Band of the Week, 3/12: Moving Mountains

Who They Are:  Moving Mountains is a post-rock/post-hardcore band from Purchase, New York. Though Moving Mountains has only released two full-lengths since their 2005 inception (a date referenced in their song title “8105”), they have still undergone a radical shift in their sound between albums. Their 2007 debut, Pnuema, was self-released (it was later re-released by Deep Elm Records). It gained critical acclaim in the indie-rock and post-rock communities, with many claiming that Moving Mountains was the next Appleseed Cast. They released an EP, Foreword, which marked their first change in style, to a decided more instrumental/post-rock direction (three of the songs stretch over 9 minutes on the album). However, that sound did not stick with the band for long, as their 2011 sophomore full-length, Waves, featured a much heavier, post hardcore meets ambient sound a la the later Thrice albums. Moving Mountains acknowledged this stylistic shift by agreeing to open for Thrice on their tour with La Dispute last fall.

Why Are They BOTW: Moving Mountains is a band that keeps reinventing and innovating as a group in such a way that their music never grows stale to the listener. One of the ways they’re attempting to do that this year is by releasing an EP on April 24, entitled New Light, on which they will be reworking 2 songs off each of their full-lengths (“8105” and “Ode We Will Bury Ourselves” from Pnuema, and “Alleviate” and “Where Two Bodies Lie” from Waves) into acoustic tracks. They will also be embarking on a short March tour of the Northeast, including a date at The Stanhope House in Stanhope, NJ on March 18. The Stanhope House show will be the first that Don and I purposely attend together during my time at Keep Calm and Carry On. Moving Mountains also has a tour lined up of the Southeast and Midwest United States opening for Coheed and Cambria in late April and early May.

What You Need To Hear: I was at first going to pick “Ode Will Will Bury Ourselves” from Pnuema, which is as perfect an album closer as they come, but I decided instead to feature one of the singles from their 2011 album Waves, “The Cascade.” The combination of the music and the music video directed by Christian Sorensen Hansen is uniquely impactful. However, Moving Mountains albums are especially expressive if taken as a whole (for example, this song features an outro that meanders perfectly into the intro of “Once Rendering”).

 

-Craig Ismaili