Megafaun's "Trials, Troubles, Tribulations" (feat. Justin Vernon, Frazey Ford + Fight The Big Bull), Ticonderoga's "Hands Up" (feat. Justin Vernon), DeYarmond Edison's "Set Me Free" All Available For The First Time Today:

LISTEN

Epoch Box Set Out Friday, August 18th on Jagjaguwar, Telling The 5-LP, 4-CD, 114-Page Story of Brad Cook, Phil Cook, Justin Vernon & Joe Westerlund's Short-Lived But Life-Changing Band:

PRE-ORDER

Photo Credit: Ian Merritt (Pictured Left to Right: Joe Westerlund, Brad Cook, Phil Cook, Justin Vernon)

This Friday, August 18th, an historic new box set called Epoch will reveal the untold, unabashed and unabridged story of DeYarmond Edison: the short-lived but life-changing band formed by childhood friends Brad Cook, Phil Cook, Justin Vernon and Joe Westerlund, whose 2006 implosion birthed Bon Iver, Megafaun and some of the most venerated music careers of their generation. Across 5 LPs, 4 CDs and a definitive, 11-chapter biography by journalist and executive producer Grayson Haver Currin, the collection charts the group's complex evolution and complete rise and fall, from the formative songs they recorded as high school kids in turn-of-the-century Wisconsin, to the dismal year of experimentation and reinvention in their adopted home of Raleigh, NC. Through its 83 unearthed recordings, Epoch also unpacks the period that came after the band's sudden dissolution – solo work, sporadic reunions, and so many special collaborations – as the ideas that DeYarmond Edison developed are essential to understanding two decades of indispensable music that has come in the band's wake. 

Ahead of Friday's release, three songs from Epoch's fifth, final and post-breakup LP, Where We Belong, are available on digital platforms for the first time today. A live performance of Megafaun's Alan Lomax-inspired take on "Trials, Troubles, Tribulations" was recorded alongside Justin Vernon, Frazey Ford + Fight The Big Bull at the Sydney Opera House on 6/1/13, and it comes backed with Ticonderoga's "Hands Up"featuring Justin Vernon, and DeYarmond Edison's "Set Me Free," an Allman-sized electric blues jam that closes out the entire box set. 

Listen to Megafaun's "Trials, Troubles, Tribulations" (feat. Justin Vernon, Frazey Ford + Fight The Big Bull) b/w Ticonderoga's "Hands Up" (feat. Justin Vernon) b/w DeYarmond Edison's "Set Me Free" via Jagjaguwar: HERE

Recorded between Spring 2004-April 2014 in Raleigh, Durham, Eau Claire, San Francisco and Sydney, Australia, the nine tracks on Where We Belong are "the sound of violently pulling apart the threads that bound you to someone else for decades," writes Grayson Haver Currin. "And then methodically, over the course of many years, putting them back together in a fashion that somewhat resembles that past." Within days of DeYarmond Edison calling it quits, Brad Cook, Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund started Megafaun, and Where We Belong's "Lazy Suicide" documents their first rehearsal. Within weeks, Justin Vernon was returning home to Eau Claire and beginning to shape Bon Iver. Shortly after recording For Emma, Forever Ago, Vernon returned to North Carolina in early 2007, where he cut "Hands Up" as part of an unreleased, six-song EP with his Raleigh heroes Ticonderoga, featuring Mark Paulson and Phil Moore of Bowerbirds. Though Justin Vernon and Megafaun would eventually welcome each other on stage on cross-country tours together, and the Sounds of the South event where they performed "Trials, Troubles, Tribulations" in Sydney, DeYarmond Edison reunions have been partial and private. The last time the four members were billed as the band was SXSW in 2011, where they played all covers and one original they never managed to record in the studio, "Set Me Free."

The version of "Set Me Free" that ends Epoch dates back to 2004, caught live just days before DeYarmond Edison released their debut album. It captures the purity and spirit of the band's friendship, and throughout Epoch a universal tale of small-town transcendence, coming of age and collective ambition emerges. Filled with early and embarrassing, tense and triumphant, vulnerable and vital moments, the box set is a testament to the magic that can happen when no one's looking. 

Each of Epoch's LPs and CDs encapsulates a specific era of DeYarmond Edison, with the band dynamics reflected in a unique language of geometric shapes, symbols and color combinations showcased in the box set's artwork and visuals. While the box ends with Where We Belong, it begins with All of Us Free, excavating the work of a high school-aged, funk-rock-reggae-jazz group called Mount Vernon, as well as turning points like "As Long As I Can Go" and more that a primitive DeYarmond Edison tracked in the nude at a local Presbyterian church. DeYarmond Edison's second studio album, Silent Signs, has been remastered and pressed to vinyl for the first time, and Justin Vernon's solo effort hazeltons foreshadows "Holocene" and other, future Bon Iver breakthroughs with songs such as "hazelton." That Was Then – the four-CD component of Epoch – recovers live performances from DeYarmond Edison's transformative residency at North Carolina's Bickett Gallery, and an unforgettable 2006 show at Wisconsin's Mabel Tainter theater. Title track "Epoch" and the other brilliant songs that make up Epoch, etc. find DeYarmond Edison at their very best and most promising, right before breaking up at the height of their collective power. 

Subscribe to the DeYarmond Edison newsletter, watch Epoch's trailer, and pre-order the box set here: https://deyarmondedison.lnk.to/EPOCH-Box-Set