Band of Horses announces new LP, will play Non-COMM in May

Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell has had a reflective week – the Seattle born, South Carolina-based band’s Facebook feed is currently filled with pictures of handwritten lyric sheets, previously unheard demos and outtakes and a photo of the original contract Bridwell signed with Sub Pop back in 2005. All of this was in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Band of Horses’ debut LP Everything All the Time. And in the midst of reaching this milestone, the band has also announced a new record to follow up 2012’s Mirage Rock. Why Are You Ok will be out in June, with Bridwell and co. previewing the new material for Non-COMM attendees in May.

Bridwell shared the news with Entertainment Weekly:

The product will please longtime fans of the band. “I didn’t want to just pander to our previous records or maybe even our most fruitful period, but at the same time I definitely attempted to tap into a lot of that stuff throughout,” says Bridwell. Take the epic, seven-minute opener “Dull Times: The Moon.” It’s one of the lengthiest Band of Horses songs yet, and Bridwell says it combines themes from the opening tracks off the group’s first two records. But that synthesis, by nature, makes it something new.

 

Diverse influences also shaped Why Are You OK. Bridwell cites the Peter La Farge tune “Coyote, My Little Brother,” popularized by Pete Seeger in the ’60s, as a departure point that fit his aesthetic during the sessions. But he also says the 2014 OutKast reunion revitalized his love of hip-hop and that he “f–king lost it” the first time he heard Kendrick Lamar’s “Backseat Freestyle.”

Passes for Non-COMM, along with details and line-up information, can be found here. While we wait for some songs from Why Are You Ok to drop, revisit “The Funeral” below and tune into World Café on Tuesday, March 29th to hear Band of Horses’ Tyler Ramsey on a special Sense of Place: Asheville episode.