On the surface, Hammock is a slightly ironic band name for a duo who stay as busy as Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson. Since May 2010, the ambient/post-rock veterans have treated us to the hour-plus opus Chasing After Shadows... Living With the Ghosts, the equally gorgeous Longest Year EP, released in December, and most recently, "Like New Year's Day," a single featuring Matthew Ryan's world-weary croon atop a lush, Cure-esque backdrop. Made available while we cured hangovers induced by the litany of
quality NYE offeringsNashville put forth at the turn of the year, the Ryan collab should've been enough, one would surmise, to satisfy Hammock's creative appetite for a while.
One would be wrong.
Aside from prior talk of Ryan and Hammock working on more than just the single, last night we learned of yet another Hammock endeavor scheduled for public consumption this spring: two separate 7-inch singles featuring collaborations with Steve Kilbey and Tim Powles of Aussie alterna-icons The Church. From the press release:
"Two songs, 'No Agenda', with Steve Kilbey providing lyrics and vocals, and 'Verse for Forgiveness', featuring the vocals of Tim Powles and lyrics by Byrd/Powles, will be issued in the spring as two separate 7" vinyl albums along with two Hammock instrumental pieces on each of the "B" sides. All four songs will eventually be collected and offered digitally as a four-song EP."
You might recall that Powles mixed Chasing, a process that seems to have had a direct effect on this development:
