Today Florida band Holopaw shares “We Are The Virgin Snow” a winter tune recorded in the hottest state in the Union where it hardly ever snows. The album is due on Misra on Jan. 15, and the band is hitting the road in Feb. (see full dates below).

Academy Songs, Volume I, Holopaw’s Misra Records debut, takes the band to new levels. Through collaborations with Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock (Ugly Casanova) and releases via Sub Pop Records, frontman John Orth has honed his gift for lyricism, storytelling, and delivery. Now, backed by a variant possessing uncanny chemistry (complete with identical twin brothers), we’ve been graced with an unparalleled, breathtaking Holopaw album.

Over a ten-song cycle, the close quarters of an all-boys preparatory academy, and the world beyond its “ivied walls,” become the sites of devotion, betrayal, communion (or near-communion), and abject loneliness. The joys and thrills and dangers of both discovery and transgression are detailed. “The rising and falling of their little lives” is illuminated in stunning imagery.

Theboyshadallbeensent to the far side of the lake / one held back until the fever breaks / sweating through his nightshirt / orchids curling into bloom / volunteer sleeps in the corner of the room / “Pardon me, sir. Sorry to wake you.” / “Respectfully, I say, this fever is not breaking.” / “There’s a war I’m steady losing on the far side of the lake” / “to a little dark horse who’s steady rising through the ranks.”

Jeremy Scott drove his Civil Defense Studio down from Brooklyn to record Academy Songs in a St. Augustine beach house. Serendipitously, the physical intimacy of the experience seemed to mirror the boys academy detailed in song. Holopaw lived, worked, cooked, and swam together. Their world consisted of playing music and cutting paths from beach house to beach and back again. Long days recording were celebrated over homemade horchata, fish tacos, and a different flavor of hand-churned ice cream each night (ginger lime and peach brown sugar standing out as favorites). A night swim would commence, followed by recording into the dark and light of morning.

Holopaw’s Patrick Quinney summarized the experience upon returning: “You know that feeling you have after swimming and getting a lot of sun, where you seem to experience every little thing-food, rest, humor, music-as a kind of deep physical and spiritual luxury? We have been asked by a surprising number of people if the recording got ‘beachy’ out there: in the sense that we made it entirely in an atmosphere of that physical and spiritual luxury, I would have to say that it did. I certainly hope that everything that sounded good or seemed like a great idea at the time will continue to do so after the last of the sand is out of our shoes.”

01/31 Gainesville, FL – Church of Holy Colors
02/01 Atlanta, GA – Earl #^
02/02 Charleston, SC – Tin Roof
02/04 Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery *
02/05 Hoboken, NJ – Maxwell’s *
02/06 New Haven, CT – BAR nightclub *+
02/07 Allston, MA – Great Scott *
02/08 Brooklyn, NY – Knitting Factory *
02/09 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie *
02/11 Washington, DC – Comet Ping Pong
02/12 Chapel Hill, NC – Night Light
02/13 Athens, GA – Farm 225 &
02/14 St. Augustine, FL – The Floridian %

# = w/ Meeks Family
^ = w/ Night Driving
* = w/ Love as Laughter
+ = w/ Howly Dogs
& = w/ MOTHS
% = w/ Telepathic Lines

Holopaw

Academy Songs, Volume I
(Misra)
Street Date: Jan. 15, 2013

Track List:
1. Academy
2. Golden Sparklers
3. Diamonds
4. Bedfellows Farewell
5. Dirty Boots He Don’t
6. We Are The Virgin Snow
7. Discotheque
8. Infidels
9. Chapperelles Interlude
10. The Lights From The Disco
11. Golden Years

Holopaw
Golden Sparklers 7″
(Misra)
Street Date: Nov. 13, 2012

A: Golden Sparklers
B: Yearlings Darlings

HOLOPAW LINKS:

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Holopaw/173308345517

Label:
http://misrarecords.com/artists/holopaw/