The Bad Penny (beta)

[This article was originally published in 2009 on IndiePit.]

Pelican’s friends are cooler than yours.

The instru-metalists have been in good company throughout their career. Out of the gate, they signed to Aaron Turner‘s Hydra Head label, which the Chicagoans called home till they recently hopped over to Greg Anderson’s similar-minded doom factory, Southern Lord.

Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh) has remixed some of their slabs, and also mixed the sound for their live CD/DVD set, After the Ceiling Cracked, a few years back.

Pelican have also been remixed by Prefuse 73; collaborated with Earth’s Dylan Carlson on their Ephemeral EP, which dropped on Southern Lord in June; joined forces with Mono, Scissorfight, These Arms Are Snakes, Young Widows, Playing Enemy and the Austerity Program for split EPs; and toured with too many bands to count: High on Fire, Russian Circles, Torche and beyond.

In other words, they get lonely all by themselves. So would you, if you spent most of your time speechlessly venturing into the far-reaches of epic riffage.

Maybe taking a tip from their Windy City neighbor Kanye – or, more likely, from classic-rock bands of yore – Pelican are now ready to let some of their amigos (beyond Carlson) play along with them, featured-guest style.