Spaceboy

Extended Play

Having recently begun the incredibly tedious process of reorganising my CD collection, I came across several EPs that I completely forgot I owned, or even existed. Some were local and some were from further afield, but it got me thinking about the format itself, and it’s advantages and disadvantages when compared to releasing full lengths. In the following I’m going to look at some of my favourite examples of the format, and through this I will address the issues that arise when bands choose EPs over LPs.

Commercial Fallout

Releasedin 2010, Colouring Book by Glassjaw illustrates how the EP format can stand up well artistically, but not so well commercially. Being a longtime fan, I was already well-familiar with Glassjaw’s ability to shift between genres and styles within albums, even individual songs. Nevertheless, I was pretty shocked when I finally got to listen to the bands first batch of brand new songs since 2002’s Worship and Tribute. (Sidenote: The EP released months prior to Colouring Book, Our Colour Green, was more an updated and rerecorded compilation of previously completed tracks, so I don’t count it as a new release. That EP is also great btw…) Comprising of six fluid, mid-tempo songs that nod more to the atmospherics of Massive Attack than the brutal hardcore that defined them in their early years and the aggressive experimentation of the W+T era, Colouring Book has fast become my favourite EP. Not one track loses focus or feels out of place: “Black Nurse”, “Gold” and “Vanilla Poltergeist Snake”, each one worthy of being considered as the finest song in the bands near-pristine cataloque, are anchored by hypnotic, almost African rhythms and heavily downtuned, baritone riffs that allow Daryl (vocals) all the space he needs to create his best vocal performance on any recording yet. And believe me, I do not say that last part lightly. “Stations of the New Cross” and “Daytona White” round of the EP and the two tracks could arguably be Glassjaw’s greatest achievement: Heavily groove-orientated, laid-back, intricate, melodic, chilled. Ultimately, Coloring Book replaces the aggression of old with a new sense of restaint, maturity and subtlety that, while not only representing the moment Glassjaw grew into themselves as a band, also attests to the potential for the EP as an artistic form in and of itself.

Before I move on, it is important to ask a somewhat obvious question: Why did Glassjaw choose to release an EP over a LP? Providing something of an answer, the band’s lead singer, Daryl Palumbo, has recently spoken of the death of the album as a viable format upon which to release music: “People are so hung up on us not having a full-length that they’re overlooking the fact that… full-length records are becoming irrelevant” (www.nme.com/news/glassjaw/56598). He obviously feels EPs, at least for his band, offer both the ideal form artistically and commercially. Whatever about the former factor which could certainly be argued, I have to disagree with the latter, and it is ironic that the performance of his very own EP disproves his point. Despite the quality of the product and the band’s relatively (for such a discordant act) wide fanbase, Coloring Book performed poorly commercially. The release did not receive any significant mainstream media attention, mostly appearing in underground blogs and below-the-radar forums, thus in terms of exposure, it was mostly limited to people who already liked/had heard of the band. So fairly ironically, despite releasing their most accomplished, and in some ways most accessible work, Glassjaw arguably moved away from the mainstream into underground anonymity more than ever before. In the EP’s commercial failure lies a wider lesson however: Despite the constantly shifting state of release formats and purchasing patterns, ultimately music listeners still like the traditional full length as an artistic package, whether it’s bought electronically or physically. Commercially, EPs simply do not offer a viable alternative to this well-established dynamic and thus, with both music listeners and music writers tied to the tradition of the full length, Colouring Book did not attract the commercial success that the quality of its work deserved. 

Compromising Between Forms

With The Alchemy Index, Thrice provided somewhat of an innovative solution to the EP’s commercial issues. The release is almost as interesting for it’s innovation in terms of musical format as for the music itself: The four EPs, named Fire, Water, Air and Earth were cleverly released as two separate LPs, rather than as four separate EPs. Allow this to illustrate further:

The first Alchemy Index release, containg both the Fire and Water EPs.

The second Alchemy release, containing the Air and Earth EPs.

Thus, with The Alchemy Index, you get the sense of immediacy, of directness, that comes with an EP (something that isn’t as apparent in, say, a 12 song LP) with the increased media attention that follows a full length. Because of this, it performed impressively in a commercial sense: Released in 2007, the first half of the Indices (Fire & Water) sold 28,000 copies in its first week and peaked at #5 on iTunes top-selling albums. The second half, (Air & Earth) released in early 2008, debuted at #17 on the Billboard 200. These figures and stats may illustrate a fraction of the success that mainstream acts enjoy, but speaking in relative terms, for such an experimental album, released by a band that exists underneath the mainstream radar, these figures become very impressive. The Alchemy Index represents an innovative and clever synthesis between EPs and LPs that means it avoids the pitfalls of sticking too rigidly to an EP/LP binary. Overall, this meant that the artistic investment achieved the sort of monetary return that Colouring Book didn’t because of it’s strict adherence to a traditional EP format. 

Moving to the Smaller Scale

I have already noted how EPs that stick rigidly to a 4/5/6 song format do not perform impressively in a commercial sense. However, when commercial issues become less of a factor, when there isn’t any major level of expectation to sell substantial numbers of copies, the traditional EP comes into its own. Looking at some Irish examples, here’s some small-scale, local EPs done well: 

Adebisi Shank - This Is An EP Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank

One of Irish music’s most successful underground acts, Adebisi Shank have since gone on to get signed by the prestigious Sargent House record label in American, and have released two very well-received albums that have received significant attention overseas. This Is An EP Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank was a significant building block to their success and is, for me, the bands finest moment so far (Sidenote: Their second album is very close behind). Manic and unrelenting as it can be beautiful and dreamy, these four tracks find the band sounding at their most intense. 

Etcha - Never Weaken

A lil’ gem of a band, Never Weaken is five tracks of harmonic loveliness that echoes Weezer and Jawbreaker. Nice simple packaging, beautifully written songs, this is a local, small-scale EP done right. 

Enemies - Alpha Waves

A fine collection of instrumental songs that laid the groundwork for the band to become one of Ireland’s most popular post-rock acts with the release of their excellent first LP, We’ve Been Talking. 

Kidd Blunt/Puget Sound - Split EP

Arguably the finest EP that an Irish band has produced, what has become a somewhat lost gem recently was a stunning snapshot of two of Ireland’s (at the time) most musically interesting bands coming close to their best. Finding their feet with their side of the split, Kidd Blunt followed this with two excellent full lengths.

Thus, somewhat freed from the increased expenses and higher risk of releasing a full length, EPs act as a quick, effective and relatively cheap way of offering a sort of musical introduction to a band, aswell as providing a satisfying artistic package in itself. In conclusion, in terms of form, the EP is often impressive, the shorter tracklisting creating a sense of immediacy and directness that can sometimes be lost within the LP format. The quality of the examples I’ve addressed above attests to this. Conversely, the commercial potential is where the EP can run into issues, but this itself depends heavily on context, i.e. the limitations on the wider-scale compared to the advantages on the local-scale, where the need to perform well commercially isn’t such a mitigating factor.

I couldn’t address all the EPs I wanted to in the above, but here’s some more you might want to check out. Let me know if there are any I should be listening to, and thanks for reading. 

The Dillinger Escape Plan w/ Mike Patton - Irony Is A Dead Scene

RAN - RAN

Circa Survive - Appendage

Blakfish - See You In Another City