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Interview: Twin Shadow

Twin Shadow
Adam Grundy

Recently I was able to schedule a quick phone call with an artist named Twin Shadow before he played a concert at Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Theatre opening for Neon Trees, in support of his upcoming record called Cadet, that will be released everywhere on November 20th via Dom Recs. In this interview, I asked this talented artist about key tracks from his seventh studio album, plus where he finds most of his inspiration for his art. If you’re enjoying the interview, please consider pre-ordering Cadet here.

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Erin Shea Hogan – “By The Time It Gets Dark” (Song Premiere)

Erin Shea Hogan
Adam Grundy

Today is a great day to share the debut single from Erin Shea Hogan, a songwriter from Boston, on her lush cover of Sandy Denn’s “By The Time It Gets Dark.” Erin shared, “In light of all that we are facing in the world, I often find myself wishing for a different past and hoping for a better future. I offer this song as a prayer — a way to bring comfort amidst the uncertainty of our lives. I came across this song at a time when I needed it most. As an interpreter and champion of Sandy Denny’s work, I feel that many people are in need of this message amid the noise of our world, to live moment to moment, and to take each day as it comes.” If you’re enjoying the new solo work from Erin Shea Hogan, you can support this talented songwriter here.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 33: “Friends” by Matchbox Twenty

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

All my friends, all my friends are here

“All my friends are here.”

Those were the words pumping out of my AirPods as I took off from the start line of my second-ever marathon.

Wind back the clock a decade ago and show me the words I just wrote, and I would not believe they were genuine. Despite being a long-time distance runner, the idea of facing down the grueling task of running 26.2 miles without stopping didn’t just sound unpleasant – it sounded stupid! But the pandemic reoriented a lot of things for me, one of which was my dedication to distance running. And so, on May 27, 2023, I laced up my racing shoes and gave the marathon distance my second try, despite some excruciating memories that were still fresh in my brain from having run the same distance on the same course just one year earlier.

The running community has mixed feelings about racing with music, especially marathons. There’s this belief, in some circles, that music is a crutch, or even a distraction. Having tried racing a marathon since that second one without headphones in my ears, I can definitely understand the appeal of leaving yourself open to hear the world around you – conversation with other runners, cheers from the crowd, snippets of whatever songs spectators happen to have blaring out of their Bluetooth speakers as you run by – not to mention the sharp focus you can lock into when there’s nothing in your head but the miles. For my first five marathons, though, I did run with music, and during that second one, it helped carry me off to a level of serenity I had never achieved before and have never returned to since.

A lot of that, I think, had to do with the song I chose to kick off marathon attempt number 2.

The day before that race, Matchbox Twenty released Where the Light Goes, their fifth album as a band and their first one since 2012. Matchbox Twenty had been one of my favorite bands in the world growing up. Starting with their hit-filled debut album, Yourself or Someone Like You from 1996, this band and their angsty, melodic songs were a platonic ideal for me of what music could be. I still can’t hear tracks like “Real World,” “3AM,” or “Push” without flashing back to car rides to school when I was in first grade, my brother’s copy of the Matchbox Twenty debut spinning in the CD player. Later, as I started governing my own music listening, 2000’s Mad Season and 2002’s More Than You Think You Are were some of the first albums I truly fell in love with. The former was, for a time, my very favorite album ever.

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American Television – “Witches!” (Video Premiere)

American Television
Adam Grundy

Today I’m thrilled to bring everyone the latest single and music video from DC punk band, American Television, called “Witches!”. On this Halloween-themed video American Television re-created the original video, shot-for-shot, for their key single from their new EP, You Are Not Alone, for the spooky holiday. The band shared, “Steve has been talking about doing a Halloween version of a music video for years. Since our EP dropped in September, we thought, ‘what better time to indulge his intrusive thoughts, than to come back around a month after the EP release with a witchy version of ‘Witches!’?’ With a little extra effort at the shoot, we were able to create this near shot-for-shot recreation of the original – strangely enough, the final cut of this video was cranked out after 3am, better known as the witching hour.” If you’re enjoying the new video, please consider supporting this punk band that is signed to Smartpunk Records by checking out their new EP here.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 32: “evermore” by Taylor Swift

