Introducing herself as a solo artist with the epically rocking seven-minute single "The Grey Ship" 
(http://souterraintransmissions.com/files/EMA - The Grey Ship.mp3) - backed by "Kind Heart," her slowly rambunctious and flailing sixteen minute take on Robert Johnson`s classic "Kind Hearted Woman" - EMA invites you deeper into her existence with her debut album, Past Life Martyred Saints due on May 10, 2011.
Fans of guitar noise will already know EMA from her time as the scorching guitarist in legendary folk/noise outfit Amps For Christ. She went on to build the genre-defying cult duo Gowns with Ezra Buchla, which was called "one of the most heart-stoppingly great live bands on planet Earth" by Pitchfork and around which, upon seeing their captivating, volatile live show, the Village Voice spluttered succinctly: "Holy fucking fuck." Gowns` 2007 debut album Red State was an electronic folk and feedback-drenched masterpiece that left critics both raving and bewildered. It sadly proved to be their last. The top is that Gowns` musical crossroads led to the introduction of EMA, who has since opened for Throbbing Gristle on their final US tour. Did we also mention she relocated to LA when she was only 18, because she really liked `Welcome to the Jungle`?
A native of South Dakota - the sparsely inhabited north end of America`s heartland (her blog is called `came outta nowhere`) - EMA has a singular and at times dervish-like guitar style, a skill for visceral songwriting, and a DIY recording ethos that has seen her get a distinctive sonic signature.Her songs are somewhat neurotically assembled and essentially raw, the product of obsession by someone who never knowing the `correct` way to do things.Besides making music, EMA has been involved in video, performance and curating multimedia shows in West Oakland and LA.
If there is a grand unifying theory behind Past Life Martyred Saints, it`s that EMA treats fidelity and twisting like another instrument, being preoccupied with the motion of analogue vs. digital. Songs switch seamlessly between lo-fi 4-track grunge, gloriously trashy dance beats and damaged girl group ballads, like all the car radio hits of the past 50 years absorbed and sweated out through pores of distortion, feedback and reverence.
Not being able to technically write music but look for a way to be the Glenn Branca-inspired "Kind Heart," EMA drew the song out like map, creating a graphic score she likened to a musical equivalent of the `Hobo Code.`Her go on redefining classic American folk music has led to a currently underway collaboration with the Kronos Quartet.
Album opener "The Grey Ship" is a nod to the Viking funeral ships of EMA`s ancestors, and while pop logic dictates the line is divided into two parts - one gay and strummy and the other low-lit and dramatic - the recording also switches up from lo-fi to hi-fi. Just listen for the BASS DROP. The song also features appearances from Buchla and Corey Fogel of Gowns.
As EMA explains, "I cherished `The Grey Ship` to change fidelity in the centre of the song.I imagined it being like when Dorothy opens the threshold to Oz and the all world turns from dark and white to Technicolor." That vary in fidelity also serves as a coruscating "sonic signifier" for transferring from the earthly plane to one beyond.
In "California," we get a fuzzed-up, piano ode to EMA`s adoptive home.
"Musically, the cover is divine by `My Life` by The Game," she says. "It`s a noised-out rap ballad by a Midwestern white girl with lyrical references to Bo Diddley and Stephen Foster."
"Marked" ups the vividness of the album, as EMA explores a complicated relationship over an eerie guitar strum and keyboard drone, intoning raspily, "I like that every sentence he moved me / Left a mark." It is the captured sound of climbing walls.
"Some wounds don`t leave marks, and they would be almost easier to explain if they did," EMA says. "I heard a fib once about Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, where they got in a huge fight out at a club, and one of them got so mad that they went and jumped in the river. Police were called, and once they were finally rescued they linked up and walked back into the club, arm in arm."
Inspired by a "teen goth murder" that happened outside of LA, "Butterfly Knife" draws on EMA`s own experiences growing up and has a squalling, rhythmic guitar texture underpinning multiple EMA vocals scrabbling for air in the mix.
Both "Breakfast," with its impeccable refrain "you look exactly like a picnic to me," and album closer "Red Star" are more fully fleshed out band tracks, featuring EMA`s sister Nikki Anderson on drums and Aaron Davis (who also records solo as ACRE) on bass.On these tracks, we can see how EMA`s vocal melodies really zoom in tandem with her distinctive guitar style, and, when alongside the militaristic, drum-riddled "trashy sex romp" of "Milkman," indicate a profundity of influences and studio intuition that would induce other producers blush and run for the hills.
With her mix of whisper-to-yell dynamics, intimate and visceral expression, honesty of voice, and studio playfulness, she is a unique talent who completely compels the listener.EMA`s songs are filled with harmonies and hooks that be right in those sweet spots between air and dissonance. It is a wise voice, the voice of a drunken laugh while crying.
Welcome to 2011, EMA-style: http://www.youtube.com/v/wtXpWcQz9JM
EMA - The Grey Ship by ellenwoodEP
Tracklisting:
1. The Grey Ship
2. California
3. Anteroom
4. Milkman
5. Coda
6. Marked
7. Breakfast
8. Butterfly Knife
9. Red Star
EMA TOUR:
06-02 Costa Mesa, CA - Detroit Bar
06-03 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo &
06-04 San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop &
06-06 Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios &
06-07 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern &
06-09 Boise, ID - Neurolux &
06-10 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court &
06-11 Denver, CO - Hi-Dive &
06-13 Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room &
06-14 Iowa City, IA - The Mill &
06-15 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry &
07-15 Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Music Festival
07-16 Columbus, OH - The Summit
07-17 Washington, DC - Red Palace
07-18 Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
07-20 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge (early)
07-20 New York, NY - Glasslands (late)
07-21 Cambridge, MA - TT the Bears
07-22 Montreal, Quebec - Quai Des Brumes
07-23 Toronto, Ontario - The Garrison
& with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.