Having played South By South West over the past couple of years, Golden Bear have just released a souped up new EP, Everest, which sees the Texan rock band playing together like they would at a rehearsal or a show. Says frontman Chris Gregory: ‘I was a little anxious about being able to approximate the sound of our live show in the first place, but I figured to hell with it-let’s give it a shot. And I’m glad we did. There were no endless nights of playing the same song 150 times, no overscrutinaztion, and in all honesty, no hitches in the plan whatsoever. It was loose, rowdy, and rewarding, just like our shows’. You can download the Golden Bear track, All The Stars [listen below], for free via the Music Download section in the third column of the Lost At E Minor site.

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A couple weeks ago, some buddies of mine in the black metal band Krallice played a show organized by Matthew Barney (a notorious metalhead) at the Deitch space in Long Island City. Whole pigs were roasted, and the head of one became a stage prop for the Texas band Dagon. The highlight of the evening was the mighty Inquisition, a fantastic Seattle-based black metal duo from Colombia. I’ve never heard live black metal sound this good (who knew a huge art warehouse would be so perfect for blast beats and tremolo picking?), and the crowd — a strange mix of leather-clad biker-looking types, South American metal kids, and tote-bag-sporting hipsters — went nuts. Barney himself meandered through the crowd, looking like a dad that has allowed his kids to drink beer in the basement, and though Bjork was nowhere to be seen, my companion, who has more than a passing resemblance to the Icelandic pixie, received many a double take. Check out Jae Saam’s photostream for some more photos of the evening.

We’re big fans of Texas-based group, Midlake, whose melodic indie-rock is deliciously produced. We interviewed guitarist Eric Pulido. There was a pretty big shift in sound between the first album and [new album] The Trials…, the latter being much more mellow, acoustic-based. What brought on the change? ‘We started getting influenced by bands and artists of the 70s folk era, such as Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, CSNY, Jethro Tull, Jimmie Spheeris, and so on. We were always aware of those bands, but not as immersed in the sound. While for the first album we were listening to bands like Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips, to name a couple, for the second album we switched gears, and so did our sound’. Whatever the shift, you’ve seen far greater success with it. Was the comparatively quiet response after the first album constructive for you guys? ‘Well, we got right to work on the second album after we toured briefly on the first. It was motivating to get back to recording because we felt like we hadn’t quite found the sound we wanted on the first album. Even though we’re still striving for better songs and sounds, we feel like we’re evolving and hopefully getting better’.