moment in the sun and belongs on a wall or in a dumpster. Perhaps it does.

We embrace this. Everything always must come full circle; inversion is key in development, and moving forward is all that one can do.

Tour Dates:

7/12 Santa Barbara, CA – Funzone
7/24 Pomona, CA – dA Center for the Arts w/ the Lentils (ex-Happy Jawbone Family Band)
8/30 Los Angeles, CA – The Smell w/ Half Goon, Byrnes/Byers Duo, Man and the Smells

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Media Jeweler
[Self Released]

Release Date: August 14, 2015

 

1. Looking Glass (Reprise)
2. No Exit
5. Untitled
6. Looking Back
7. Looking Glass

MEDIA JEWELER LINKS: