With eight songs spread across nearly 62 minutes, Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun is an epic ambient rock record best experienced in its entirety: From the opening bass volley to the closing snare hit, the members of Red Sparowes expertly navigate the hidden vibrations of what seems like a preordained trajectorychiming, weeping, droning; gracefully descending, and then vaulting upwards, booming, scraping the orchestral firmament before spiraling softly into the inevitable comedown.
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May 23, 1958: Mao Tse Tung initiates the Great Leap Forward, his second five-year plan for the People's Republic of China. In addition to imposing impossibly high quotas on mainland farmers (to produce both grain in their fields and shoddy steel in their backyard furnaces) the Chairman insists that the countries four greatest evils rats, mosquitoes, flies and sparrows must be exterminated in order to maximize production. Villagers are instructed to scream and bang pots and pans to keep the sparrows in flight until the birds die of exhaustion. Soon, the sparrow population is drastically reduced, leaving no natural predator for the countries locusts which proceed to decimate Chinas crops. The result is possibly the worst famine in human history. Between 1958 and 1961, as many as 43 million Chinese die of starvation. Meanwhile, local government authorities falsify agricultural reports in order to avoid Mao's often senseless wrath. Soldiers are dispatched to villages to find grain that the peasants are accused of hiding. Thousands of villagers are tortured and murdered in the search for grain stores that never existed. When they run out of bark and grass to eat, peasants in some provinces resort to cannibalism.
The Chairman: Where is the grain? The people deceive their country. Relieve them of the ravages of the sparrow, and they welcome the havoc of the locust. What guidance will they accept, if not Mine? What punishment shall I mete out, if not everything at My disposal?
The Proletariat: How is it that our Leader cannot see us starving? Why do we continue to toil in vain? Is not revolution in the hearts and minds of the people? If political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, perhaps we are harvesting the wrong crops.
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Red Sparowes second full-length release, Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun, was inspired by the foregoing events. Recorded at Louder Studios in San Francisco with producer Tim Green (Comets On Fire, The Fucking Champs, The Melvins), the album features performances from drummer Dave Clifford (formerly of Pleasure Forever and the VSS) and guitarist Andy Arahood (formerly of Angel Hair), both of whom had yet to join Red Sparowes when the band recorded their 2005 debut, At the Soundless Dawn. Clifford and Arahood join original members Cliff Meyer (guitar, also of ISIS), Greg Burns (bass/pedal steel, formerly of Halifax Pier) and Josh Graham (guitar, also of Battle Of Mice and visual comptroller for Neurosis) in weaving a skillfully layered instrumental narrative that combines the expanse of the Sparowes compelling live demonstrations with the incomparable fidelity and precision of studio capture.
holy hell i would die another life for the opportunity to see you play with ISIS at wickerpark. fuck my education, damnit damnit damnit!! this new song is amazing and such an honest indication of how incredible red sparowes are collectively. i hope you enjoy your upcoming travels & tour!
I didn't think you guys could get any better, but I'm pretty sure you just did with this amazing new track. Can't wait till you guys come to Cleveland!
