The Microphones was the name of a musical project based in Olympia, Washington, and fronted by Phil Elvrum. Elvrum was the principal songwriter and producer behind the Microphones' albums, but he also collaborated with other local musicians on his recordings and on tour. Many of Elvrum's recordings from this period were released by the label K Records. Since 2003, Elvrum (who now spells his surname Elverum) has recorded and performed under the name Mount Eerie.
History
Early years
Phil Elvrum became involved in the Washington music scene while working at The Business, a record store in his home town of Anacortes, in the mid-1990s. Elvrum began experimenting with recording equipment in the back of the store, which led to the store's owner Bret Lunsford releasing two cassettes (Microphone and Wires and Cords) on his label, KNW-YR-OWN. Elvrum also played drums in Lunsford's band, D+, before moving to Olympia in 1997 to attend Evergreen State College.
Whilst in Olympia, Elvrum caught the attention of K Records owner and musician Calvin Johnson. After recording for some time at the Dub Narcotic studios, Elvrum was able to complete his first full-length album, a CD entitled Tests, which was released in 1998 on Elsinor Records. Tests combined songs from his earlier cassette releases and the recently recorded Dub Narcotic recordings. At the same time, Elvrum released his first 7" single, "Bass Drum Dream" on Up Records.
She has released ten full-length solo and collaborative recordings, numerous EP's and 7" vinyl records, and has contributed tracks to a wide variety of compilations. Mirah has collaborated with artists such as Phil Elvrum of The Microphones, Tune-Yards, Susie Ibarra, Jherek Bischoff and Thao Nguyen. A new solo album, Changing Light, was released on May 13, 2014 on her imprint Absolute Magnitude Records.
Her style encompasses indie pop, acoustic, and experimental pop. According to The Rumpus in 2011, "Mirah's early records...are DIY mini-masterpieces that express a punk sensibility through broken drum machines, reverb-drenched guitars and ukulele. Her more recent albums...are mature, complex and immaculately-produced."
Mirah (formerly known as Duby) is a programming language based on Ruby syntax, local type inference, hybrid static/dynamic type system, and a pluggable compiler toolchain. Mirah was created by Charles Oliver Nutter to be "a 'Ruby-like' language, probably a subset of Ruby syntax, that [could] compile to solid, fast, idiomatic JVM bytecode." The word mirah refers to the gemstone ruby in the Javanese language, a play on the concept of Ruby in Java.
History
In order to foster more participation in the JRuby project from Ruby community members, Nutter began to explore the possibility of presenting Ruby syntax, but with a static type model and direct-to-native compilation. In this context, "native" meant primarily the JVM, but Mirah has been designed around the possibility of having alternative backends for other object-oriented runtimes like the CLR. The language needed to look and feel like Ruby, but without introducing any new library dependencies into JRuby (which ruled out most other JVM languages) and without suffering a performance penalty (which meant writing in Ruby itself was out).
00:00 I Want Wind To Blow
05:33 The Glow Pt. 2
10:32 The Moon
15:48 Headless Horseman
18:57 My Roots Are Strong And Deep
20:50 Instrumental
22:29 The Mansion
26:21 (Something)
28:00 (Something)
30:42 I'll Not Contain You
33:33 The Gleam Pt. 2
35:30 Map
40:31 You'll Be In The Air
43:13 I Want To Be Cold
44:54 I Am Bored
46:31 I Felt My Size
48:55 Instrumental
50:48 I Felt Your Shape
52:42 Samurai Sword
56:50 My Warm Blood
Total Run Time: 1:06:19
Artist: The Microphones
Album: The Glow Pt. 2
Released: September 25, 2001
Buy:
Bandcamp: http://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com/a...
CD/Vinyl: http://www.pwelverumandsun.com/store#...
published: 28 Feb 2015
The Microphones - I Want Wind To Blow
off of the glow part 2
The thunder clouds broke up
And the rain dried up
The lightning let up
The clacking shutters just shut up
There's no black or white
No change in the light
No night, no golden sun
The sound of cars
The smell of bars
The awful feeling of electric heat
And the fluorescent lights
There's sacrifice
There's hard feelings
There's pointless waste
I want wind to blow
My clothes off me
Sweep me off my feet
Take me up and bring me back
Oh, where I can see
Days pass by me
I have no head to hold in grief
There's no hope for me
I've been set free
There's no breeze
There's no ship on my sea
published: 08 Oct 2012
The Microphones - The Glow Pt 2
Lyrics:
I took my shirt off in the yard
no one saw that the skin on my shoulders was golden
now it's not
my shirt's back on
i forgot my songs
the glow is gone
my gliding body stopped
i could not get through september without a battle
i faced death
i went in with my arms swinging
but i heard my own breath
i had to face that i'm still living
i'm still flesh
i hold on to awful feelings
i'm not dead
there's no end
my face is red
my blood flows harshly
my heart beats loudly
my chest still draws breath
i hold it
i'm buoyant
there's no end
published: 06 May 2013
The Microphones (Mount Eerie) - Sept 9 2002 at Pete's Candy Store
Important: Support Phil's music here https://www.pwelverumandsun.com/store or https://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com
The Microphones (Phil Elv[e]rum), later known as Mount Eerie, performing with Wolf Colonel (Jason Anderson) at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn, NY on 9/9/2002. The then-forthcoming album Mt. Eerie is played in its entirety.
