The members of Greenland is Melting do not want people to think they're a couple of esoteric guys sitting around, thinking deep thoughts all day long.
They aren't trying to convey a deep, dark message with the use of metaphors or themes. If anything, they just want to be honest and straightforward.
But for a couple of guys who weren't trying to be poetic, they somehow managed to be in every aspect of their new album, "Our Hearts are Gold, Our Grass is Blue."
The band will be releasing the album tonight at 8 p.m. at the Orange & Brew. The show is free, and CDs will be sold for $2. The Quadrophones and The Damn Wrights will also be performing.
From the title and artwork to the lyrics and song names, it seems like the band worked on it for a couple of years. But, impressively enough, it only took the band a little more than a year to put everything together.
"It's the good starting ground for what we actually want it to sound like," said vocalist and banjo player Karl Seltzer. "I think as far as musically, we have accomplished where we wanted to go because I think, and I think everyone else in the band thinks, it's the best thing we have done as a group. That is the least we could have asked for in the CD."
While there isn't a central theme, the album is based off of the band's experience on the road.
Bassist and vocalist Will Dueease describes it as "an autobiography of a start-up band driving around, meeting fantastic people and having a good time in different cities and different states."
And the song ideas were not the only thing they got from the road.
Seltzer and Dueease said the band had been on the road for a couple of days and Shaun Pereira, who plays guitar, trumpet and vocals, was doodling on a pair of shoes to pass the time. While sketching, Pereira came up with the saying "Our Hearts are Gold, Our Grass is Blue."
"He said that and we all sat in silence for 30 seconds and were like, 'Dude, that sounds awesome, that is a really good album name,' and it stuck from there," Dueease said.
Aside from the title, Pereira also created the artwork for the album, which was originally a watercolor painting of a white owl surrounded by a group of black crows.
"It's great that we can keep everything in the band," Dueease said. "We don't have to outsource to anybody."
Along with a great title and artwork, the songs are pretty impressive as well, especially track five, "Everyone Wants to Go to Heaven," and track six, "But No One Wants to Die."
"It's sort of a traditional song that we picked up and started playing just for fun, and we kind of added on a whole beginning part to lead into it. Then we broke it up into two separate songs," Dueease said. "It's an old civil war death march, if I'm not mistaken. It's eerie and it's beautiful, so it's fun to play."
With such a well-formed album, all GIM can hope for is a good turnout at the show.
"This was written by all of us," Dueease said. "This is the ground that we all found that we love."
