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Ranier Maria


Posted :: April 23, 2006 | 2:30 pm :: Tessa Horehled

Drive A Faster Car had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Bill Kuehn, drummer of indie rock’s Ranier Maria to discuss their new album, finding a new label and what’s in store for this year.

They’re also playing TONIGHT at Eyedrum (290 MLK Jr Dr) at 8pm ($10).

Ranier Maria’s sixth album, Catastrophe Keeps Us Together, came out in stores April 4 on Grunion Records. [Buy]

Ranier Maria - Catastrophe Keeps Us Together
RM were through with their former label, Polyvinyl and had recently come home from a national stint in mid-late 2003. They had new songs on the brain and started working a few songs with Peter Katis (Mercury Rev, Mice Parade, Interpol) in early 2004. (Two of the songs made it on Catastrophe from these sessions – “Catastrophe” & “Life Of Leisure”.)A few months later, producer Malcolm Burn (Daniel Lanois, Bob Dylan, The Devlins, Iggy Pop) got in touch with the band having heard some of their latest cuts and expressed his great interest in the record. The band decided to lay down a few tracks with Burn in the summer of 2004 and by fall, they had completed recording most of Catastrophe. With the record in the can, RM decided to begin poking around to labels with it.Grunion was the first label that contacted RM. Still a very new label at the time, they explained that they were very interested and longtime fans but they weren’t quite ready to handle releasing an album. RM laid back in 2005, taking their time searching for the right home for their new record. In December 2005, the band received an email from Grunion at 2AM after a show in Scotland saying “Let’s do it.”

Catastrophe’s first single, “Catastrophe”, was released on April 17th and the video will be available on RM’s website soon.

Here are streams to their second single, “Life Of Leisure”: Real | Win

Official Ranier Maria Website
Ranier Maria on MySpace
AllMusic.com review of Catastrophe
Purchase Catastrophe Keeps Us Together
Posted in Artist, Concert/Festival, MP3 Download, Music


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