A new Joanna Newsom EP is coming out soon titled Joanna Newsom And The YS Street Band. But hold on a minute, what is an EP?
I’ve seen them issued but didn’t really know what they’re about. Here’s some background: EP stands for “Extended Play,” and there’s a ton of info on wikipedia’s EP page. But let me drop some of the most interesting things about EP’s from that article:
- “Extended play (EP) is the name typically given to vinyl records or CDs which contain more than one single but are too short to qualify as albums. Usually, an album has eight or more tracks (anywhere between 25–80 minutes), a single has one to three (5–15 minutes), and an EP four to seven (or around 15–25 minutes).”
- “Alice in Chains is the first band to ever have an EP reach #1 on Billboard album chart. The EP, Jar of Flies was released 25 January 1994. Linkin Park and Jay-Z’s collaboration EP, Collision Course, was the next and latest EP to have reached the #1 spot after Alice in Chains.”
- “It has become customary in recent years for new bands to release their first release nominally as an “EP” to give it more grand connotations than a single. By giving the release a unique name (as opposed to it being named after the lead track on the CD) the band can garner more attention for the other tracks on the CD.”
These are direct quotes from wikipedia, they are licensed under GNU, and I can not say for certain they are true, but let’s suppose they are.
Anyhow, Joanna Newsom And The Ys Street Band features a new song by the harpist titled “Colleen.” Two other songs are on the disc, they are both re-recordings of her previously released studio material: “Clam, Crab, Cockle” and “Cosmia.” All three songs feature performances from some of the guys from her tour.
Here are the tracks:
01 Colleen (mp3 sample)
02 Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
03 Cosmia
Drag City will release the album for sale on April 24th. For now listen to the above sample of Colleen.