In the new music feature Origins, artists are asked to give insight into their latest single. Today, The Felice Brothers play some “Jazz on the Autobahn”.
Beloved folk storytellers The Felice Brothers have announced their latest album, From Dreams to Dust. Due out September 17th via Yep Roc Records, the effort is being previewed today with the latest track, “Jazz on the Autobahn”.
The follow-up to 2019’s Undress continues the progress of The Felice Brothers’ most recent four-piece configuration: actual brothers Ian and James Felice, bassist Jesske Hume (Conor Oberst, Jade Bird), and drummer Will Lawrence. Helping to fill out the sounds on From Dreams to Dust are two-thirds of Bright Eyes, with Nathaniel Walcott providing trumpet and Mike Mogis playing pedal steel and mixing the LP. The guest musicians’ involvement is something of a tit-for-tat with Conor Oberst, as The Felice Brothers served as Oberst’s own backing band for his 2017 solo album Salutations and its subsequent tour.
While the band’s makeup may be somewhat new, The Felice Brothers returned to their traditional practice of recording in atypical studio spaces for the album’s sessions. Ian bought a 30-foot-by-40-foot one-room church originally built in 1873 in upstate New York; after completely renovating it himself down to the floorboards, he turned it into a recording studio, where From Dreams to Dust was captured.
In this unique and uniquely sacred space, they laid down tracks like new single “Jazz on the Autobahn”. The rhythm section holds tight as piano dances through the snapping drums, an effervescent runaway skipping through impending disaster. Walcott’s horn punctuates the entire affair like the dust kicked up by the “doomed corvette” driven by the song’s protagonists, Helen and The Sheriff.
“This song is a story about two people on the run,” Ian Felice explains. “They’ve left behind their entire lives in search of something but are haunted by a feeling of looming catastrophe. They are both using each other as a means of escape.”
“Jazz on the Autobahn” is presented with a stop-motion music video which Ian himself painted and shot over a painstaking month-long process. Watch the clip below, followed by The Felice Brothers’ Origins of the song.
Pre-orders for From Dreams to Dust are going on now. Check out the album artwork and tracklisting ahead, as well as The Felice Brothers fall tour itinerary in support of the release. Tickets can be found via Ticketmaster or here.
Apocalyptic Paintings:
Joesph Heintz the Younger’s “Allegory of the Apocalypse”
Paintings depicting the apocalypse, the German painter Joesph Heintz the Younger’s painting entitled “Allegory of the Apocalypse” for example. Also William Blake’s painting “The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun”, in which he illustrates a passage from revelations.
Collages:
Max Ernst’s “The Gramineous Bicycle”
The collage work of Max Ernst and the poetic collages of John Ashbery, “The Dong with the Luminous Nose” for example. I’m interested in how stories can emerge from disparate information.
Storm Chasers:
Storm chasers and extremes of weather in general; tornadoes, forest fires, torrential rain, hurricanes, drought. Environmental concerns and worries! Being haunted by a feeling of looming catastrophe.
William Kentridge:
An old friend of mine introduced me to the work of William Kentridge many years ago. I think his work inspired the sort of crude animation I made for this video. I’m interested in the process of painting, how paintings evolve and are transformed, what’s destroyed and hidden underneath the various layers.
The Holy Trinity:
Of course I couldn’t have written this song without the help of the triads D, G and A
From Dreams to Dust Artwork:
From Dreams to Dust Tracklist:
01. Jazz on the Autobahn
02. To-Do List
03. All the Way Down
04. Money Talks
05. Be at Rest
06. Valium
07. Inferno
08. Silverfish
09. Celebrity X
10. Land of Yesterdays
11. Blow Him Apart
12. We Shall Live Again
The Felice Brothers 2021 Tour Dates:
09/16 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
09/17 – Woodstock, NY @ Levon Helm Studios
09/18 – Woodstock, NY @ Levon Helm Studios
09/24-25 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Festival
09/28 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile Second Stage
09/29 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
10/01 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
10/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater
10/12 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes
10/13 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
10/14 – Washington, DC @ DC9
10/15 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
10/16 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
10/17 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
10/19 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
10/20 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
10/21 – Fort Wayne, IN @ The Brass Rail
10/23 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe
10/24 – Millersville, PA @ Phantom Power
