BIG STIR RECORDS proudly welcomes acclaimed indie rock veterans THE MORNING LINE to our official roster with the first new track previewing a very special full-length album release on the way this Autumn. The new single “Anhedonia” introduces a fan- and band-favorite anthem to the wider world, with razor sharp hooks framing a sentiment that couldn't be more relevant to the world of today, and a sound that taps into decades of guitar rock history but lands firmly on the 21st Century indie pop landscape. “Anhedonia” is out July 31 up for pre-order and pre-save now:
San Francisco Bay Area indie rock quartet THE MORNING LINE (singer-songwriter-guitarist STEPHEN SMITH, guitarist BRIAN MELLO, drummer PETER CRAFT and bassist DAVID KNUPP) have been creating and performing their unique blend of '80s college rock, postpunk and jangle pop, '90s alt-rock drive, and No Depression-style Americana for over two decades now, as is soon to be amply documented on the career-spanning but uniquely reimagined album that will serve as their full-length Big Stir Records debut this September. But it's the parenthetical subtitle of the first preview single “Anhedonia (Start Again)” that gives the next phase of the band's career its proper context: a new beginning building on the band's considerable achievements. The propulsive and instantly catchy rocker, reminiscent of the more joyous work of Wilco, R.E.M. and The Replacements, sweeps the listener along from its opening riff through its irresistible chorus and exudes the kind of hope for better days that's at the core of rock and roll itself.
TML frontman and songwriter Stephen Smith provides some context for the song, and a definition of the title for those searching to place it. “I had a 40-year friendship with the late poet and music writer Joshua Clover (Spin, Village Voice, etc.). This was Clover’s favorite The Morning Line song. 'Anhedonia' is a term for the inability to experience pleasure, a common depression symptom.”
The song is partly biographical – Smith has “lived in California and... the South” and, like many of us, he has felt “anhedonia” during periods of sadness. But from times coming and going from the Golden State, he has felt the state’s energy and its ability to help him “start again.” The song’s insistent central part carries it along, with everything else hanging from its side as it barrels down the track. There's a sense in which that feeling of momentum, travel and reinvention is at the core of THE MORNING LINE's entire oeuvre, driven by Smith's literate but emotive writing and singing, making it entirely appropriate that the next phase of the band's creative life and the new album will be equal parts old and new. But more on that soon... for now, it's time to start again indeed. Reinvention has never sounded so good. Meet THE MORNING LINE, and stand by for more.