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Comedy Minus One
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Ambertron

by Mint Mile

supported by
Liam McCann
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Liam McCann It just fuckin rips your heart out, man. There's something about the naked vulnerability of some of these songs, the interlocked, weaving of lines, the bleakness (yet upliftingness!) which just hurts.

And hurting is all I want to do (at least right now.) Five stars. Favorite track: Shy.
Mighttheone
Mighttheone thumbnail
Mighttheone The human condition. Connection. To look in the proverbial mirror and into the void. The rock record as existentialism . Favorite track: Fallen Rock.
Nick Green
Nick Green thumbnail
Nick Green Finally after 3 ep's comes their first album...worth the wait Favorite track: Fallen Rock.
Andrew Kooyer
Andrew Kooyer thumbnail
Andrew Kooyer Hard to choose one, so Fallen Rock it is. Love the tempo and lyrical musings. Feels like a road trip in six minutes. Favorite track: Fallen Rock.
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  • Double LP
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Vinyl pressing of Mint Mile's "Ambertron." Limited to 500 copies. Comes with a download code, but you knew that already.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ambertron via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
We lived by the ocean Wore concrete boots Sarcophagus feet Grew no roots The way we used to be Could be our modern track TOBACCO COFFEE WINTERGREEN And sunshine at our backs Repetition Inhibition Sweet infectious thought Whatever helps A memory get out Cooked up to ward off The advancement of enhancement The discomfort of discovery That we’re dumb Oh my darling buds
2.
Likelihood 05:56
Move into the motor Given all the time we had Wreck yourself on beds of carpet Let yourself out the back Get in a lane I know it feels strange You can still make time Slip into the wires Drive that beat into a ditch Carve yourself a new life Out of nothing Guard yourself against the itch To run To make what’s done undone You can still make time Morning still came Coffee down Seasons seem to roll LIKELIHOOD still fell Unevenly across any gulf We lean We leave Learning Yearning Just putting up (Don’t be sorry you’re the way you are)
3.
Fallen Rock 06:51
"What kind of rock Can be found on the interstate Eighteen hour round-trip to see a girl Coat your car with asphalt Streaming hard to see What kind of rock On the shoulder of I-90 I’m out on the east shore of Flathead Lake With a wish to disintegrate On a dream boat You’re just like me I could kiss her saccharine lips In the summer sun Watching all the trees burn Things can be cool if you let ‘em What’s so funny at the time Is how quickly you forget that From a mountain to a heap of FALLEN ROCK I can taste the ash in that summer smoke Let’s watch this valley choke Freaks out the animals Push the population inside She could suck the pollen right off my tongue In the summer sun We ride through filtered light One end of Arthur Avenue To those park buildings where we hide I could kiss her saccharine lips In the summer sun Watching all the trees burn Word comes over the wire You were finished with the leather They’d banned you altogether From a mountain to a heap of fallen rock I could kiss her saccharine lips In the summer sun
4.
Sang 02:19
Someone saw you sing They knew you right away Some people orbit naturally You know you’ve got a thing that fits But different enough to be exciting So you SANG And they liked the way You mixed with mostly men Hit “record” Hit records Some distance to the end You want to make the world go away Yeah you can Take your time and pills A day or two in stretches Darling Put your prairie skirt on Smile your gap-toothed smile Yawn at the slapstick of it all And manage the damage for me
5.
Shy 03:33
When I say I love you Don’t mean I need you Though I’ll always want you Think I’d stay alive I mean the way you are in person Can’t be captured in a picture Can’t be written in a notebook Although I think I’ll always try I know you’re SHY Take it for a reason Help me figure something out Help me get around it somehow Help me get my mind around it somehow Don’t be too precious about your voice Let it go let it go let it go Sometimes it sounds the way You want it to sound Sometimes it don’t
6.
The revolution comes Like Christmas does But CHRISTMAS COMES AND GOES And revolution just stays there Paved into dirt Where it can crack and sunwarp The cold may carve it up But it will still stay hard And whatever rain throws down We should know by now What goes around still comes around And hard hearts still have spots Where they can be clubbed When you have a good reason Soft hands won't swing those bats People in t-shirts will And the kids will learn to do it The cold may carve them up But they will still have Those hard hearts Same as us soft hearts They still have spots Where they can be tugged Where they can be touched Where they can be drugged Where they can be bought sold Fooled for good They still have spots
7.
Ridiculous creatures Faulty memories Chances lost All our dreams The world is spinning Maybe you leave a mark One you’re born with Some random shit you caught You hold on tightly Maybe you leave a mark You gotta move Go one by one Maybe two Or a few RIDING ON AND OFF PEAK Itchy fingers unsteady hands No desperation I’ll take my chances You can’t be a cowboy In a city pickup truck Paint it white Get your gun rack on tight man It’s all jacked up It’s so jacked up One by one Maybe two Fourteen or seventeen Twenty-six Thirty-two Forty-nine or fifty-nine Or just a few riding on and off peak We want what we’re told we want We need what we want the most Like our sons Our daughters Our beloved Our loved ones
8.
Glitter in the morning sun Glitter in the morning sun It’s a late stage dream RIVER OF CARS goes Far as the eye can see I don’t know what They think they know They do not know Where they’re going The light that they bend toward Is a reflection Glitter in the morning sun Glitter in the morning sun I like the way it rolls Following us Stretching out before us Like a snake It moves side to side River of cars goes River of cars grows Just sit and ride They all look the same Glitter in the morning sun The morning sun The morning sun
9.
Giving Love 06:39
Gave my love to them as we admit Everything we did Open book Nothing to hide Nothing to run from Open house Nothing to fear or to fret If we could only find a way To bank the time we have together If we could only find the time To map the way we feel about each other Well, I guess this is the best we can do We drive too fast around blind corners As the world sings a siren song Between 300hz and 4k It’s what other people think Matters to a man and other men The wheels on a car and better dinner GIVING LOVE is the way we can Find a voice that resonates Never leave for good Many people recognize Worth in what we leave behind Does not have to disintegrate with time Giving love let go but don’t go Giving love don’t go just let go Tap in desperate code Feel the screen smooth beneath Fingers slide on facial grease The more you tap The more you fade away Reach across for something blank As you walk past the ones Who stand beside you IRL No no no Tapping Tap tapping As you run run run run run away
10.
11.
Repeating lines Until the end of Until the end of time Try to find my place But I can only Put a song down On your face (And the lighting falls on What we wanted to bring) It’s not coming to me slow So it don’t feel wrong The way it moves together Has to be right In some world In some pocket of the universe Untouched by thought No dirt no air no Earth no God We can wait it out We can hold our breath No light no sound Until you hear the approach Of THE GREAT COMBINE
12.
Amberline 14:01
we could have left we could have been gone by now realized never meant to fall too far like the rest of them come on amber we have to get the road prepped for medicine (keep your coat close at hand gold will never rust save your dust and if you must you can rent the rest) the glory of the past is not a life raft it’s a cannonball derangement falls black cash on a dirty path wrap it up amber the tank is almost full it’s close enough to go we’ve gotta run (rain stings follow up on things when the gang calls up you gotta jump the people who follow us they’re all having fun what else what else what else... you know when people ask you to fill their lives with other stuff that they can’t stand the way they are they can’t stand anything for long) dig it up AMBERLINE a solid flow encases me eternity slow flowing grave yellow flood watch it run I can’t see where I would have been I’ll never know where I oughta be (we got nothing we got nothing guaranteed but the rest of n ot the best of just the rest of this limited time) you can glow or you can blow amberline there’s a rock in the tread take the wheel from me

