Optical Atlas

Faster Circuits, the new Derek Almstead-led M Coast offshoot, has posted its first song, “Mystical Shit,” on their MySpace page. Check it out here. It wouldn’t be out of place on Say it in Slang, actually.

Well, that was an unfortunately short run. M Coast, a band just launched in spring 2006, has this month announced they’re splitting up. The information was leaked in a post by Happy Happy Birthday to Me’s Mike Turner at the E6 Townhall: “M Coast has parted ways and it seems Andy [Gonzales] will either be going by Andy from Denver or
Marshmallow Coast again, while Derek [Almstead], Emily [Growden], and Carlton [Owens] are working on a new band…” Marshmallow Coast was the original recording project of Andy’s, having produced five albums on labels such as Kindercore and Misra, but when he decided to integrate Derek, Emily, and Carlton (as well as Andy’s wife Sara Kirkpatrick, who had previously played on Antistar), the result was a more chimera-like band with Derek and Emily sharing vocal duties. Derek also contributed many songs which he’d been sitting on for years without an outlet (both Derek and Andy were formerly members of of Montreal). The resulting album, Say it in Slang, was released last year by HHBTM to positive reviews, and most recently M Coast played to a very appreciative audience at the 2007 Athens PopFest.

While the reasons for the split are unknown at this time, the end result is that there will be two bands. Derek writes Optical Atlas, “Carlton Owens, Emily Growden and I are going to continue as a band doing my songs under the moniker Faster Circuits. I already had six new songs for a new M Coast record and now have about ten. We will be spending the winter working on the record. I’m working on getting the MySpace page finished; it’s lucky to find a band name that no one has taken already!” I’ll provide more info on Faster Circuits as it comes; and hopefully soon we’ll learn if another Marshmallow Coast record, with Andy and Sara, is on the horizon.

UPDATE: More from Derek, from the Faster Circuits MySpace blog:

So I guess unless some statement is made there will always be conjecture…

M Coast’s split was totally amicable. Andy called me up and expressed that he’d like to do more stripped-down electro-pop, which something he’d been hinting at recently. I had been wrestling with how to combine our new tunes as his are more in that direction while mine are heading into darker psyche territory. It’s sad that it didn’t work out, but bands rarely do! I look at it as an opportunity to do things i’ve never been able to do before. We are all still great friends, and in fact Andy and Sara were both at our Thanksgiving potluck.

That’s good to hear.

UPDATE II: Andy has written in to assure us that a new album of his own is on the way, although he’s still unsure about what name it will go under (see above). But you can hear two new songs at the Andy from Denver MySpace!

MP3: M Coast – Sail Around the World