Mount Eerie

There’s some band names that just seem to fit the music that they’re associated with, and Mount Eerie is one of them; well, to be pedantic about it, it’s not a band per se, but a one-man affair, being the stage name of Phil Elverum from Anacortes, Washington. Over the course of the past decade or so, Elverum has been turning out records that might lack polish and sheen, but make up for them in terms of sheer emotional power and the intelligence of his songwriting. This is something that’s really illuminated when he makes it to the stage; take his set at the Jeff Mangum-curated ATP festival a couple of years back, where he played solo with just an acoustic guitar and delivered a career-spanning slot that was almost hypnotic in its profundity; Elverum really comes across as if he’s singing these songs, and strumming that six-string, straight from the soul. He’s an unusual talent, and one that really has to be seen to be properly understood; opportunities are fairly frequent, thanks to his prodigious work rate.