Black Light Burns 'Cover Your Heart' album

Former Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland and his band BLACK LIGHT BURNS is preparing for the release of Cover Your Heart andThe Anvil Pants Odyssey, a combination CD and DVD package on August 5, 2008 on I Am: Wolfpack/YMA Music Group. Packed with reinterpreted songs of bands including Duran Duran ("Hungry Like the Wolf"), The Jesus Lizard ("The Art of Self Defense"), Sisters of Mercy ("Lucretia My Reflection") and PJ Harvey ("Rid of Me"), Cover Your Heart is a deconstruction and reconstruction of music that the band has loved and appreciated. "This is a short list of just some of our favorite songs," Wes explains. "It was really a culmination of years of ideas for cover songs and never getting around to doing it. But as soon as the thought of a covers album came about, it was like pulling a cork out of a dam. We had to stick it back in as fast as possible because we were soaked in like four seconds."

A fascinating spread of different textures and sounds, from the rhythmic percussive/guitar aggression of Love and Rockets' "So Alive" to the dark and twisted retelling of Fiona Apple's "On the Bound" to the punk spittle and squelch of Iggy & the Stooges' "Search and Destroy", Cover Your Heart is a content-oriented piece that serves as an ultimate bridge between their 2007 debut Cruel Melody and the new album due in early 2009. "A couple of songs don't stray too far off the path of the originals, but most are tremendously skewed," he says. "It's so much fun to take a song from one of your heroes and mix your own filth into it... you know, really create a Frankenstein's monster of a song. It's the most fun I've ever had making an album." The covers are coupled with, as Wes describes, "seven instrumentals cut from Cruel Melody," adding yet another dimension to the album. The Anvil Pants Odyssey, the DVD component of the package, contains a 100-minute tour documentary "filled with behind-the-scenes footage from BLB touring, Behind The Lie: Making the 'Lie' Music Video, plus three music videos from their debut album ("Lie," "Mesopotamia" and "4 Walls").

In response to the music industry's constantly changing business model, Black Light Burns has decided to take on a different approach to distributing their music. Instead of offering simple physical CDs and digital downloads, they are offering multiple music offerings that include different albums, t-shirt, sticker, instrumentals, etc...

Spending a bulk of the Summer and Fall in Europe supporting Cruel Melody, the band will also be finishing up the follow-up album that is geared for 2009. "We're in the studio half done with record number two of original songs," he explains. "Maybe that's technically considered record three now. Yikes! The next album is really coming along a lot faster than I thought it would. Everything's written for the most part and it's lush and aggressive and harsh and funny and spacey and sullen and dark and cocky and has a swagger to it that Cruel Melody did not. I'm so happy with it. It sounds like a witch with spurs and a six shooter on a broom in Iraq at night with a fever."

biography
Those who thought musician and visual artist Wes Borland’s current band Black Light Burns wouldn’t make it past its first release might want to reconsider their view. Cover Your Heart and The Anvil Pants Odyssey, a CD and DVD intended as an interim piece between Black Light Burns’ 2007 debut album Cruel Melody and their yet-untitled second album, which is anticipated to be released in early 2009, showcase both the progression of the group’s career thus far and provide a detailed look into the inner workings of the musicians’ creative process. Cover Your Heart, a 17-track collection of inspired cover songs and instrumental b-sides and remixes from Cruel Melody, reveals a new side of Black Light Burns, compiling a provocative list of Borland’s most loved songs re-imagined by his band. “The musicians we covered are people we all listen to pretty religiously,” Borland explains. “They’re all bands that I’m a huge fan of and wanted to tell the world. It’s a shortlist of everyone I love that people may or may not have heard of or may or may not have thought that I would be into. They’re my desert island songs.”

The ten included covers originated with Borland’s desire to cover The Jesus Lizard’s “The Art of Self Defense” and spiraled into an amalgam of sonic interpretations that range from an aggressive reworking of Fiona Apple’s “On the Bound” to a compelling rendition of Sisters of Mercy’s “Lucretia My Reflection”...- all of which the group recorded successively beginning on late December of 2007. “Some of the songs are really similar, they’re just a little more revved up,” Borland says. “It depends on the song. Some things it’s good to just put a twist on and others, like the Fiona Apple song, are completely changed. You think: What direction do I want to see this go? How can I make this sound like my band’s doing it? The songs are already written, so the hard part’s over with. It’s basically just messing around in the studio until you strike gold. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had.”

The companion DVD, The Anvil Pants Odyssey, also spiraled into something grander than originally planned, originated into some tour footage shot in 2007 by filmmaker Satchel Underwood. Once the band realized the footage was in itself a full-length documentary feature, the DVD was born with the addition of the group’s three music videos from Cruel Melody (“Lie,” “Mesopotamia” and “4 Walls”) and a making-of feature from their video shoot for “Lie.” The decision to pair it with the album was a no-brainer. “All these projects had come to fruition at once, but not through any specific plan,” says Borland, who also created all the artwork for the package. “They just all started happening at the same time. All this stuff was destined to be together in one package.”

The release of the CD and DVD duo also represents the solidifying of Black Light Burns’ lineup, which was initially a rotating collection of musicians and Borland when the band formed as Borland’s side project to Limp Bizkit in 2004. After leaving Limp Bizkit in 2005, Borland transformed Black Light Burns into the full-fledged band it is today, penning and demoing significantly heavier and more dynamic material than he had in his former band and beginning to tour on the songs. That music eventually became the engaging tracks on Cruel Melody, which was released in June of 2007 to great acclaim from both fans and critics. Borland, who juggles the band with numerous other projects, has much of the band’s second album completed and has several European tour dates scheduled for August of 2008.

Because Borland is focused on adapting to the rapid-shifting music industry both Cover Your Heart and The Anvil Pants Odyssey will be released in various formats to ensure that fans have the option of getting the material as cheaply and easily as possible. “Look at what NIN and Radiohead have done and we’re doing the same,” Borland explains. “It’s genius what they’ve done and it made me really happy to see that and see people have a choice in what form they buy a record. It made me want to do it immediately. I like it. It’s flexible. We’re following the leader.” Beyond that, the artist has a slightly more selfish desire for the record. “I hope the original artists hear what we have done and aren’t too upset,” he says. “That would be one of the goals for this album. And maybe they will even be tickled or flattered because that would be great to actually meet some of these people.”

who is who
Wes Borland- Vox Guitars

Sean Fetterman- Bass

Nick Annis- Guitar

Marshall Kilpatrick- Drums

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Tracklisting

Black Light Burns - Cover Your Heart