It's been over 20 years, but indie rock kings Archers of Loaf have returned with the single "Raleigh Days", their first new music since 1998's LP White Trash Heroes.
Originally formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1991, the band exploded on to the scene with their debut album Icky Mettle and the hit single "Web in Front", which landed them a highly-coveted appearance on MTV's Beavis & Butthead. The band released several more albums, but called it quits in the late '90s, with frontman Eric Bachmann starting the project Crooked Fingers and beginning to release solo albums. In 2011, Merge Records reissued the band's back catalog, and the band played an unannounced reunion set at The Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina, leading to a few more shows that year, including an appearance at the Sasquatch! Music Festival and even a performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
But this time, the reunion comes with new music. Bachmann shares some insight on the today's Song of the Day:
I built a birdhouse on the back of my van. The seeds of “Raleigh Days” were spit out of the circular opening on the front of this birdhouse by an angry cardinal. One day last summer, as we were barreling down the highway hell-bent for leather, this antagonistic little redbird stuck her head in through the back window and exclaimed, “Great songs often come out so easily that they practically write themselves. I tried to help you, but you idiots ruined it; and now you’re going to have to finish it all by yourselves!” Then, in a white-hot flash, we smashed head-on at 130 mph into an 18-wheeler carrying a herd of giant elk. It was all blood, fire, fur, and feathers snowing down through that old familiar smell of boiling oil and scorched earth. Fortunately — after I regained consciousness — I was able to make guitar picks from some shards of elk antler I found scattered around the accident site. It wasn’t planned per se, but it just kind of worked out that I used one of these picks to track my guitar part on “Raleigh Days,” and I think it sounds pretty good.
Archers of Loaf are scheduled to play at The Showbox on July 11th. Check out more tour dates below, along with today's featured track and the teaser clip "The Return of the Loaf."
Archers of Loaf 2020 Tour Dates
06/04/20 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall Of Williamsburg
06/06/20 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
06/19/20 Richmond, VA The Broadberry w/ Joyero
06/20/20 Washington, DC Black Cat w/ Joyero
07/09/20 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
07/10/20 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
07/11/20 Seattle, WA Showbox
07/12/20 Vancouver, BC Imperial
07/24/20 Minneapolis, MN Fine Line Music Hall
07/25/20 Chicago, IL Subterranean
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