The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have just announced that they’ll be releasing a three-track EP called Hell in a few weeks. It’s the follow-up to 2014’s very good and underrated Days Of Abandon, and the New York band is leading things off with a cover of “Laid” by James. As frontman Kip Berman explains in a press release, the EP was spurred by the positive reception to some outtakes he shared online back in August:

A couple months ago I posted a demo for the song “Hell” and some people said, “why don’t you record that for real?” So we went over to my friend Danny’s studio (House Under Magic) and recorded the track along with two cover songs – “Ballad of the Band” by Felt and “Laid” by James as a way to mark our forthcoming tour of Japan. The latter has lead vocals by Jen Goma, who sang on our last album and also performs with the excellent pop contortionists, A Sunny Day in Glasgow. The Felt song is really the UR-Felt song, the wry articulation of what Felt is most famous for – not being an eighth as famous as they ought to be.

The song “Hell” is about how insufferable performances of sensitivity are when there’s a good song playing and someone you want to dance with.

Tracklist:
01 “Hell”
02 “Ballad Of The Band” (Felt cover)
03 “Laid” (James Cover)

Hell is out 11/13 via the band’s own Painbow label.