Fans of The Elms, the now-defunct band nuevo-heartland rock band that rose from a good little group out of Seymour to a crunchy, passionate guitar rock and roll gang, will be pleased to know that a new DVD about to be released.
After seeing some new posts about final mixing and video editing for The Last Band On Earth, the DVD retrospective project they’re working on, I talked to singer Owen Thomas about the piece that should serve as both a memento for fans and and an opportunity to wrap their run as a band into a self-produced, worthwhile package.
The details include a generous amount of music and even some documentary stuff. They are getting ready to start making announcements about the project through Twitter and other social media outlets. When I caught up with Thomas, he was able to give some of the scoop early.
“Details will go live at TheElms.net about all this stuff on about November 1,’ Thomas said. “We’re finalizing things now, in the final mix & edit stages of the film. The DVD will be out on Black Friday (November 25). People can follow The Elms on Twitter for the latest.”
ROB: How many songs will the DVD contain?
Owen Thomas: The DVD will contain 20 songs from The Elms’ final performance. It’ll be about 120 minutes long, with a couple never-before-released tracks, and about 12 songs that have never been offered live.
RN: DVD and CD/audio or a DVD only?
OT: There will be a deluxe package which contains the DVD and 30 high-quality downloadable tracks from the final show, plus a commemorative movie poster.
RN: How has the project been to work on? Highlights? Lowlights?
OT: We’ve all been super busy traveling and doing work with other artists. So, some time opened up over the summer and we dove into working on the film. We’ve been working on this from the road as we travel, too. (Elms’ guitarist) Thom (Daugherty) is actually sending me mixes from Minneapolis right now. It’s been an extraordinary amount of work. I mean, it’s a feature-length film. It’s been as much, or more work, than any record I’ve ever made. But I’m extremely proud of it.
RN: When is it going to be available and where?
OT: The film will be exclusively available at TheElms.net, possibly iTunes soon. We’ve got people talking to Netflix about possibilities.
RN: Artwork? Being worked on?
OT: We’re doing it all ourselves. Artwork, editing, mixing, everything. My creative house, Absorb, is doing the heavy visual lifting. Thom is mixing the audio. It sounds really fantastic. The film is going to be really wild, really cool. We’re calling it a “documentary concert film”. It’s raw, really visceral.
Hear The Elms – Sneak Preview
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F26257302&height=84&show_artwork=false&color=3b5998&width=398She’s Cold (Sneak Pique) by Thom Daugherty