Earlimart prepares 'Hymn' for summer outing

Indie-rock outfit Earlimart [ tickets ] has lined up a slate of mid-summer dates behind the forthcoming "Hymn and Her" CD, the band's second studio LP in less than a year.The Los Angeles-based act--currently a duo, consisting of vocalist/multi-instrumentalists Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray--will kick off the run July 17 in San Diego. The 12-city trek will move from west to east before winding down in early August in Austin, TX. Details are below."Hymn and Her," Earlimart's sixth studio album, is due out July 1 on the band's own Majordomo label, which Espinoza and Murray set up recently in a distribution deal with Shout/Sony."It's cool. We did this deal with Shout, the guys [who] used to run and own Rhino," Espinoza told the LA Weekly earlier this month. "And, I think they still have a passion for music. It's licensing, it's a 50-50 partnership. Basically, we met these guys in a dark alley, and it was like, 'I want to be in a situation where we can put out Earlimart records, and I also want to be in a situation where I can sign artists and bring people to 'the dark side.'"Besides producing Earlimart's albums along with Murray, Espinoza has also guided several up-and-coming bands through the recording process, including Rademacher, which hails from Espinoza's hometown of Fresno, CA.The new set marks a quick turn-around for the normally slow-but-steady outfit, which released "Mentor Tormentor" last year and "Treble & Tremble" two years before that. In announcing the distribution deal with Shout/Sony, the band vowed to "release at least one record every fiscal year for the next 10 years. Or, unless Aaron and Ari decide that they don't want to," according to a press statement.