Rhett Nelson

This Friday, Phil Elverum—who was treated to the so-called "stalker" treatment in these pages not too long ago—plays the Vera Project as Mount Eerie along with fellow Anacortes native Karl Blau. In advance of the show, here's a roundup of recently released and forthcoming pearls from them as well as Anacortes supergroup D+.

Mount Eerie Black Wooden Ceiling Opening (P.W. Elverum & Sun)

The latest release from Phil Elverum's Mount Eerie moniker, Black Wooden Ceiling Opening, is an EP of six studio tracks plus a live set performed with a full band. The album's press materials describe Elverum's approach to the EP as "black metal but made of natural materials," hence the combination of wood and black in the album's title. But Elverum hasn't added thunderbolt-fast guitar solos or corpse-painted shrieking to his songs (although "In Moonlight" ends with a goofy little rush of blast beats and upper-fret shredding). Rather, he's simply plugged them into amplification and/or performed them with a live band.

The result is a record that highlights Elverum's noisier side—his albums have always had forays into distortion and raucous, multitracked jams, but they're usually muffled or mixed into quieter songs; here, those tendencies are given free rein.

The studio tracks are three old songs of Mount Eerie's ("Blue Light on the Floor," "Don't Smoke," and "Stop Singing") and three newer songs ("Appetite," "Domesticated Dog," and "In Moonlight"). Of the newer songs, "Domesticated Dog" is easily the catchiest—a rough, bounding rocker about the tension between the pull of the wild world against man's controlled environments. Of the old songs, "Don't Smoke" might benefit most from its update here, blooming into an epic plea, Elverum earnestly straining his voice over bursting, staggering guitars.

The second half of the EP includes live renditions of the previous six songs as well as takes on "The Universe Is Shown," "No Inside, No Out," "Uncertainty," and "The Moan." As on the studio side of the EP, these formerly faint songs are distorted, ragged, and barely not falling apart, with Elverum's voice frequently a redlining, fuzzed-out bleat.

This all might be worrying as a permanent shift in direction, but it's fine, even fun, as a diversion; the "black wooden" theme will be further explored on another EP, but future releases also include a collaboration with Julie Doiron, Lost Wisdom, as well as another "proper" Mount Eerie record, Wind's Poem, neither of which is likely to be as amplified as this record.

D+

On Purpose (Knw Yr Own)

D+ are the trio of Elverum, Blau, and Bret Lunsford. Lunsford was the guitarist for seminal dream-pop band and K Records flagship act Beat Happening, along with K captain Calvin Johnson. Post–Beat Happening, Lunsford helped run Anacortes record store/oddity shop The Business, where Elverum got his start recording as the Microphones. Like Beat Happening partner Johnson, Lunsford is at least as notable for his patronage of other artists and his local scene as he is for his own continued musical output. Still, this collection of his trio's demos, alternate takes, and live versions is well worth a listen on its own.

Where Elverum's Anacortes is supernatural, Lunsford's is perhaps more realistic. Anacortes, after all, has a refinery, a maritime industry, fast-food restaurants, new housing developments, and a lot of conservative retirees—it's not all wind, water, and moons. Lunsford's songs seem to capture the real, human, small-town tensions—religious, political, and otherwise—of the place.

The simple, straightforward songs—part folk, part rudimentary rock—recall Beat Happening as much as you might expect, although with Lunsford's reedy voice instead of Johnson's authoritative baritone. The production here ranges from simple acoustics to hints of the more layered work Elverum has honed with his own releases.

Karl Blau

Nature's Got Away

(K Records)

Karl Blau has probably as prolific an output as his frequent collaborator Elverum, including several records released via his own subscription-based label Kelp Lunacy. His latest, Nature's Got Away, due out in September on K Records, confirms Blau as a deft musician, easy with an acoustic guitar and gifted with a rich, resonant voice. Unfortunately, it also reveals him as an occasionally off lyricist, prone to indulging in wincing puns like "Carry and Rob."

Still, Nature's Got Away is pleasant enough, full of thoughtfully produced acoustic numbers and boasting a handful of almost subliminally catchy choruses—such as those of "Make Love That Lasts," "Before Telling Dragons," and "Mockingbird Diet." The sound is often soft-focus dreamy, doo-wop nostalgic, Blau's voice and guitar treated with pitch-perfect reverb. recommended

Mount Eerie and Karl Blau play Fri Aug 15, Vera Project, 7:30 pm, $8/$9, all ages. With Madeline Adams and Your Heart Breaks.

egrandy@thestranger.com