published: 04 Nov 2017
I Felt Your Shape - The Microphones
the Glow pt. 2 (2001)
published: 16 Jun 2012
Anthony Fantano covers "I Felt Your Shape" by The Microphones
Don't be such an insecure bitch melon, it's actually pretty good
published: 17 May 2018
The Microphones - Mount Eerie [Full Album]
I. The Sun (0:00)
II. Solar System (17:11)
III. Universe (20:50)
IV. Mt. Eerie (27:31)
V. Universe (36:30)
00:00 I Want Wind To Blow
05:33 The Glow Pt. 2
10:32 The Moon
15:48 Headless Horseman
18:57 My Roots Are Strong And Deep
20:50 Instrumental
22:29 The Mansion
26...
00:00 I Want Wind To Blow
05:33 The Glow Pt. 2
10:32 The Moon
15:48 Headless Horseman
18:57 My Roots Are Strong And Deep
20:50 Instrumental
22:29 The Mansion
26:21 (Something)
28:00 (Something)
30:42 I'll Not Contain You
33:33 The Gleam Pt. 2
35:30 Map
40:31 You'll Be In The Air
43:13 I Want To Be Cold
44:54 I Am Bored
46:31 I Felt My Size
48:55 Instrumental
50:48 I Felt Your Shape
52:42 Samurai Sword
56:50 My Warm Blood
Total Run Time: 1:06:19
Artist: The Microphones
Album: The Glow Pt. 2
Released: September 25, 2001
Buy:
Bandcamp: http://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com/a...
CD/Vinyl: http://www.pwelverumandsun.com/store#...
00:00 I Want Wind To Blow
05:33 The Glow Pt. 2
10:32 The Moon
15:48 Headless Horseman
18:57 My Roots Are Strong And Deep
20:50 Instrumental
22:29 The Mansion
26:21 (Something)
28:00 (Something)
30:42 I'll Not Contain You
33:33 The Gleam Pt. 2
35:30 Map
40:31 You'll Be In The Air
43:13 I Want To Be Cold
44:54 I Am Bored
46:31 I Felt My Size
48:55 Instrumental
50:48 I Felt Your Shape
52:42 Samurai Sword
56:50 My Warm Blood
Total Run Time: 1:06:19
Artist: The Microphones
Album: The Glow Pt. 2
Released: September 25, 2001
Buy:
Bandcamp: http://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com/a...
CD/Vinyl: http://www.pwelverumandsun.com/store#...
off of the glow part 2
The thunder clouds broke up
And the rain dried up
The lightning let up
The clacking shutters just shut up
There's no black or white
No ...
off of the glow part 2
The thunder clouds broke up
And the rain dried up
The lightning let up
The clacking shutters just shut up
There's no black or white
No change in the light
No night, no golden sun
The sound of cars
The smell of bars
The awful feeling of electric heat
And the fluorescent lights
There's sacrifice
There's hard feelings
There's pointless waste
I want wind to blow
My clothes off me
Sweep me off my feet
Take me up and bring me back
Oh, where I can see
Days pass by me
I have no head to hold in grief
There's no hope for me
I've been set free
There's no breeze
There's no ship on my sea
off of the glow part 2
The thunder clouds broke up
And the rain dried up
The lightning let up
The clacking shutters just shut up
There's no black or white
No change in the light
No night, no golden sun
The sound of cars
The smell of bars
The awful feeling of electric heat
And the fluorescent lights
There's sacrifice
There's hard feelings
There's pointless waste
I want wind to blow
My clothes off me
Sweep me off my feet
Take me up and bring me back
Oh, where I can see
Days pass by me
I have no head to hold in grief
There's no hope for me
I've been set free
There's no breeze
There's no ship on my sea
Lyrics:
I took my shirt off in the yard
no one saw that the skin on my shoulders was golden
now it's not
my shirt's back on
i forgot my songs
the glow is gone
m...