about

"A stunner." - Chicago Reader

"Fans of Tim [Midyett]'s impressive music career will be floored by this musical statement. Recommended." - Reckless Records

"A really remarkable album." - All The Young Punks

"...will certainly appeal to fans of Silkworm, as the songs have that same sense of taut, sinewy, angular rock; sometimes it’s bleak and introspective, sometimes it’s joyous." - Slow Thrills

Ambertron is the first full-length album by Mint Mile, a musical concern from Chicago, Illinois.

Amber is a preservative. It’s used to hold things in suspension, to keep them still forever so they can be examined and appreciated. It imparts a tint to what it holds.

-tron is a suffix indicating an instrument.

Art is an ambertron. Bands are ambertrons.

Mint Mile is helmed by Tim Midyett, who spent eighteen years in the acclaimed Silkworm, eight more in the critically lauded Bottomless Pit and currently plays bass with SUNN O)))).

After three four-song EPs in as many years, Mint Mile piles up the tunes on Ambertron with over an hour of music across this sprawling, dare-we-say epic double LP. From stripped-down twisters to languid drifters to opulent jams alternately joyous, gripped, hopeful and desolate, Ambertron explores the optimistic, rueful space between the personal and global, the emotional and political, and the places (sometimes dark) where memory and reality meet and sometimes disagree with each other.

Baritone guitar, pedal steel, rock solid rhythms predominate, with keyboards, strings, horns, and atmosphere woven into the mix as expert spices.

The Mint Mile cast includes:

-Tim Midyett (Silkworm, Bottomless Pit, SUNN O)))) sings and plays mostly baritone guitar.
-Jeff Panall (Songs: Ohia) is on drums.
-Justin Brown (Palliard) plays pedal steel, most of the electric guitar, and dobro.
-Matthew Barnhart (Tre Orsi) handles almost all bass and most of the engineering.
-Howard Draper (Shearwater, Tre Orsi) does his magic spackling thing.
-Greg Norman (Bitter Tears) plays the trumpet.

Mint Mile were fortunate to be enlivened by a variety of talented guests, from corners of music as varied as Helen Money (Alison Chesley), Poi Dog Pondering (Susan Voelz), modern classical music (Mabel Kwan), and Glen Hansard’s band (Rob Bochnik). Then there’s the all-world vocalist Kelly Hogan, with whom Tim was thrilled to work again, after her contributions to Silkworm’s Italian Platinum so long ago.

It would be a shadow of the record it is now without them. We hope they’re half as into it as we are.

And we hope you like it as well.

To order a double LP of "Ambertron":
shop.comedyminusone.com/products/mint-mile-ambertron-2xlp

credits

released March 20, 2020

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Mint Mile Chicago, Illinois

Preserve and transmit: thought, feeling, impression, memory.

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