HEALTH, everyone’s favorite Los Angeles noise rock band, will release its latest album, Get Color on September 8. Not satisfied with a simple release, however, the band has created 66 handmade prize tickets, which will be hidden in the first shipment of CDs. Each ticket will have a unique code that will provide the winner with prizes and merchandise from the band; one “Golden Ticket” will provide the recipient with a 3-night trip to LA, “where the winner’s every whim will be attended to.” Said “Golden Ticket” trip will include lodging at a band member’s house, “as well as various meticulously planned activities culminating in a trip to Six Flags amusement park.”

Six Flags with HEALTH?! Sounds like a fantastically weird time.

Other prizes include care packages from band members, “silkscreened posters autographed in blood,” a test-pressing of Get Color, LPs from the band’s private collections, “gifts from HEALTH’s moms including hand-knitted scarves and astrological consultations,” personality tests, childhood photos of band members, crank phone calls to other indie rockers, and homemade mixtapes. In addition, “expect some personal, homemade-with-love “it’s the thought that counts” prizes including locks-of-hair (band members and cats), childhood toys, fingerprints and magic tricks.”

Regardless of what you win, you win big. Kind of my sweepstakes.

Undoubtedly one of our most anticipated releases of 2009 is the forthcoming sophomore release from HEALTH (seriously, this has been a great year for music, but anwyay…). We were already treated to the incredible single “Die Slow”, and now we have the artwork and release date to keep us salivating.

On September 8 2009, HEALTH will release their second album Get Color via Lovepump United once again. Recorded in “an especially gnarly part of Lincoln Heights, L.A with Manny Nieto,” the new LP is “a celebration of sound; pretty, harsh, soft and basked in a blanket of ethereal vocals.” We’re going to assume this means their bringing the dance ala the “Die Slow” single. We surely hope this doesn’t mean the harsh, thrash-infusion won’t be lost forever, but if “Die Slow” is any indication, Health have been taking cues from their partners in “Crimewave”, Crystal Castles, moving further away from their avant noise days.

Get Color track listing
01. In Heat
02. Die Slow
03. Nice Girls
04. Death+
05. Before Tigers
06. Severin
07. Eat Flesh
08. We Are Water
09. In Violet

I usually hate how people will commend bands for making their sound poppier and more accessible, which is exactly the case for the new Health single “Die Slow”. Only problem is, I can’t stop listening to this song.

Released as a 7-inch on Lovepump United in advance of their upcoming full-length Get Color, the “Die Slow” single (the B-Side comes with a Pictureplane remix of the song) would suggest Health have been taking cues from their partners in “Crimewave”, Crystal Castles. Moving further away from their avant noise days than ever before, it seems as though the band will be looking to break out of the underground, much the way fellow L.A. sonic stranglers No Age have been able to do. Making their claim to one of the best records we’ve yet to hear, here is at least one of the best singles of 2009.

Health – “Die Slow” [via 88 Days In My Veins]

Montreal’s CFCF has been been a buzzing producer ever since he remixed HEALTH’s “Triceratops” in early 2008, but his original material is now starting to look around the web, drawing a lot of praise. This video for the track “You Hear Colours” features footage from Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, NASA and National Geographic — which sets a near perfect landscape for his relaxing, downtempo beats.

CFCF – “You Hear Colours”