Lyrics:
I took my shirt off in the yard
no one saw that the skin on my shoulders was golden
now it's not
my shirt's back on
i forgot my songs
the glow is gone
my gliding body stopped
i could not get through september without a battle
i faced death
i went in with my arms swinging
but i heard my own breath
i had to face that i'm still living
i'm still flesh
i hold on to awful feelings
i'm not dead
there's no end
my face is red
my blood flows harshly
my heart beats loudly
my chest still draws breath
i hold it
i'm buoyant
there's no end
Lyrics:
I took my shirt off in the yard
no one saw that the skin on my shoulders was golden
now it's not
my shirt's back on
i forgot my songs
the glow is gone
my gliding body stopped
i could not get through september without a battle
i faced death
i went in with my arms swinging
but i heard my own breath
i had to face that i'm still living
i'm still flesh
i hold on to awful feelings
i'm not dead
there's no end
my face is red
my blood flows harshly
my heart beats loudly
my chest still draws breath
i hold it
i'm buoyant
there's no end
Important: Support Phil's music here https://www.pwelverumandsun.com/store or https://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com
The Microphones (Phil Elv[e]rum), later know...
Important: Support Phil's music here https://www.pwelverumandsun.com/store or https://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com
The Microphones (Phil Elv[e]rum), later known as Mount Eerie, performing with Wolf Colonel (Jason Anderson) at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn, NY on 9/9/2002. The then-forthcoming album Mt. Eerie is played in its entirety.
Important: Support Phil's music here https://www.pwelverumandsun.com/store or https://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com
The Microphones (Phil Elv[e]rum), later known as Mount Eerie, performing with Wolf Colonel (Jason Anderson) at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn, NY on 9/9/2002. The then-forthcoming album Mt. Eerie is played in its entirety.
00:00 I Want Wind To Blow
05:33 The Glow Pt. 2
10:32 The Moon
15:48 Headless Horseman
18:57 My Roots Are Strong And Deep
20:50 Instrumental
22:29 The Mansion
26:21 (Something)
28:00 (Something)
30:42 I'll Not Contain You
33:33 The Gleam Pt. 2
35:30 Map
40:31 You'll Be In The Air
43:13 I Want To Be Cold
44:54 I Am Bored
46:31 I Felt My Size
48:55 Instrumental
50:48 I Felt Your Shape
52:42 Samurai Sword
56:50 My Warm Blood
Total Run Time: 1:06:19
Artist: The Microphones
Album: The Glow Pt. 2
Released: September 25, 2001
Buy:
Bandcamp: http://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com/a...
CD/Vinyl: http://www.pwelverumandsun.com/store#...
off of the glow part 2
The thunder clouds broke up
And the rain dried up
The lightning let up
The clacking shutters just shut up
There's no black or white
No change in the light
No night, no golden sun
The sound of cars
The smell of bars
The awful feeling of electric heat
And the fluorescent lights
There's sacrifice
There's hard feelings
There's pointless waste
I want wind to blow
My clothes off me
Sweep me off my feet
Take me up and bring me back
Oh, where I can see
Days pass by me
I have no head to hold in grief
There's no hope for me
I've been set free
There's no breeze
There's no ship on my sea
Lyrics:
I took my shirt off in the yard
no one saw that the skin on my shoulders was golden
now it's not
my shirt's back on
i forgot my songs
the glow is gone
my gliding body stopped
i could not get through september without a battle
i faced death
i went in with my arms swinging
but i heard my own breath
i had to face that i'm still living
i'm still flesh
i hold on to awful feelings
i'm not dead
there's no end
my face is red
my blood flows harshly
my heart beats loudly
my chest still draws breath
i hold it
i'm buoyant
there's no end
Important: Support Phil's music here https://www.pwelverumandsun.com/store or https://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com
The Microphones (Phil Elv[e]rum), later known as Mount Eerie, performing with Wolf Colonel (Jason Anderson) at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn, NY on 9/9/2002. The then-forthcoming album Mt. Eerie is played in its entirety.
The Microphones was the name of a musical project based in Olympia, Washington, and fronted by Phil Elvrum. Elvrum was the principal songwriter and producer behind the Microphones' albums, but he also collaborated with other local musicians on his recordings and on tour. Many of Elvrum's recordings from this period were released by the label K Records. Since 2003, Elvrum (who now spells his surname Elverum) has recorded and performed under the name Mount Eerie.
History
Early years
Phil Elvrum became involved in the Washington music scene while working at The Business, a record store in his home town of Anacortes, in the mid-1990s. Elvrum began experimenting with recording equipment in the back of the store, which led to the store's owner Bret Lunsford releasing two cassettes (Microphone and Wires and Cords) on his label, KNW-YR-OWN. Elvrum also played drums in Lunsford's band, D+, before moving to Olympia in 1997 to attend Evergreen State College.
Whilst in Olympia, Elvrum caught the attention of K Records owner and musician Calvin Johnson. After recording for some time at the Dub Narcotic studios, Elvrum was able to complete his first full-length album, a CD entitled Tests, which was released in 1998 on Elsinor Records. Tests combined songs from his earlier cassette releases and the recently recorded Dub Narcotic recordings. At the same time, Elvrum released his first 7" single, "Bass Drum Dream" on Up Records.