PHOTO BY PABLO ZULETA ZAHR"The assent began in the year 2000, at a seedy club in Los Angeles called the Parlour, later known as the post-punk and darkwave cave of LA.
Matt Sims began startling audiences with his unusually provocative performances which were equal amounts political satire , surreal imagery and sensual debauch. With 3 dancers (à la The Fall), this performance group explored the contemporary connections between media, consumerism, sex, and entertainment. Gaining comparisons from artist Paul McCarthy’s food work to James Brown’s hip work, this show caused enough of a stir to get the attention of DJ Hell who quickly signed them to his International DJ Gigolo Records label alongside the likes of Tuxedo Moon, Terence Fixmer, CROSSOVER, Vitalic and Linda Lamb. The release of Mount Sims’s first album Ultrasex on Emperor Norton records, now a cultclassic electro-pop album, put Sims on the map internationally with the hit song Hate Fuck.
In 2004, the follow up LP Wild Light was released. This album, with such songs as No Yellow Lines and Urgent Not Urgent, introduced a darker side of Mount Sims. Collaborating with artists David J. of Bauhaus, Roger Manning Jr. (Beck), Echo Danon (So Does the Fire/ East Village Radio) and visual artist Elad Lassry, Wild Light was a landscape of made from themes which touched on the darker side of human nature: Obsession, isolation, horror and madness were to become a noted themes in Sims’s lyrical arsenal. Musically both noisy and melodic, Wild Light became the mark of a definite a departure form purely electronic music and from all which previous fans considered to be pleasant, to a very particular style of music influenced by post-punk and the LA underground.
After touring extensively throughout Europe as a 3 piece band (as opposed to a performance art piece as was the case with Ultrasex) Sims decided on breaking the band up and relocating to Berlin, Germany. It is here that Matt began working on the 3rd release, Happily Ever After.This new album is an even further departure from electronic dance music and is creepier and more aggressive in its content than any other Mount Sims album.
With Randy Twigg on bass, Andre Lange on drums, Thomas Stern of Crime and the City Solution mixing and providing additional production (as well as additional production from Jackson and his computer band), Mount Sims has become Mt. Sims and what, as a collective, it has always meant to be.
"A Grave" 12" EP is the first offering of these new tracks and will be available as a limited 12" EP on clear vinyl with stunning artwork by Peter Wu (one time pressing of 1,000 worldwide) and pushes the band even farther into the creepier and more aggressive territory he's veered into, with a concoction of electronic music and stark post-punk he's become respected for. Included is "Grave," a single off the upcoming album "Happily Ever After," and 3 exclusive tracks.
Mt. Sims drops 12 new songs that bristle with nervous energy. Merging his signature electronic style with stark post-punk textures as first unveiled on his second album Wild Light, Happily Ever After's songs showcase the new band's versatility. From the cabaret rave-up of "Playing for Keeps" to the melodramatic dirge of "Love's Revenge" and the raging death-disco of "the Bitten Bite Back", the band is flanked by guest appearances of Jessie Evans (Vanishing/ Autonervous) and Toby Dammit (Swans, Iggy Pop). To the delight of his followers, Mt. Sims strays far from the formula of "How We Do", as proved by the earlier release of a single for "Grave" on 12" format. Crisp production work done by Thomas Stern of Crime and the City Solution ensures that Happily Ever After is a future classic on par with the work of fellow travelers and collaborators ADULT., the Hacker, Vitalic, or Ladytron."
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