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The Early

@theearly_band

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Head Music // Philadelphia + Chicago
@alexjrlewis + @baumsky
🌀 I WANT TO BE READY out now via @islandhouserecs

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Happy release day to The Early! Their album “I Want To Be Ready” is available now on vinyl and digital, link in bio! Thanks to @chrisforsythsolarmotelband for breaking it down - ……………………………………………………………………………………Jake Nussbaum’s studies with the great drummer/ composer Chad Taylor are certainly relevant to the project at hand, as are Alex Lewis’s devotion to the post-Derek Bailey outlook of the guitar work of player/ artists like Jim O’Rourke and Jeff Parker. A personal takeaway from the first time I saw The Early play in Philadelphia some years ago was realizing that the
“Chicago Sound” of the 1990’s - deeply historically aware, personally expressive but also highly group oriented, and often favoring a smoothly approachable sonic surface - was ripe for rediscovery by artists and listeners who may have missed out on it in real time.
Everything comes from everything (or at least from some things), but rather than producing another blandly derivative exercise of influence-mining, The Early synthesize their Chicago influences with an ambient drift that feels very relevant to contemporary listening modes. It is music that allows leaderless collaboration to produce a focused, unified output, embracing multiple perspectives without privileging one, and as a result sounding simultaneously old and new. Moment to moment the music bobs and weaves like a murmuration of birds as it also hums along like the drone of interstate traffic as experienced from a highway motel at night (two perfectly natural phenomena). Zoom in or zone out - I Want To Be Ready works either way. #experimentalmusic #bestmusicof2025 #phillymusic #phillyduo #soundtrackmusic #asianamericansunited #stopice by @theearly_band

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8 months ago

“Three Paintings After Genoa for The Early” – with Daniel Graham Loxton
Limited Edition Test Pressing Paintings for I Want To Be Ready
Mixed Media, 12.75x12.75 Inches, edition of 3

We’re really excited to share this collaboration between The Early and one of our oldest friends, the talented painter Daniel Graham Loxton (@danloxton).

Visit the link in our bio to read more about Dan’s original paintings made on the blank sleeves of the test pressings for “I Want To Be Ready”.

Again, link in bio 🙏🏻 DM or email us if you’re interested in acquiring one of these paintings. taken in Cold Spring, New York by @theearly_band

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4 months ago

We had a beautiful time on this six show springtime Northeast run with our new buds Bent Light. It was a joy hearing their music every night. Please check out their record The Daylight Is Ours (@memory_waste_ ) as soon as you can.

Thanks to all the venues who hosted us: @belltower_records, @mamatriedbk, @tubbyskington, @prototypepaterson, @brickbatphilly, & @rhizome_dc. We’re struck by how many generous & kind people are running great spaces for this music. Thanks to the all musicians who joined the bills. And lovely seeing so many of our friends and connecting with new folks. Grateful for it all.

We also dropped vinyl copies of I Want To Be Ready at a bunch of stores along the way: @belltower_records, @freakout.spot, @philarecx, @brickbatphilly, @jointcustodydc. Go find them.

More shows + music + other Early-related stuff very soon.

✌🏼 Alex & Jake taken in Rhizome DC by @theearly_band

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4 months ago

The Early getting their superbly mystic drift on at @prototypepaterson, Saturday 5/30/26. What a beautifully hypnotic set!

#indiemusic #indiebands #undergroundmusic #musicblog #newmusic #theearly #njbands #njmusic #njmusicscene #concerts #njconcert #prototype237 #patersonnj #patersonevents #phillymusicscene #phillybands #phillyartists #njartists #njartists by @theearly_band

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5 months ago

First two dates of this spring tour with Bent Lent were excellent. Thanks, @belltower_records, @mamatriedbk and to everyone who’s come out.

A few more dates to go:

5/29 @tubbyskingston
5/30 @prototypepaterson
5/31 @brickbatphilly
6/1 @rhizome_dc

Can’t wait to play our music for more heads. Bring your friends and family too!

🎥 Working on some new material at @mamatriedbk taken in Mama Tried Brooklyn by @theearly_band

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5 months ago

The Early x Bent Light Spring Tour is coming up later this month. Here are all the show flyers. Can’t wait.

