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Music

At Last! A New Song from Seoul - "The Line"

The Montreal-based trio release their first song in 10 months and it's great.

Seoul shot by Christopher Honeywell.

Seoul are elusive so-and-sos. You can probably draw this conclusion just from looking at the above picture of the Montreal-based trio. And by the fact that they named their band Seoul. How very contrary.

I've been obsessed with them for what seems like forever (they made my 2014 end of year list), but my love was based entirely on two songs—the record-crackled gorgeousness of "White Morning" and and "Stay With Us." If there were grooves to wear down on my copy of Seoul's sole output, they'd be buffed down and bare.

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In the ten month interim I guess they've been busy finishing off their debut album and finding a record label. They've now signed to Grand Jury (and Last Gang Records in Canada), and their first album, I Become A Shade will be released on 6.9. Below is the premiere of "The Line," their first proper single, and one which aligns perfectly with their previous two tracks: it's a woozy-wonderful melange of pulsing synths and nimble guitars with Nigel Ward's vocals swaddling the listener like a cloud. Imagine Phoenix were really high on some primo pot and went bike riding with Washed Out and you're somewhere close.

In fact, remember that scene in Donnie Darko when Donnie and Gretchen presented their imaginary invention to the class? Their Infant Memory Glasses, or IMGs, were ostensibly View-Masters for babies, presenting the half-grown humans with happy, peaceful images, like a beach vista, or an ice cream cone. Well "The Line" is the sonic equivalent of their IMGs—soothing, escapist, pure.

Seoul Tour Dates

Feb 26 - Baby’s All Right - Brooklyn, NY #
Mar 19 - M For Montreal @ Sledgehammer on Sixth - Austin, TX (SXSW)
Mar 21 - Holy Underground @ Swan Dive - Austin, TX (SXSW)
Mar 23 - St. Louis University - St. Louis, MO
Apr 15 - The Garrison - Toronto, ON *
Apr 16 - Bar Le Ritz - Montreal QC *
Apr 18 - Knitting Factory - Brooklyn, NY *
Apr 19 - Johnny Brenda's - Philadelphia, PA *
Apr 20 - DC9 - Washington, D.C. *
Apr 22 - High Watt - Nashville, TN *
Apr 24 - Record Bar - Kansas City, MO *
Apr 26 - Larimer Lounge - Denver, CO *
Apr 27 - Kilby Court - Salt Lake City, UT *
Apr 29 - The Satellite - Los Angeles, CA *
Apr 30 - Constellation Room - Santa Ana, CA *
May 01 - Rickshaw Stop - San Francisco, CA *
May 03 - Hawthorne Theatre - Portland, OR *
May 04 - Barboza - Seattle, WA *
May 05 - The Media Club - Vancouver, BC *
May 08 - Turf Club - Minneapolis, MN *
May 09 - Schubas - Chicago, IL *

# with Calvin Love, Buscabulla

* co-headline with Ballet School

Kim Taylor Bennett has had one and half hours sleep and she's on Twitter.

"The Line" is out 3.9.