Here's the latest updates and news from Pelican...

Today's Temperature in Chicago: Eight Below with Windchill Factor "It's the end of a fucked up year, there's another one coming." - Embrace

And I realize that there is some danger of that being the only viable conversation exchanged with the family during the upcoming holiday vacation/break/disaster, so why not pepper a few of your interactions with a variety of tidbits about Pelican? This newsletter is designed with this very purpose in mind. Let us begin:

1) NEW ALBUM IN 2007! Five days from now we will ensconce ourselves in Chicago's Electrical Audio Studios for 11 days of intense concentration and furious rocking. The album will be engineered by none other than Andrew Schneider, the villain behind this years' prime offender Hell Songs by the Daughters, last years' jaw dropper Perfect Pitch Black by Cave In, and the previous years' Summer bar fight soundtrack Subject to Change Without Notice by fellow Midwesterners Keelhaul. In other words, Andrew's credentials are apparently unsullied (yet) and the album is predicted to have a throttling impact worthy of the ragers we've constructed for it.

People who made it out to see us on our West Coast/Canadian jaunt with Daughters had the opportunity to preview four of the new tunes, "City of Echoes", "Bliss in Concrete", "Dead Between the Walls", and "Spaceship Broken - Parts Needed". The good news is that these songs only began to scratch the surface - there's a whole six more songs in the reserves that hadn't yet made it to the live performance stage. On a whole the songs are more concise and more aggressive than our prior work. Relentless repetition has taken a backseat to intensity and a desire to pack as many riffs as possible into each tune.

The album is currently slated for a May release on Hydrahead Records. People can, of course, expect us to tour before and after that time.

2) SO MANY LIVE PERFORMANCES - Those of you who live in or around Chicago will have two opportunities to see us before the years' end. On December 22nd at 9pm we will rock Subterranean with Lichens (ex-90 Day Men, on Kranky Records) and Suicide Note. The next day we will work our way North to the Beat Kitchen for a 7:30pm show with Young Widows (ex-Breather Resist, Jade Tree Records) and Suicide Note. The capacity at both of these clubs is smaller than the last several
Chicago shows we've played, so buying tickets in advance (both shows are available at www.ticketweb.com) or showing up early is advised as the shows may sell out.

There will then be a short break while we mix our record and gather our druthers for a year spent touring. March will see us traveling to Austin, Texas for the annual South By Southwest Music Festival (dates to and from the event will be posted in our upcoming shows section when they are confirmed). In April we'll be crossing the pond to play Holland's Roadburn Festival (along with the Melvins, Neurosis, Blue Cheer, OM, Red Sparowes, Growing, Thrones, and several others; see www.roadburn.com for more details). We'll be doing a few weeks of dates preceding the fest, including dates in Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, and the UK. Again, dates will be posted as soon as they are available.

There will be other tours in 2007, including full fledged tours of the US, UK, Europe, and potentially Japan. We'll let you know when things are confirmed. I promise.

3) AFTER THE CEILING CRACKED DVD - We announced this a while back, but if you don't remember (or never heard) we've been working on this DVD for the past
year. It's centerpiece is a performance captured in London in December of 2005
with live and DVD audio mix by none other than Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh,
Ice, Techno Animal, Final, etc.). The DVD also includes excerpts of several archived live performances from throughout the years as well as a photo gallery that documents much of our history as a band. It was slated for a January release, but has been pushed back due to numerous technical difficulties. News on the status of this project should be forthcoming shortly.

4) WHAT ABOUT PELICAN MERCH FOR THE HOLIDAYS? - I know, I know... you
want to share the love this holiday season. A new shirt design by our close buddies at Delicious Design League was just posted at the Hydrahead Webstore (www.hydraheadshop.com). There you can also find copies of our CDs, the brand new-ish double LP version of The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw, posters from recent tours, and most anything else you might imagine. If none of this appeals to you we'd like to take the opportunity to suggest the DVD release of a film we lent a song to, The Run Up, a documentary detailing the lives and work of many artists working in the field of fine, graffiti, and street art. More information about this film can be found here.

5) THAT PART OF THE NEWSLETTER WHERE WE WRAP THINGS UP BY DISCUSSING OTHER BANDS WE ARE AFFILIATED WITH - I'd like to start by thanking everyone who came out to the Chord show in Brooklyn and extend
gratitude to Growing, the Austerity Program, and the the Water Street Lounge for making the show possible. It was 14 months since the last time Chord had met (and 28 months since our last show), so it's hard to say precisely when the next time we'll perform/record/etc. will be. Chances are that mention will be made of it on our "website" at www.atomicmouserecordings.com/chord. I think Phil posted a "ringdrone" up there that people are intended to put on the cell phones. Uh, weird.

People have been writing to ask why Larry wasn't present at recent Lair of the Minotaur shows. He's not currently playing with the band since he lives in California. But those guys definitely have plans to play together again. There was a lot of time conflicts between Pelican and LOTM's touring schedules. LOTM had opportunities and needed to tour more so they needed a drummer that is more available. Larry wishes them the absolute best.

Trevor's band Teith just released a CD-R EP via migration media (www.migrationmedia.com). News about the group and MP3's can be found at their MySpace site: www.myspace.com/teith.

6) THAT'S ALL FOLKS - But seriously, it is. I can't think of anything else that we need to share with you. Hope to see you at our upcoming shows and have safe and happy holidays!