Wednesday, 5/27: North Adams, MA @ Bell Tower Records with @aelliotr 🎨 by @michaelslyneisnttheonlydreamer

Thursday, 5/28: Brooklyn NY @ Mama Tried w/ @kid_millions + @_sarah_bernstein_

Friday, 5/29: Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s w/ @benseretan + @sonic_monkeywrencher 🎨 by @jesse.veasey_

Saturday, 5/30: Paterson, NJ @ Prototype (presented by Record Crates United) w/ @ahumancertainly + @bigacidofficial

Sunday, 5/31: Philadelphia, PA @ Brickbat Books w/ @ill_iterate 🎨 by @sam_____wenc

Monday 6/1: Washington DC @ Rhizome w/ @ravenkellymarie 🎨 by @touchfreak by @theearly_band

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5 months ago

We’re so grateful to all the music writers who have spent time with I Want To Be Ready over the past few months.

Thoughtful, often illuminating words on the record from @thewiremagazine, @thequietus, @popmatters, @ravensingstheblues, @klofmag, @recordcratesunited +++ many more.

THANK YOU to all the listeners out there.
It’s really been a joy to feel like the music is being received and enjoyed.

Eternal gratitude again to Tim / @islandhouserecs for putting this out! And thanks to @gbrlbrnbm for his help spreading the word. Copies of the vinyl are still available ;)

📸 @sahanicyouth by @theearly_band

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6 months ago

⚠️ ⚡️ Killer Show Alert ⚡️ ⚠️
@recordcratesunited x @prototypepaterson present wild innovative jangle guitar magic with
@theearly_band @ahumancertainly @michaelslyneisnttheonlydreamer @amanmademadman @bigacidofficial

Definitely be here for this.

Painting by: @reginaruff (see her work upstairs at @blueprint.gallery) taken in Prototype 237 by @theearly_band

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6 months ago

On sale now!
Ben Seretan & John Thayer - two mighty practitioners of Hudson River ambient - together channel their formidable powers into work that is graceful, sublime, and often a little sorrowful. Seated before a Fender Rhodes amid a nest of wires they call forth the specters of the valley, gathering signal noise and tape hiss as gentle as a breeze. Sunbeam of No Illusion, their debut LP as a duo, is out now on AKP Recordings.

The Early is Alex Lewis (guitars, synthesizers) and Jake Nussbaum (drums, electronics). The two began playing music together in high school during the apex of post-rock, fixated on acts like Do Make Say Think, Jim O’Rourke and Tortoise. Reunited in Philadelphia in 2019, the two have spent the past seven years reinventing their shared musical language, infusing the textural grandeur of post-rock with the communicational intimacy of jazz improvisation, the patient grooves of minimalism, electronica, and drone. Their 2026 release, I Want To Be Ready (Island House Recordings) was described by Record Crates United as “drifty, minimalist jazz fusion soundscapes that hum, drone and rumble like the atmosphere of a clockwork city.”

Bent Light is the duo of Michael Slyne and Russel Linder. 2 punk rockers and less volume. Two guitars. Millions of pedals. Busted tape machines sing too. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes harsh. They say it feels like a dream. taken in Tubby's Kingston by @theearly_band

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6 months ago

Hey folx !! Real excited to hit the road this spring!
BENT LIGHT AND THE EARLY 5/27 NORTH ADAMS @belltower_records W/ @aelliotr 5/28 BROOKLYN @mamatriedbk W/ @kid_millions and @_sarah_bernstein_ 5/29 KINGSTON @tubbyskingston W/ @sonic_monkeywrencher 5/30 PATERSON @prototypepaterson BW/ @ahumancertainly @recordcratesunited 5/31 PHILADELPHIA @brickbatphilly W/ @ill_iterate 6/1 WASHINGTON DC @rhizome_dc W/ @ravenkellymarie by @theearly_band

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6 months ago

Thank you to everyone who came out to our I Want To Be Ready release shows in Catskill and Philly. We’ll remember this special weekend for a long time.

And thanks for buying up most of the records we’ve been given so far! More are available from @islandhouserecs (it’s another Bandcamp Friday this week).

We’ll be announcing a late May East Coast tour soon: Western Mass, Brooklyn, NJ, Washington DC… Looking forward.

1) photos at @theavalonlounge by @danloxton
2) photo at @arsnovaworkshop by lucy
3) photo outside @solarmythbar by @killer_donut by @theearly_band

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7 months ago

Our album “I Want To Be Ready” is out this Friday, 2/27 with @islandhouserecs.

We’re performing the album in full twice that weekend:
// 2/27 in Catskill, NY at @theavalonlounge
// 3/1 in Philadelphia, PA at Solar Myth, presented by @arsnovaworkshop

Video here from our excellent @hideoutchicago show from January. 🎥 by Doug Kaplan of @bbsittersclub / @hausumountain

Thanks to all who have supported this music so far. More soon… taken in Hideout Inn by @theearly_band

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8 months ago