“Fantastic Machine” is new power-pop single from Elephant 6, Apples In Stereo co-founder Hilarie Sidney’s band The High Water Marks.

“Fuzzy, psychedelic” cut is from second album in less than two years from Norway-based foursome. “Proclaimer of Things” drops Feb. 4^th.
 
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The High Water Marks (L-R): Logan Miller, Hilarie Sidney, Per Ole Bratset, Øystein Megård.
 
Photo credit: Self-Portraits, Illustration by Per Ole Bratset.
  
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The High Water Marks | “Fantastic Machine”

 

[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/TheHighWaterMarks-FantasticMachine
 
The press calls The High Water Marks “pulse-raising mega-pop,” (UNCUT), with “sugar-coated melodies to spare” (Pitchfork), that offers “garage pop for the masses” (Paste).
 
The upcoming Proclaimer of Things album is the second full-length in just over a year from The High Water Marks, following a (too long!) 13-year hiatus. The Norway-based band fronted by Hilarie Sidney, the co-founder of the Elephant 6 Recording Co. and one of its core bands The Apples In Stereo, maintains and extends the high-energy fantastic fuzz of those sounds.
 
In its premiere coverage of “Fantastic Machine,” the latest single by The High Water Marks (featuring vocals by band member, Per Ole Bratset), Treble calls the tune “a fuzzy, psychedelic pop single with big hooks and swirling effects.”
 
Other music discovery sites coming in with coverage of “Fantastic Machine” include Austin Town Hall, Indie For Bunnies, Dagger, Herzmukke, and Buffablog.    
 
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The High Water Marks
Proclaimer of Things
(Minty Fresh Records)
Feb. 4^th, 2022
 

Track Listing:
 
01. The Best Day
02. Fantastic Machine (STREAM)
03. Jenny (STREAM | VIDEO)
04. I Told You Before
05. Fingers and Trees Are Only Temporary (STREAM)
06. Proclaimer of Things (STREAM | VIDEO)
07. Spectral Roommate
08. Origin of Names (STREAM)
09. Dust and Guitars
10. Devotee to The Chemist
11. Someones’s Song
12. Reason vs. Truth (STREAM)
13. We Are Going to Kentucky
 
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The High Water Marks | More Singles and Videos from Proclaimer of Things
 
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The High Water Marks | “Fingers and Trees are Only Temporary”

 

[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/TheHighWaterMarks-FingersAndTreesAreOnlyTemporary
 
In its premiere coverage of the latest single by The High Water Marks, Beats Per Minute says, “Known as the home of bands such as Neutral Milk Hotel, The Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control, and dozens of others, the Elephant 6 Collective was a refuge for popsters who enjoyed the more psychedelic aspects of the genre. As one of the founders of this musical sanctuary (and of The Apples in Stereo), Hilarie Sidney has long spent time in the company of musicians whose creativities were slightly askew from their peers.
 
“On ‘Fingers and Trees are Only Temporary,’ the band digs deeper into the psychedelic side of their work, bringing out some fuzzy guitar theatrics, thumping percussion, and sweeping vocals that come at you from all angles. The song feels like it’s drawing back to those early years within the E6 hivemind... There’s plenty of lovely nostalgia here, but that’s not why the song works so well. This is its own thing.”

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The High Water Marks | “Proclaimer of Things”
 

 

 

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTBKF-9xq98
 
[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/TheHighWaterMarks-Proclaimer-Single
 
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The “Proclaimer of Things” single, featuring lead vocal by Sidney’s bandmate and husband, Per Ole Bratset (along with a boyhood photo of Sidney’s great grandfather on the cover!) is out now and MXDWN has premiered the video for the song, saying it “is catchy and upbeat and has the potential to be on your favorite playlist on repeat.”
 
Under The Radar rings in with the premiere of the track, calling “Proclaimer of Things,” “an irresistible power pop gem.”
 
The full 13-song Proclaimer of Things album arrives Feb. 4^th, 2022 via Minty Fresh.
 
Bratset says, “The title comes from an inside joke Hil and I always play around with. If we catch ourselves being a little preachy or pompous, we add ‘I am the proclaimer of things!’ at the end. We picture this guy with a crazy mustache and top hat going around ‘proclaiming things,’ while holding up a scroll and wearing a monocle. It always makes it weird and hilarious!”
 
Sidney elaborates on the appearance of her great grandfather on the cover of the single, saying, “His dad owned a roller rink in the 1880s in Iowa. My great-grandpa was so good at skating and doing tricks on both the bike and the skates that he started performing around the Midwest, and as far west as Colorado. He earned an insanely good chunk of cash for doing this, thus supporting the family. He went under the moniker, Little Willy Sidney, and Wee Willy Sidney, hahaha.”
 
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The High Water Marks | About
 

“I am so lucky to have been a musician throughout my life,” says Hilarie Sidney, currently fronting The High Water Marks, and best known as co-founder of the revered musical collective Elephant Six, and one of its three core bands The Apples In Stereo.
 
Based in her adopted home town of Grøa, Norway, Sidney and The High Water Marks are prepping to release Proclaimer of Things, the band’s second album in just over a year, following-up the 2020 album Ecstasy Rhymes, its first album in 13 years.
 
Coming back after such a long stretch of being off the scene with a critically and commercially welcomed new album, and then quickly coming in hot with another batch of 13 songs, isn’t an accident. In this case, it’s a coping mechanism.
 
With the United States reaching a milestone of 1 in 500 people having succumbed to COVID-19, it’s tragic news that this statistic hits home for Sidney. Her mother, half a world away, passed from the virus earlier this year.
 
“Not being able to see her and knowing that she was alone, dying in a nursing home, still haunts me daily,” Sidney courageously reveals.
 
Sidney knew that when she began to build a life in Norway with her band mate and husband Per Ole Bratset and their son, that she would be just a 12-hour flight from the rest of her family, but that 12 hours became something completely different under lockdown.
 
“I never factored in a pandemic,” she says. “At least my mom got to hear our record before she passed away. That means a lot to me because she was always really supportive of my music.”
 
The thirteen songs that comprise Proclaimer of Things are just a drop in the bucket, considering how much Sidney has leaned on songwriting to take her mind off things.
 
“I feel like I can’t pick up the guitar without writing a little melody. As therapy, we decided to keep recording. We dove into the project to keep us sane, focused, and from going down the rabbit hole of depression and self-pity.”
 
Through it all, The High Water Marks made an album that is positive, light, happy, and meaningful.
 
“I think my mom would approve of my method of dealing with the grief of losing her.” Sidney says with trademark optimism.
 
Proclaimer of Things, the latest album by The High Water Marks, is scheduled for release on Feb. 4^th, 2022 on Minty Fresh.
 
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The High Water Marks | Links
 
ASSETS : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : SPOTIFY : APPLE : MINTY FRESH
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
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