New Music Tuesday: Get nostalgic with Ember Isles

Ember Isles, filling Rockwood Hall with warmth. via Facebook

It’s always fun to take notice of the first things a band reminds you of. When getting to know a band by spending time with their music, checking out their pictures, and then eventually digging deeper to maybe read a few interviews, little things will start coming to the surface of your brain as it attempts to fit them into a pre-existing mind cubby.

Sometimes I’ll listen to a band and they’ll make me think of the classic ’80s film Uncle Buck. Sometimes they’ll make me think of the time I crapped my pants while playing tetherball because I was winning and didn’t want to stop to go to the bathroom. Sometimes they’ll make me think of punching someone in the throat/nose. In the case of Ember Isles, I thought a lot about scented candles. I don’t know. They’re just that kind of band. A warming, room filling luxury.

The Brooklyn based band are releasing their debut EP Embers at the end of September, but you can hear a track from it right this very instant. Here’s their cover of Dirk Powell’s “Waterbound.”

Aside from scented candles, Ember Isles reminds me of this one Christmas when I was about 12 or so when I took a nap under the Christmas tree while listening to a James Taylor album on my Dad’s record player. That’s some pretty pleasant nostalgia. Absolutely nothing about their upcoming EP, which I was lucky enough to hear in full, makes me want to punch someone in the nose/throat. That’s also pretty pleasant.

On the topic of pleasantries and literal nostalgia, we asked the band the following question:

Question: What (out of anything – specifically) makes you feel the most nostalgic?

Here’s what they said:

“Its mainly scent for all of us, a perfume that someone fond to us used to wear, eucalyptus and smoke that remind of the coast, or a new beeswax candle. But there’s also deeply rooted sounds that make us think of home, for Hannah specifically it’s Scottish traditional music.”

I’ll be damned if everyone doesn’t just love a good scented candle.

You can catch Ember Isles in Brooklyn during CMJ (which is just around the corner!) on October 14th @ Rockwood stage 3 @ 9PM.

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