New The 1900s - "Age of Metals" (Plus: New Digital EP, Medium High, Drops Totally Out-Of-The-Blue)

Download: The 1900s - "Age of Metals"

Normally, when a band works hard at putting out a fantastic record, and tours in order to support said record, one can only assume that the period writing and recording the follow-up will be a quiet, productive period in which no news emerges until the album does (holy run-on sentence, Batman). We'd assume that this was the case for The 1900s, who, last year, put out Cold and Kind. Not only was that album a MFR favorite, but it's probably the only conversation piece that Pitchfork and Perez Hilton will ever have should those titans of media meet in person.

Needless to say, when I saw that the psych-pop septet dropped a brand new digital EP titled Medium High totally out-of-the-blue earlier this week, I did a Sheila Broflovski: "Wha, wha, What?". Medium High contains re-worked songs from Cold and Kind, including a Deerhunter-esque re-working of "Supernatural", and the Daytrotter version of "When I Say Go". New songs include the twee-pop "Collections" and the flower-power-pop of "Making Love in the Summertime". The EP won't be physically released until January, but those of you who want to hear can head over to iTunes, or the dread pirate eMusic. In the meantime, check out the officially released MP3 of the EP, "Age of Metals", at the top of the post. Along with the re-working of "Supernatural", "Age of Metals" points the way forward for a more experimental, though still highly melodic, direction for the group.

Medium High is out Jan. 20th.