Ancient Warfare to Release Debut Album "The Pale Horse" on Alias Records

Alias Records has previously been the home of indie rock giants Yo La Tengo, American Music Club, and Archers of Loaf. So, it was pretty exciting to hear that they were releasing the debut album from LGBT fronted band Ancient Warfare. While Ancient Warfare isn't a "gay band" per se, the band's driving forces, singer/guitarist Echo Wilcox and multi-instrumentalist Emily Hagihara, are recently engaged to be married.

From their press materials:

Ancient Warfare were once the girls who smoked behind the high school gym. They were from distant shores; they spoke in code. They borrowed your brotherʼs Velvets records and talked about bands you wanted to know. They werenʼt going to stay too long. They buried themselves in drones of words and found guitars, mapping an intimate apocalypse along the way. 

Based in Lexington, KY, with roots in both Savannah, GA and the California coast, they have developed a fierce reputation for hard work and dynamic performance, sharing stages with artists such as The Raveonettes, Richard Buckner, The War on Drugs, Chelsea Wolfe, Scout Niblett, Mr. Gnome, and Lucius. Ancient Warfareʼs live show ebbs and flows from hushed harmony vocals to austere, tube-driven waves of sound.

The Pale Horse is due out on August 11th, 2015. It filled with really lush, beautiful arrangements that transform their brand of dark, slightly psych tinged, Southern gothic folk rock into something truly wonderful. You can hear preview tracks "Gunsmoke" and "The Last Living Trial" below. Both good tracks. But, if you really want to hear the band truly impress and show their full musical potential, you gotta pick up a copy of the album. Tracks like "Rolling Tide" and "Dreamcatcher" build into a sonic crescendo that will wow you.

Be sure to check out Ancient Warfare's website for tour dates. They will be up and down the Eastern half of the country in August!

10 Favorite Indie Rock Tracks of 2013!

So, 2013 was a great year for music - really amazing major label stuff, great dance and EDM stuff, and lots and lots of great indie rock. For our purposes, we don't take major label fare like MGMT and Empire of the Sun into account when making this particular list. Also, we left off really huge stuff everyone has access to like Vampire Weekend and Grizzly Bear. For this list, we chose 10 tracks from smaller to mid-sized indie labels we just couldn't stop listening to over and over again. So, here we go:

#10) His Clancyness  "Machines"


#9) Tullycraft "Lost in Light Rotation"


#8) Los Campesinos "What Death Leaves Behind"


#7) The Woolen Men "Hold It Up"


#6) Frankie Rose "Street of Dreams"


#5) PVT "Love and Defeat"


#4) Adult "Idle (Second Thoughts)"


#3) Man Man "Head On"


#2) Au Revoir Simone "Crazy"


#1) Guards "I Know It's You"