Search - Phantom Family Halo :: The Mindeater

The Mindeater is a collaborative project birthed by the ever-prolific recording artist Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Dominic Cipolla,multi-instrumentalist and main brain behind the elusive Phantom Family Halo. While Mr. Billy needs no introduction, his seemingly unending contributions to the presentation of contemporary 'folk' music have continued to surprise and impress audiences for the better part of two decades. Jumping right into the twenty-or-so minutes of music at hand, Bonnie's vocal performance on The Mindeater title-track is perhaps already one of his eeriest in years, recalling the creepy backwoods paranoia of records like Arise Therefore (if there could ever be such a performance like those of Arise Therefore). So it begins. Beyond the world of weirdo, kraut-encrypted, Amon Düül-meets-Roxy Music glam jams, Mr. Cipolla (also long time member of Siltbreeze crack-folk improv ensemble Sapat and singer for throwback metal slayers Dead Child) is surely the lesser known of the due, yet plays no less valuable a role over the course of the EP. The Phantom Family Halo takes the songwriting reigns throughout a majority of The Mindeater, their fifth release to date. Having met each other through mutual friend/local video store-owner and former Slint bassist, Todd Brashear, The Phantom Family folks hit it off quite nicely with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy last year when he joined them for a performance of the song at a and anniversary party they were asked to play with Roky Erikson. That was last summer in their shared hometown of Louisville, KY. Since then, the two forces have joined again, not only to record their psyched out, full-band, live-in-studio rendition of The Everly Brothers' classic 'I Wonder If I Care As Much' but also to cats a few spells of their own, The resulting tracks, The Mindeater, Roki For Nwo, and Suddenly the Darkness, were stripped to the bone and recorded to tape on the second floor of a funeral home where Cipolla lived until recently relocating to Brooklyn. The Mindeater EP was previously released and sold out as a run of 1000 limited edition 10"s on the Sophomore Lounge label. Knitting Factory Records is proud to present the tracks on CD format for the first time.