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

Hey December, guess I’m feeling unmoored; can’t remember what I used to fight for

In competitive running, they call it hitting the wall: the moment near the end of a race, usually a long, arduous one, where all the fight goes out of you. Your legs feel like lead, your heart is hammering on overdrive, your lungs are screaming at you to stop, and your mind is sounding every alarm bell it knows how to hit, all in a desperate attempt to override any motivation, goals, or positive self-talk you have left. Suddenly, everything inside of you is screaming the same word at maximum volume: quit, quit, QUIT.

When Taylor Swift released evermore, her second surprise album of 2020, on Friday the 13th of that December, I felt like a man who had hit the wall – not in my ability to run a race, but in my ability to weather a particularly fraught chapter in human history. When the sun rose that morning, it marked nine months to the day since the year’s other Friday the 13th – the March day when the world had turned upside down in the face of the incoming COVID-19 pandemic. And, for my part, I wasn’t sure if I could take any more months.

Writing about evermore on my favorite albums of 2020 list (it came in at number 3), I wrote that it “dropped on a chilly December Friday that just so happened to be the end of one of the worst weeks of my life.” At the time, I did not elaborate. I felt like everyone’s lives were in disarray, and I thought the sentiment would be more relatable if I didn’t tell my full story of why Taylor Swift’s saddest album came to mean so much to me as 2020 drew to its (merciful) conclusion. After all, who couldn’t relate to feeling down about a Christmas season where the very things that make the holidays special – namely, the warmth of togetherness with family and friends – were going to be all but impossible?

Five years later, I’m ready to share what happened that week, and that year, and how it tore my family apart, changed my entire life, and reframed my whole damn worldview. And I’m ready to tell that story because every time I listen to evermore, particularly the beautifully, exhaustedly sad title track, I can’t help but flash back to where I was the first time I heard it.

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Interview: Ronnie Winter and K. of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Adam Grundy

Recently I was able to schedule a Zoom call with Ronnie Winter and K. of emo rock band, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, to discuss their latest record called X’s For Eyes. The band’s sixth album to date features key cameos on songs like “Always the King” (ft. Kellen Quinn) and “Worth It” (ft. Craig Mabbitt) and an urgency towards the political climate today. If you’re enjoying the interview, please consider streaming X’s For Eyes here.

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Interview: Taylor Acorn

Taylor Acorn
Adam Grundy

A couple of weeks ago, I scheduled a Zoom call with Taylor Acorn to discuss everything that went into her excellent sophomore LP, Poster Child, that is out everywhere you stream your music today. In this interview, I asked Taylor about key songs from Poster Child, the inspiration behind some of these songs, and what keeps her motivated in her musical career. Taylor Acorn will be supporting Poster Child with a headlining tour, and tickets are on sale here.

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Omenbringer – “MONSTERBATION” (Song Premiere)

Omenbringer
Adam Grundy

Today is a great day to share the spooky new single and lyric video from Omenbringer, called “MONSTERBATION.” On this Halloween-themed single, the band channel their love for big metal riffs and slick production into a fun-themed track. The band’s Molly Marie Kent shared: “MONSTERBATION is my homage to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and tells the story of me creating the perfect bride, hand choosing her parts to satisfy my every whim, and then fucking her back to death. So you could call it a love song I suppose.” Keep an eye out for new music from Omenbringer in 2026.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 31: “Passing Afternoon” by Iron & Wine

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

There are things that drift away, like our endless numbered days

“What song would you want to have played at your own funeral?”

