"Epoch" b/w "Song for a Lover (of Long Ago)"

Epoch Out August 18th on Jagjaguwar, Telling The 5-LP, 4-CD & 114-Page Story of The Band That Birthed Bon Iver, Megafaun & Many More

Monumental Collection Features Dozens of Previously Unreleased Recordings From Brad Cook, Phil Cook, Justin Vernon & Joe Westerlund, Unique Symbology, In-Depth Interviews & Complete Biography by Executive Producer Grayson Haver Currin

PRE-ORDER HERE

Photo Courtesy of DeYarmond Edison

(Pictured Left to Right: Joe Westerlund, Justin Vernon, Brad Cook, Phil Cook)

Today, nearly 17 years after a haphazard release on MySpace, two of DeYarmond Edison's best and most promising pieces of music are now available on all digital platforms: "Epoch" b/w "Song for a Lover (of Long Ago)." As the title track of a monumental new box set out August 18th on Jagjaguwar, "Epoch" is as close as band members and childhood friends Brad Cook, Phil Cook, Justin Vernon and Joe Westerlund ever came to capturing the vision of what DeYarmond Edison might have become. It is also, in the end, what broke them apart at the height of their collective power in August 2006. Just 12 months after moving from Wisconsin to their adopted home of Raleigh, NC – seeking new inspiration and an opportunity to reinvent themselves as a collective, four-piece unit – the competing impulses and broadening palette of sounds ultimately split them into a pair of more enduring bands, Bon Iver and Megafaun. The result seemed dismal at the time, but "I learned more in that year than I've learned in the decade since," says Justin Vernon.

Listen to DeYarmond Edison's "Epoch" b/w "Song for a Lover (of Long Ago)," and Watch the Lyric Video Here: HERE

While DeYarmond Edison's sudden implosion unequivocally birthed two of the most singular and venerated groups of their generation – as well as projects like Gayngs, Volcano Choir, the celebrated solo careers of all four members and more – it is far from the beginning or end of the definitive story that will soon be revealed. Through 5 LPs and 4 CDs of music, and a revelatory 114-page biography from journalist and executive producer Grayson Haver Currin, the Epoch box set charts the complete rise and fall of a short-lived but life-changing band, whose impact is essential to understanding so much powerful music and art that has arrived in its wake.

Each of Epoch's LPs and CDs encapsulates a specific era in DeYarmond Edison's complex evolution, with the band dynamics also reflected in a unique language of geometric shapes, symbols and color combinations showcased in the box set's artwork and accompanying visuals. "Epoch" and "Song for a Lover (of Long Ago)" are part of Epoch, etc., recorded between July 2005-July 2006 while the band was sorting through dozens of different ideas, digging deeper into the musical disciplines they each individually loved, and hosting a transformative monthly residency at the Bickett Gallery in Raleigh. Epoch begins, however, with All of Us Free. Starting at the end of the 20th Century in Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley, the LP excavates 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 for their debut album 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 as part of Epoch. Justin Vernon's solo effort hazeltonsalso makes up one of Epoch's five LPs, foreshadowing future Bon Iver breakthroughs with songs such as "Holocene"-precursor "hazelton" and other ideas that would be explored on For Emma, Forever Ago and beyond. Where We Belong combines tapes from the very first Megafaun rehearsal, different DeYarmond Edison reunions, and other buried treasures that came after the band's dissolution, and That Was Then – the four-CD component of Epoch – recovers live performances from both the Bickett Gallery residency and a triumphant 2006 show at Wisconsin's Mabel Tainter theater. 

Across its 83 unearthed recordings and 60,000-word tome, Epoch serves as a vulnerable testament to the magic that can happen when no one is looking, when all that imagination and innovation require are a cheap house and the drive to reshape your world, together. It is a tale of small-town transcendence, coming of age and collective ambition, and for more of the story, subscribe to the DeYarmond Edison newsletter for exclusive updates and excerpts: HERE 

Pre-Order Epoch and Watch the Box Set's Trailer:

HERE