Late last year, Emperor X (aka Chad R. Matheny) released two brand new songs. The first, ‘Brown Recluse’ is rather reserved, with soft vocals and and acoustic guitar, although Maheny’s trademark hallucinatory, hyper-intelligent lyrics are still present. The second track, ‘At A Rave With Nicolas Sarkozy’ is more reminiscent of the experimental indie rock of 2011’s Western Teleport. Both tracks are highly recommended and you can buy both over at Bandcamp.
There was also a festive Emperor X EP, Jetzt Christmas, which certainly offers a unique take on Christmas. Current highlight is ‘The 2013th Noel’ which begins as a spoken word electronic piece before morphing into a “cover” of ‘The First Noel’, substituting the line “…born is the king of Israel.” with a whole host of references (ranging from the general of the new Free Syrian Army to the captain of FC Porto). It’s less a Christmas song than a 2013 version of Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’, and worth your time even now Christmas has gone.
Much earlier last year, Emperor X also released a live album, Nineteen Live Recordings, a compilation of excerpts recorded between 2008 and 2013. Maheny traveled between venues by bus carrying only his guitar and a bag of effects pedals and the results are amazing. The album was released on Plan-It-X Records.