Merchandise - "Begging for Your Life / In The City Light" (4AD 12-inch re-release)

I must admit, I was initially drawn to "Post-Punk" band Merchandise because a recently-penned Ad-Hoc article likened their sound to that of The Smiths, who just so happen to be on of my favourite bands. Between their rapid-fire 2012-13 albums, Children of Desire and Totale Night, the band's membership quickly multiplied from three to five; now including Carson Cox, David Vassalotti, Elsner Niño, Patrick Brady, and sax player Chris Horn. Marking the announcement of their new-found partnership with Indie label 4AD, Merchandise unleashed a limited run clear 12" for "Begging for Your Life / In The City Light," a 14-minute track which was previously released on a split Chelsea Light Moving tour cassette. While 1,000 12-inches were briefly available for pre-order, set to ship on February 25th, 4AD almost instantly sold out and "Begging for Your Life" is now alternatively available on iTunes and a number of other digital retailers. For all intensive purposes, Merchandise took it upon themselves to edit down and upload a 4-minute stream of "Begging for Your Life / In The City Light" to YouTube, for those of us not lucky enough to score a numbered 12" record. It's a brooding piano and feedback-drenched romper of a squealing Jazz-infused Punk Rock track, which actually comes in around the 6-7 minute mark, but it's definitely quite an interesting listen! Merchandise are currently holed up in their Tampa, Florida home-studio writing and recording the proper follow-up to Totale Nite (2013). Frontman Carson Cox recently spoke to NME about the album's progress and overall vibe: "We're going to re-make ourselves as a Pop band. We don't have to put any long songs on the album, so now we can just do a formal Pop record. I'm talking about Pop, Rock, and R&B. I feel like it's going to be moody and sentimental."