You won’t find The Color Forty Nine on indie alt-radio and you probably be hearing them at any major U.S. festivals and I think this band of talented introspects would prefer it that way: although they probably wouldn’t deny any invite. With a mesmerizing somber tone that rival Bill Callahan’s most enduring works to creative ideas and collaborations that mingle with the accomplishments of The National; The Color Forty Nine deserve their own limelight.
Collectively having been contributing musicians in bands such as The Black Heart Procession, Album Leaf, Pinback, Via Satelite, Manuok among others, The Color Forty Nine mines their experience to create a sound that is both distinct and familiar. It is a sound that sits well with a wide range of companions, lending them to share the stage with bands as varied as Pinback, El Ten Eleven, Acid Mothers Temple, Eric Bachmann, and Film School, as well as conducting a successful tour of Japan in 2019 and shows in Mexico City in pre-pandemic 2020 on their own.
With the shutdown of 2020, the band used the time to record 12 songs for two new EPs to be released in the spring and fall of 2021. Of note, the band collaborated with Café Tacvba vocalist, Rubén Albarrán who sang the Spanish verses to What Would I Know? / Yo Que Sé?, a song dealing with border issues and larger notions of the human condition. The band also collaborated with Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Prize-winning artist Hugo Crosthwaite to create a hand-drawn stop animation video for the song to be released in July of 2021.
Glide is premiering the sparse yet intimately intricate “String Ladder” off their new album String Ladders out July, 23rd. The band showcases its propensity for the surreal, where every note counts in its instrumentally narrative song journey.
“We lay ourselves vulnerable in relationships, which is part of the beauty. We all find ourselves at some point or other in precarious situations where it feels like the ground below you is unstable or you are climbing up a string ladder, hoping to find clarity. Whatever the case, we have to press on, find the answers and do something about it, even if that means making difficult changes,” says Beaumont.
