Big Stir Records is thrilled to announce the upcoming release of STARS, a career-encompassing yet completely new collection from acclaimed San Francisco Bay Area indie rockers THE MORNING LINE. A dazzling 21-track bonanza featuring the hit indie singles “90s Pickup,” “This Lens” and “Anhedonia” plus completely remixed versions of the band's personal picks from a back catalog spanning over 20 years, STARS sees release on CD and Streaming worldwide on September 18 and is for pre-order/pre-save now:

https://orcd.co/tml-stars

THE MORNING LINE is new to the Big Stir Records roster, but they're longtime friends whose sound – a bracing blend of '80s college rock, postpunk, and jangle pop shot through with '90s alt-rock drive and strains of No Depression-style Americana – gels beautifully with the label's vision of indie pop’s big tent, and draws from influences all over rock’s map. They are in many ways a quintessentially Northern California concern, but their story starts back east with frontman STEPHEN SMITH's Boston roots in fondly remembered indie outfits Salem 66, God’s Eye, and Green Magnet School, recording for labels like Sub Pop, Homestead, and Domino and sharing stages with Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Lemonheads, Dinosaur Jr. and innumerable others. THE MORNING LINE, however, is a band born of the Bay Area: guitarist BRIAN MELLO has played with just about everyone in San Francisco, most notably in his band The Bellyachers; drummer PETER CRAFT and bassist DAVID KNUPP have similarly been found in most of the venues and many of the bands in the SF Area. Peter is also an important local recording engineer and studio impresario, and his studio, Boxer Lodge, where all these songs were recorded, is part of the lifeblood of the Bay Area's pop, roots and country music communities.

Together as THE MORNING LINE, they've been at it for over two decades and a string of albums and EPs that have consistently garnered lavish praise from the global indie rock and pop press. Reviewers have made frequent comparisons to Matthew Sweet, R.E.M., Velvet Crush, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, Teenage Fanclub and Orange Peels. Pop Culture press hailed the “glorious guitars, uniformly thoughtful catchy songs (and) gauzy, disillusioned guitar pop on their stellar CD debut” STAY MY SATELLITE (2007), Power Pop News lauded 2017's SMOKE for its “classic power pop, chock full of jangle and hooks”, and Real Gone simply called 2019's NORTH “an instant classic.” Across the catalog, it's been Smith's literate but emotive lyricism and striking vocals (evocative of McGuinn, Costello, Stipe, Tweedy and Grant Hart) that pull THE MORNING LINE's sonic excursions together and provide the band's unmistakable identity.

And that brings us to STARS, an album of new & collected material, with two new songs, a demo dating all the way back to 2004, and a selection of the band’s best work from the years in between. The songs have all been remixed, bringing out their best features more clearly than ever. It is a summing up of the band’s accomplishments to date, but the fresh spin that the band's collaborative remixing has put on the tunes, coupled a track sequence that obeys vibes over chronology, make it a completely new experience that goes far beyond a perfunctory “greatest hits” package. From the propulsive three-chord rock of “Nostradamus,” and the punch of songs like “1982” and preview single “Anhedonia (Start Again)” to the slow burn of songs like the soon-to-be second single “Spellbound,” “Antennas” and “Tripwire,” the album covers a lot of terrain, emphasizing guitars and impassioned singing. Acoustic laments like “Down the Aisle” and stately classicist jangle pop confections like “All Mine” and “Stars To Me” offer a change of pace. The ever-shifting guitar textures are endlessly engrossing, and a delightfully disarming turn of phrase from Smith is always right around the corner, making the double-LP length of the album breeze by and instantly inviting another spin to see just what more can be discovered.

Taken together, what might be most striking about THE MORNING LINE's songbook is the restless sense of travel, motion, and reinvention that sits at the core of so much of the material. From the chorus and parenthetical subtitle of the opening “Anhedonia (Start Again)” and the literal yearning to escape in any available vehicle that frames “90s Pickup” to the place names that dot so many of the tunes (“Staten Island,” “Los Angeles,” “Grand Ave.” and even “Back On Earth”), there's a palpable sense that sitting still just won't do for this band. That's mirrored in the pulse, drive, and occasional shuffle of the music, and it's a beautiful thing to behold. While STARS is a thrilling map of one band's journey thus far, it leaves the listener with the sense of joining a quest that's far from complete, and the feeling that the destination will never be the point. While THE MORNING LINE doesn't forget the Nineties, it knows that life - and music – goes on. STARS, like the night sky itself, would be almost dauntingly vast in scope if not for the focus provided by the points of light that are its individual songs, and beauty of the tapestry as a whole. Join THE MORNING LINE in what is, thankfully, an open-ended exploration of the possibilities.

Expected release: September 18, 2026

With a new album announced for release next month and up for pre-order now, veteran Northern California indie rockers THE MORNING LINE and Big Stir Records bring you the second single to preview the record. “Spellbound,” with its textured guitars and and plaintively melodic vocals, is a moody but lovely change of pace from “Anhedonia,” the band's previous indie hit single, and together they hint at the stylistic depth the band displays on the new album STARS. The single sees release August 28 (three weeks ahead of the release of the full-length record's street date) and is up for pre-order and pre-save now:

https://orcd.co/tml-spellbound

It's already been a watershed year for veteran Northern California indie rockers THE MORNING LINE, kicking off with the surprise release of a new double-sided single “This Lens” backed with “90s Pickup” after a three-year hiatus. That was followed in rapid order by the band – singer-songwriter-guitarist STEPHEN SMITH, guitarist BRIAN MELLO, drummer PETER CRAFT and bassist DAVID KNUPP – announcing their official signing with Big Stir Records after a long-standing casual association that included the release of their single “Nostradamus” some years back. THE MORNING LINE's blend of decade-defying guitar pop sounds, drawing in equal parts from power pop, jangle rock, postpunk and Americana, made BSR the ideal launching pad for the band's new album STARS, a comprehensive survey of the band's back catalog in freshly remixed and forward-looking versions alongside the new tracks. A new version of the signature tune “Anhedonia” hit big on global indie radio as the first preview single last month, and now, with the album up for pre-order and buzz building for its September 18 release, “Spellbound” sweetens the pot and displays another side of THE MORNING LINE's musical identity.

Frontman STEPHEN SMITH reveals the intention behind the track. “It's about someone re-entering the world, after a period of loneliness, upset, or treatment.” He goes on to point out some details that listeners, whether hearing the song for the first time now or when its original version appeared on the band's 2007 debut album STAY MY SATELLITE, might overlook: “One word people often miss when listening to it is 'Darien,' the Connecticut town. The song was featured on the soundtrack of the 2012 film Just Like Being There, a documentary about the makers of rock show posters. It is the only The Morning Line song with horns – a trumpet part that leads the song to its end. It’s anthemic and earnest.” With dense lyrical and musical touches like this, the song still packs a visceral and emotional punch as its layers ebb and flow. It's another side of THE MORNING LINE's fascinating take on guitar pop... and just one of 21 examples on display on STARS, a record that's rapidly emerging as an essential event on 2026's indie rock calendar.

Expected release: August 28, 2026

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:

https://orcd.co/tml-anhedonia

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.