Artists have been covering songs by Galaxie 500 all month in lead-up to the Record Store Day release of G500's live album, Copenhagen, on August 29. Today we get Mark Lanegan who teams with Earth's Dylan Carlson for a slightly grungy take on "Summertime," which was on Galaxie 500's final album, This is Our Music. Says Mark, "Dylan Carlson and I giving the garage treatment to one of my favorite songs by Galaxie 500, one of the all-time great bands." You can watch that, and compare with the original "Summertime," below.

Other artists who'd covered Galaxie 500 in the series include Thurston Moore, The Feelies' Glenn Mercer, Barbra Manning, The Natvral (Kip from Pains of Being Pure at Heart), and Circuit des Yeux's Haley Fohr, and there are still covers to come from Magnetic Fields, Real Estate and more.

Earlier this year, Mark Lanegan and Cold Cave covered Joy Division's "Isolation" in tribute to Ian Curtis, and Mark released new solo album Straight Songs of Sorrow in May.

[via Brooklyn Vegan]

Dylan Carlson will be performing "Conquistador" in full at Roadburn 2020 with curator Emma Ruth Rundle joining him on stage for the first time ever. Providing a visual performance will be the star of the "Conquistador" artwork Holly Carlson. An incredibly unique and rare performance, make sure not to miss if you're in attendance.

Dylan Carlson’s solo work - including that under the Drcarlsonalbion moniker - is a departure from his output with Earth, and yet it retains a distinctive minimalist quality easily identifiable to fans. We’re delighted to announce that as well as performing a huge celebration in honour of thirty years of Earth, Dylan will also be performing a solo set as part of Emma Ruth Rundle’s The Gilded Cage curated event.

Material from his 2019 album, Conquistador is likely to feature heavily and for the first time ever, Dylan will be joined on stage by Emma Ruth Rundle to perform the material they recorded together for that album. The album’s cover star, Holly Carlson, will also be making an appearance; an accomplished dancer and performer, she will be adding a visual layer to Dylan’s set.

Dylan says: “It’s an honour to be asked to perform twice at this year’s Roadburn. In addition to celebrating 30 years of Earth, I am excited to be performing Conquistador with Emma Ruth Rundle, as heard on the album. We have wanted to perform together for some time, and now we will finally have the opportunity to do so. Joining us will be dancer Holly Carlson (who played percussion on the album) with a special visual performance for this event. I have long thought of music and dance as inextricably linked, especially with my exposure to the possibilities of dance, courtesy of Holly. It seems they have been separated (especially in the realm of rock/hard rock music) for too long now. This will be a very special set, and I am so glad to be joined on stage by two phenomenal performers.”

Emma adds: “Now that we have Earth presenting their 30 year retrospective for us, how could we not ask Dylan if he would be so gracious as to grant us some of his solo works performed live, especially considering my contributions to his last solo album, Conquistado? I am happy to announce Dylan Carlson’s solo set featuring my accompaniment on guitar, as heard on the record and with live movement by Holly Carlson. Dylan is my hero and I’ve been so lucky to come to know him in real life and to get a chance to record and now, finally for the first time, to perform together. It’s an overwhelming privilege and I am both humbled, grateful and looking forward to it. I hope you will be too.”

Wordlessly telling a story is one of Dylan’s greatest gifts and an attribute that we cherish dearly. Creating his own language to inject passion and drama into an unwritten, unseen tale has us eagerly anticipating his solo set in April. Don’t let this one get away from you - highlight it on your schedules as soon as you’re able.

The universal vibrations of Earth: an interview with Dylan Carlson

Full interview via Never Mind The Hype

The 13th edition of Le Guess Who? Festival is coming up, featuring many wonderful artists with ringing names. One of those is the American band Earth. Originally the band hails from Seattle, the birthplace of grunge, where main man Dylan Carlson has many friends, including the late Kurt Cobain. But Carlson chose a different musical path than his fellow Seattleites with Earth, he chose drone.

Carlson is often called the father of drone metal. Not a moniker he would pick, but one he gratefully accepts. Currently, as we talk over Skype with a bunch of disruptions on the line as friends try to reach him, he is staying in Los Angeles. For the film soundtrack he is making, but also because he will be moving there in December. It’s a lot more sunny in L.A. he concurs: “It’s way warmer up here, nicer weather for sure!”, he chuckles.

We talk about the new album, Full Upon Her Burning Lips, which recently came out. But also about his solo record Conquistador, on which he collaborated with Emma Ruth Rundle. And Bagpipes. And Le Guess Who?, obviously.

What do you think about the Le Guess Who? Festival yourself?
“It’s one of my favorite festivals. I’m not crazy about festivals, but this one always has an interesting program and many people are there that I’d love to meet. Not that I get to usually, but last time I was there I saw jazz icon Pharaoh Sanders perform. That is really cool!”

How does Earth fit within the confines of a festival like Le Guess Who? And how did you end up playing there this year?
“Well, The Bug is one of the curators and we did an album together, so I think that’s how it went. But why we fit in is that even though people love boxing us into genres or microgenres, Earth has always tried to do something new, always pushed itself into new directions. That fits within the confines of this festival very well. As a musician, I don’t feel confined to microgenres. I make music, as best as I can, but I can’t affect the way people deal with that. But we play all sorts of festivals, because we are not limited to just heavy music. We’ve done Hellfest, Primavera, but also Le Guess Who? and Levitation festival. That’s a big range. Big Ears in Knoxville is another one of my favorites by the way. We’re not stuck in a corner, we can go many different ways with Earth.”

Text: Guido Segers // read more HERE

(via Creative Independent)

Dylan Carlson is the guitarist and founder of the band Earth, which specializes in drone-based instrumental music. Since the band’s inception in Seattle in 1990, Carlson has worked with a vast array of collaborators—including such notable musicians as Kurt Cobain, Mark Lanegan, and Joe Preston. His work combines a vast and seemingly disparate array of influences, from heavy metal and Indian devotional music to country and North African trance. He also has a solo project called Drcarlsonalbion.

How old were you when you started playing guitar?

Well, I wanted to start playing at about age 11, but I didn’t actually get a guitar until I was 15. I had a friend in high school who was a big prog head—he was super into Yes—and he showed me my first chords. You know, the basics: E, A, D, G, and I was off and running. Then my mom bought me a book on the blues for my birthday the year I got the guitar.

(full feature via Louder Sound)

Seattle experimentalists Earth have long dabbled in drone-inflected sonic minimalism. Over the course of their 30 years – and their eight studio albums – they've explored new musical territories and influenced a legion of bands in their wake.

With new album Full Upon Her Burning Lips, Earth – now a duo consisting of founder member Dylan Carlson and percussionist Adrienne Davies – have stripped their sound back to its core. It's still Earth, but it's Earth at their most essential.

"It was definitely a very organically developed record," says Carlson. "I limited the number of effects I used. I always like the limiting of materials to force oneself to employ them more creatively. Previous Earth records were quite lush sounding, and I wanted a more upfront and drier sound, using very few studio effects.

“I wanted this to be a ‘sexy’ record, a record acknowledging the ‘witchy’ and ‘sensual’ aspects in the music… sort of a ‘witch’s garden’ kind of theme, with references to mind-altering plants and animals that people have always held superstitious beliefs towards. A conjuror or root doctor’s herbarium of songs, as it were.

"I feel like this is the fullest expression and purest distillation of what Earth does since I re-started the band."

Here, Carlson takes us through Full Upon Her Burning Lips, one track at a time.