“We’ve been pregnant with this record for nine months, but this baby couldn’t wait any longer.”
When I caught up with Ishmael last month to talk about the band’s brand new EP, I asked about recording the whole thing in the dead of night at New York’s Tarbox Studios. “There was something indescribable about being so creative, and loud, while most of New York slept,” the band told me, “and it freed up our inhibitions so we could try some weird stuff.” “Feet Stomp,” the first tease from that EP, hinted at some weird stuff. It also hinted at the catchiest—and shiniest—pop music that the prog/funk/rock/whatever outfit has written yet. Who says 9/8 time signatures and Tool covers aren’t sexy?
This week the band, which includes Jordan Lewis ’13 and Andy Werle ’12 plus non-Weskids Nick Otte and Aaron Silberstein, finally delivers the goods. The EP, creatively titled Ishmael the EP (and previewed on the WEUS airwaves a few weeks back), is available online for $3.96 at iTunes (and coming soon to Spotify and, eventually, physical formats). At just over twenty minutes, it consists of four of Ishmael’s most diverse tracks yet, including