Ravens & Chimes Share New Single IRREPLACEABLE ARTIFACTS

Ravens & Chimes will release their new album The Empty House on March 22 via Better Looking Records (pre-order). This week they shared their new single "Irreplaceable Artifacts" with MXDWN and the track will be available on all digital streaming services this Friday. About the song MXDWN says, "The song has a loping rhythm and eerie instrumentation that recall vintage heartland rock with a strong mix of modern indie rock influence. The song breaks down to the earnestly-sung vocals and a kick drum at the end, allowing Ravens & Chimes to strip the song down to its barest elements. It's a fitting ending to an elaborately arranged yet ultimately straightforward rock song."

"Irreplaceable Artifacts" is the second single from The Empty House. The track follows up the release of "Big Ups" which premiered at PopMatters and is also available to share at Soundcloud or Spotify.

About the track Raven's and Chimes Asher Lack says:

Before we started writing this record, I spent a lot of time thinking about what making music really meant to me, and taking stock of how those feelings had changed since we started the band. Every time we reached a goal (selling out shows, headlining tours, playing festivals in Europe), the reality turned out to be nothing like what I had imagined. There were so many benchmarks of what I thought it meant to be successful as a musician that ended up not meaning as much as I thought they would. The biggest positive that came out of considering the difference between expectations and experience, was that it prompted me to think a lot about what it actually meant to be a success. I wrote this song to stay upbeat about finding the things that are important (friends, family, making good work) and not letting the static get in the way. It's a lot to ask of a song, but I'm happy with how it turned out and it's one of the rare times when the music actually came out better than it was in my head!

Ravens and Chimes is one of those "best bands you've never heard." The four-piece indie rock group formed in 2005 while studying music and film at New York University. Less than a year after recording their first demo, they were signed to Better Looking Records when a CDR of one of their songs made its way from a friend at a party to the CFO of Rhino Records, who convinced Better Looking to sign the band.

In 2006, they traveled to Montreal to record their debut album with producers Brian Paulson (Wilco, Beck, Dinosaur Jr.) and Howard Bilerman (The Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Wolf Parade) at Bilerman's studio, The Hotel2Tango. Released in October 2007, Reichenbach Falls garnered comparisons to the romantic, introspective lyricism of Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen, and the exuberant youthful energy of The Buzzcocks and The Jam. (Cohen went on to praise the band, eventually tapping Bilerman to work on his final album You Want it Darker.) Reichenbach Falls was praised by Spin, The Village Voice, The Washington Post, KEXP, The L.A. Times, and more.

Lineup changes delayed production on the band's follow up. Produced by Howard Bilerman andLarry Crane, (The Decemberists, Sleater Kinney, Elliott Smith) Ravens and Chimes sophomore album Holiday Life was released spring of 2012, two years after it was completed, and a full year after three album tracks had premiered on the MTV show SKINS. In support of the album, the band toured in 13 countries and licensed five of the album's ten tracks to film and TV. The lead single, "Division Street," went to #29 on the college radio charts in Germany.

Recorded over the course of three years with producer Kevin McMahon, (Titus Andronicus, Real Estate, The Walkmen) the band's third album The Empty House is an introspective, lyric-driven meditation on loss, change, friendship, and growing up. The band sheds none of the drama or energy of its earlier albums, but approaches these new songs with a more seasoned outlook, and a subtler sound. Ravens and Chimes is a band that takes the time to craft something special, and that ethos is clear in The Empty House.

photo credit: Ryan Muir

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