At the end of September we told you Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) and James Mercer (aka that guy from the Shins) were working on a new project, tentatively titled Broken Bells. A Sony/Columbia newsletter went out earlier today with a bunch 0s and 1s and a link to www.brokenbells.com. There was nothing there except a newsletter sign-up and some fancy animations. That said, because we’re amateur detectives, we also noticed these ads running on some music sites, including ours. But as bloggers we do not handle ad sales, so they were a mystery until now. If you clicked on one, they took you to www.ebbelkslorn.com, a site featuring the same aesthetic as brokenbells.com along with that aforementioned and spotlighted silhouette of Mercer and Burton. That, and ebbelkslorn is an anagram of brokenbells. Now, if you hit ebbelkslorn.com and refresh a bunch of times you’ll get to hear some snippets from the album. None with James’s voice, but it’s always satisfying to solve a mystery (or, an ad campaign). Plus, we read somewhere this album was highly anticipated. Anyhow, yes, it seems like they are indeed going with the name Broken Bells.
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FWIW, the 0s and 1s at ebbelkslorn.com say “Sign up at http://www.brokenbells.com to find The High Road” when converted to text.
Like I said, we’re “amateur” detectives, Inspector.
Nice.
Apparently “The High Road” is out tomorrow
http://www.galleryofsound.com/rel/v2_viewupc.php?storenr=501&upc=88697625427
I’m really satisfied to have uncovered this viral marketing campaign so quickly.
Anagrams!
Now if only someone could tell me who this is
That’s the girl on the vampire weekend album cover of contra
Betty Page or the Black Dahlia?
I’m an idiot because I take for granted the great lyrics often…two things to love about him are just the voice and the weird chord changes that always seem to work…
These sound absolutely boring. Hopefully James can spice them up with his singing, or something..
If you right-click on the image and open it in a new tab/window, you can see the file is called “03092010.jpg”. Album out March 9, 2010?
i kicked your ass. the binary code means “The High Road is hard to find”. idk what the means but i win on that
Heard the album, it’s cool. Somehow Beck-ish more soulful
I’ve listened to the entire album and prepare for something far different than The Shins–as far as Mercer’s singing goes. I really liked what I heard. For the most part, very chilled out.
I’ve heard the whole album a couple of times now and I gotta say I’m pretty partial to it already… good stuff:)