Beirut

When Beirut's Zach Condon canceled his European tour earlier this year to collect himself, he didn't just sit around reading On the Road, watching "Oprah", and wolfing down Ben & Jerry's by the tubful. Well okay, who knows really, maybe he did. But he also spent some time cooking up a nifty little double-disc release.

Come February 17 in the U.S. and February 16 in Europe, Condon's own Pompeii Records (with an assist from Ba Da Bing!) will issue a pair of EPs from the Zachster, packaged together but spread out over separate CDs for maximum EP-ability. The first, March of the Zapotec, collects six new tracks partially recorded in Mexico recently by Beirut, while the second, Holland, is credited to Realpeople and features five solo jams from Zach's early home-recording days. UPDATE: Though Realpeople was the name of Condon's early project, these are new recordings.

Astute readers will recognize Realpeople track "My Night With the Prostitute From Marseille" from that Natalie Portman-curated Big Change comp (billed to Beirut), while "Venice" previously turned up on the CD accompanying The Believer's 2007 Music Issue (billed to Zach's given name). Icy Demon Griffin Rodriguez engineered and mastered the March of the Zapotec/Holland two-fer, and the guy's Obey Your Brain imprint will be responsible for putting it out on vinyl. 

Check back tomorrow to read Condon's thoughts on the new release and other matters Beirut, and brace yourself for the band's return to the road, planned for next year.

Beirut: March of the Zapotec:

01 El Zocalo

02 La Llorna

03 My Wife

04 The Akara

05 On a Bayonet

06 The Shrew

Realpeople: Holland:

01 My Night With a Prostitute From Marseille

02 My Wife, Lost in the Wild

03 Venice

04 The Concubine

05 No Dice

// Pitchfork Media