Back in 2011, a friend and I decided to work through a 30-day song challenge on Facebook together, each of us posting one song per day in response to the same prompts. I have to chuckle in retrospect, realizing that the challenge bore more than a little resemblance to this series that I have spent the past seven months making my raison d’etre. That exercise was colder and more simplistic in its approach, though. Most days were less about deep emotional exorcism and more about the most rudimentary questions you could ask about someone’s music taste. “A song that reminds you of someone” was one prompt. “A song that you listen to when you’re sad” was another. But the overall idea of the project – essentially, selecting songs that for one reason or another were part of your life soundtrack – was the same as the driving force behind “My Life In 35 Songs.” And it stands to reason, when you’re making a soundtrack for your life, that you might flash-forward and try to imagine the song that would roll over your end credits, whenever they happen to arrive.

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N.E. Vains – “6 For 36” (Song Premiere)

N.E. Vains
Adam Grundy

Today is a great day to share the new single from garage punk rock band, N.E. Vains, called “6 For 36.” In this electric-charged song, N.E. Vains quickly showcase why they’re turning heads in the crowded rock scene. Vocalist Tyler Boutilier shared about the origins of the single: “In Canada, First Nation Reserves are allowed to sell weed through their own non-government stores. Purchased during a particular trip to Cape Breton Nova Scotia (six packs for $36), the evening didn’t particularly end well for me.” If you’re enjoying the early listen, please consider pre-ordering N.E. Vains new LP, Running Down Pylons, that will be released on November 7th, here.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 30: “The Days” by Hailey Whitters

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

Instead of counting up the days, I just want to make ‘em count

In books and movies, it’s easy to spot the foreshadowing – the little details in the narrative that hint at something bad coming around the corner. In real life, you often only spot those warning signs in retrospect, when you’re looking back after some catastrophe transpires and wondering whether you could have known what was coming. Such is the case when I look back on the music that was dominating my life in 2019, right before the world went into a tailspin. And it is especially true about “The Days,” an achingly wistful summer song by country singer-songwriter Hailey Whitters, about making every good moment count lest they run dry a whole lot sooner than you expect.

In the moment, the good times seemed to be in endless supply in 2019, at least in my life. By the time that summer rolled around, I felt like I’d reached a state of total contentment. I was 28 years old and things were finally falling into place with my career. As a runner, I was getting back into racing after having not run competitively since high school, and my training had me feeling like I was in the best shape of my life. Most importantly, by moving back to our hometown, my wife and I had reignited our social life, which had mostly fallen by the wayside since our college years. We reconnected with old friends, made new ones, and spent a lot of time with family that we’d seen too little of in our years away. Everything felt just about perfect.

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Interview: Alex DeLeon and Alex Marshall of The Cab

The Cab
Adam Grundy

This past week I was able to schedule a Zoom call with Alex DeLeon and Alex Marshall of The Cab to discuss what went into their thrilling new EP called Road To Reign: A Prelude, which is their first taste of new music in over ten years. I asked the two band members about what brought them back to playing music together again, their memories surrounding their previous albums of Whisper War and Symphony Soldier, and their upcoming tour dates with All Time Low. You can stream Road To Reign: A Prelude here.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 29: “Carry Me Home” by The Alternate Routes

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

We got the street lights, we got it all right, we got this whole night, carry me home

There’s this stretch of roadway just south of my hometown that I’ve always loved, where you go around a bend and suddenly find yourself surrounded on both sides by towering pine trees. The road gradually climbs from there, taking you out of this beautiful, tranquil valley. But the feel of that short passage – the indescribable power of those trees and the many, many years they’ve been there – lingers for the rest of the drive.

Throughout my life, that spot on the road has always been the checkpoint – the spot where, when I pass through it, I know I’m home again. I came to feel that way during college, when I drove that road literally hundreds of times to get back to my parents’ house – for weekends, or Christmases, or summer vacations. I kept feeling that way after I graduated, when the visits home became less frequent, and therefore, that much more precious. I still feel that way today, when I come back into town after a vacation, or even after a quick jaunt downstate for a concert. No matter how many times I pass into that forest of pines, I always feel the same way about it, like I’ve just entered the gravitational pull of the place I love most, and can lay whatever burdens I’ve been carrying down. “Rest easy child,” those trees seem to whisper; “everything will be alright. You’re safe here.”

“You’re home.”

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