Media

Gowns: "Stand and Encounter" (MP3)

11:48 a.m. · February 8, 2010 · by Nick Neyland

Here’s some sad news: Gowns, who produced one of the standout releases of 2007 with the excellent Red State album, have ceased to operate. The set of incendiary live shows undertaken to promote the record garnered further critical plaudits, but the protracted silence that followed its release has ultimately led to the untimely dissolution of the band.

“We were tapping into some very raw emotions, and I’m ultimately proud of the risks we took,” they write in a blog post. “ In spite of anything else, I feel like we were honest, and I feel like we were brave. I’m also proud of the sounds we created, as though the combination of our talents created something that was rare and unique.”

Fortunately, the band has left us with one last piece of music, which is streaming here. It’s an appropriately apocalyptic way to close the book on Gowns—full of howling-at-the-moon vocals and odd diversions into discordance and drone-like noise—but it’s also bitterly frustrating to consider what might have been.

More info on the split is available over at the Gowns blog.