TRACE MOUNTAINS
SHARES NEW SINGLE "ROCK & ROLL"
ANNOUNCES SPRING TOUR DATES
LOST IN THE COUNTRY OUT 4/10 VIA LAME-O RECORDS
Trace Mountains (aka LVL UP's Dave Benton) shared "Rock & Roll," the new single from his new album, Lost In The Country. FLOOD Magazine, who premiered the song and profiled Benton today, is saying "'Rock & Roll' deals with some pretty heavy existential concepts while remaining tonally very calm," addressing "broader themes of identity and purpose swirling around impressively calm instrumentation from a full backing band." Lost In The Country is available for pre-order now and due April 10th via Lame-O Records.
Of the song, Benton says "I wanted to write a song about rock & roll. One of our favorite bands to listen to in the van is AC/DC, and we made a playlist of songs about being a rocker. I don't know if this really turned out how I imagined it would - I might have liked a little more machismo. For some reason, I couldn't just write a simple song about rocking. Maybe it's revealing of what kind of a rock band Trace Mountains is. We did manage to get a few guitar solos in there though, my favorite of which was played by New York blues guitarist Stew Cutler at the end of the song."
Additionally, Trace Mountains have announced a spring tour that kicks off on May 8th at Brooklyn, NY's Baby's All Right. All dates below.
Last month month, Trace Mountains announced Lost In The Country, with the album's title track. Of "Lost In The Country," Rolling Stone said "Benton wraps his pastoral pop in a 90s indie warmth that culminates in an ethereal, sax-assisted instrumental coda reminiscent of the War on Drugs," and The FADER said the track finds "Benton consciously channeling Kurt Vile, all stream-of-consciousness lyrics, metronomic backbone, and ambivalent guitars."
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LISTEN TO "ROCK & ROLL"
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TOUR DATES:
5/8 - Brooklyn, NY @ Baby's All Right
5/9 - Middletown, CT @ MAC 650
5/14 - Albany, NY @ The Linda
5/15 - Burlington, VT @ Burlington City Arts
5/16 - Montreal, QC @ Diving Bell Social Club
5/17 - Toronto, ON @ The Baby G
5/18 - Windsor, ON @ Meteor
5/19 - Fort Wayne, IN @ Brass Rail
5/20 - Chicago, IL @ Subterranean (Downstairs)
5/21 - Cleveland, OH @ Mahall's Locker Room
5/22 - Columbus, OH @ Big Room Bar
5/23 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Roboto Project
5/29 - Washington, DC @ Songbyrd Vinyl Cafe
5/30 - Philadelphia, PA @ Ortlieb's
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ABOUT TRACE MOUNTAINS:
Under the moniker Trace Mountains, Dave Benton writes music that asks large questions in quietly profound ways. On the project's earliest release, the 2014 compilation Buttery Sprouts & Other Songs, these thoughts appeared as lo-fi scraps of wit and tenderness. But by the time A Partner to Lean On, Trace Mountains' debut full-length, arrived in 2018, Benton's perceptive indie rock had matured into more existential meditations about identity, existence, and finding sense in an increasingly chaotic world.
In the two years since A Partner to Lean On, Benton's life has undergone several large changes, namely the dissolution of LVL UP, the indie rock quartet he co-founded in college, and a move to Kingston, a small city in New York's Hudson Valley. Composed during-but not directly inspired by-this transition, Trace Mountains' second record, Lost in the Country, reflects Benton's need to reconnect with his inner world. Prompted by an urge to access a more authentic voice, Lost in the Country finds Benton digging deeper into candid songwriting. "I wanted to open myself up and write lyrics that are a little bit more direct," he explains. "I write a lot of songs that are about myself and a lot of songs that aren't, but on this record, the focus is turned inward either way." The result is Trace Mountains' strongest and most assured record yet, 10 songs driven by a desire for introspection and self-discovery. The backdrop for this insularity is an expanse of wide blue skies, seas of trees, and winding roads, ideal locales for thoughts to blossom into greater reflections of the outer world. The slow-burning "Absurdity," which Benton modestly says is about "hiking and standing in the country," uses the sublimity of the wilderness to comment on technology's inescapable presence. Similarly, the driving opener "Rock & Roll" transforms the premise of a "simple song about being a rocker" into a stream-of-consciousness, apocalyptic poem about delusions, regrets, and getting lost in your own limited perspective. This self-examination culminates with the record's ambitious and anthemic title track. Channeling the cosmic sprawl of the War on Drugs or Kurt Vile, Benton recalls a moment of deep loneliness and depression outside a concert venue in the Netherlands, and how an unexpected moment of compassion led to a moment of awakening.
Despite its frequently bucolic setting, Lost in the Country's underlying current is an urgent commitment to Trace Mountains and "finding a creative process that requires me to be honest with myself." "I know I sing to forget, I sing to hold my breath, to feel the thumping in my chest," Benton sings on "Cooper's Dream." This line is "rooted in the importance of music in my life, it's definitely a reflection on that and how I can keep it in my life, because if I'm not careful and I don't nurture it, I could lose it." The self-imposed pressure has been empowering for Benton. "I really like having full control in making a record, deciding what songs are going to be on it, as well as shaping the vibe or narrative of the whole thing," he says. "It brings a peace of mind knowing that I am responsible for just my voice."
While Benton is Trace Mountains' songwriter, he asserts that Lost in the Country is by no means a solo effort. Collaboration is crucial to the project and Benton is quick to credit the contributions of his bandmates, which include Jim Hill (Slight Of), Greg Rutkin (LVL UP, Cende), Sean Henry and Susannah Cutler (Yours Are the Only Ears). "It's definitely our record," Benton says. "I couldn't make this thing without them." After beginning the recording process at Brooklyn's Studio G with engineer Matt Labozza, Benton finished Lost in the Country at his home studio in Kingston, where he also added contributions from Carmen Perry (Voice), Stew Cutler (Guitar, Lap Steel), Dan Goldberg (Synthesizer) and ARTHUR (Samples, "AB" by ARTHUR). It was then mixed by Mike Ditrio and mastered by Ryan Schwabe.
TRACE MOUNTAINS
LOST IN THE COUNTRY
LAME-O RECORDS
APRIL 10, 2020
1. Rock & Roll
2. Dog Country
3. Me & May
4. I Am Leaving You
5. Cooper's Dream
7. Benji
8. Fallin' Rain
9. Absurdity
10. Turn To Blue
Twitter @tracemountains | Instagram @tracemountains
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