One month ago they were mixing the new album, now they've deleted their Myspace. In the words of Nate Dorr, Impose's biggest fan of Gown's prescient alchemy between noise and pop, “Gah, so few bands have both the heart and the technique to pull off what they did.”
Former vocalist/guitarist Erika Anderson sent us an email passing on the sad news, but was simultaneously hopeful about future projects, and felt a sense of completion over this sprawling, truly moving last track that the band recorded.
“We were able to make one last thing that could possibly fulfill your request of a new release in 2010,” she explained, which was a sweet way to put it – we did call out the planned new album by the band as one of our predicted best albums of 2010, and we couldn't ask for more than the slow burning “Stand” that swells into triumphant, marching drone, with Anderson and Ezra Buchla singing together in harmony.
As Anderson explains, “I feel like it is the end result of the specific style we had been honing over the years, and I'm very proud of it.”
She obliquely explains the break up on her blog:
Pitchfork Media once described GOWNS as “one of the most heart-stoppingly great live bands on Earth”, and it was the same tension that produced these electrifying performances that ultimately drove us apart. Another reviewer once referred to the themes of light and darkness that ran through Red State, which funnily enough I had never noticed, but seems now like an apt metaphor for the entire experience in general.
We were tapping into some very raw emotions, and I’m ultimately proud of the risks we took. 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.
