Pitchfork: Pink Mountaintops to Release New Album

I'd like to tell you a little bit about Pink Mountaintops, but what's the point, really? Quoth their press release: "Yeah, you may express, with a wink, that you know what the 'pink mountaintops' are all about. Perhaps you can fuck them, both literally and figuratively. But we'd maintain that you can't put your hands around these mountaintops. No, because these mountaintops are unreachable."

A rock journalist just can't compete with honest copy like that. But in a feeble attempt, I will tell you that the mastermind of the band is one Stephen McBean, who you may know better from his psych-rockin', Coldplay tour-openin', druggy-swaggerin' other band, Black Mountain.

Highpointer Club members and pot smokers alike take notice: Pink Mountaintops will release a new album February 7 on Jagjaguwar, entitled Axis of Evol. The album is said to be home recorded and almost entirely self-produced, and references Jesus and Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, Velvet Underground, and Smog. Is it Black Mountain minus the A+ Sabbath-aping and experimental country-fried rockers? But what's the point of speculation, the band is "unreachable," remember? Ponder the tracklist and listen for yourself when the damn record comes out:

01 Comas
02 Cold Criminals
03 New Drug Queens
04 Slaves
05 Plastic Man, You're the Devil
06 Lord, Let Us Shine
07 How We Get Free

But Mcbean and the folks at Jagjaguwar are kind enough to offer a teaser to those of us who just can't wait until February-- at least those of us with record players. On Tuesday, December 6, a two-song 7" was released, featuring the following tracks:

01 The Ones I Love
02 Erected

Pink Mountaintops will be touring the lifeblood out of their new material this March as a full band, including Wendel Camirand and Henry Graham, according to McBean. They'll be hitting the West Coast to start things off, and then making their way to the Midwest and East come May and June.

And it appears that Black Mountain are hard at work too, having just finished up a tour with Dead Meadow that was rudely interrupted by the theft of all their equipment in NYC, and working on a new album that will be released sometime in 2006. When asked if Black Mountain had recovered any of their stolen gear, McBean replied, "No, but we had a lot of fun with my credit card." That's gotta hurt.