Austin, TX heart-on-sleeve indie/folk-rock band Under The Rug took leave from their mobile home and traveled across the U.S. to Los Angeles to record their third full-length album, Homesick For Another World, produced by Oak House Recording owner and David Fridmann understudy David Peters (Blake Mills, Empress Of).
Lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist Casey Dayan, guitarist Sean Campbell, and drummer Brendan McQueeney have taken a fanatical and steadfast approach to DIY marketing, which has helped grow the band’s audience exponentially since their 2019 debut album Pale King. With their sophomore LP Dear Adeline, the band has grossed over $100,000 within the first month of their CD campaign, and have received tens of thousands of comments from a fierce fanbase on social media, including 300 members at $20/month from their own home-brewed membership service, The Secret Hideout.
Under the Rug used the time afforded to them during lockdown to expand their musical horizons. Drummer Brendan McQueeney learned piano and Dayan took on mandolin. They also incorporated unusual percussion items from washboard to a ticking, antique watch to articulate the album’s heady themes.
“The pandemic was a big shift in terms of the musicianship and how seriously we took it” McQueeney says. “I think that’s reflected in the music. We found a pocket that makes sense for us. That comes from just doing a lot of looking in the mirror and being willing to push ourselves.”
Glide is premiering the versatile “Bolo Tie” off the album that stirs with a vulnerable country blues ethos mixed atop a sheen of pop experimental flourishes. Under the Rug reminds listeners of My Morning Jacket at their most intimate where songs of contemplation can suddenly evolve into a thrilling arena rocker.
“This year, a live version of ‘Bolo Tie’ racked up more than a million views, so we were pretty nervous recording it much slower and darker than people were used to hearing it live. The thing is, this song was always supposed to be sad. It’s that feeling these days, scrolling on your phone, seeing a bunch of estranged humans and marketing pass by,” says Dayan. “An ad that says ‘you’ll never have to be alone again,’ glibly, to sell you some soap, while you sit on your couch between a Zoom meeting and a Telehealth call. Our phones feel like this weird grey area between fun and total tragedy. What do you make of a friend’s gorgeous photo album of their trip to Myanmar right next to your estranged aunt’s fundraiser for her cancer treatment?”
The record version of this song will be new to fans, but we think it makes its point—in many ways, thanks to Dave Peters, our engineer-and-friend, who spent seven days experimenting with us to make this song (the rest of Homesick… was recorded in just a week). We messed with tape, two simultaneous drum kits, and an inexhaustible wall of pitched and vari-speed guitar layers. The heavily vignetted video, too, feels as lonely as we’d hoped. Just a circle with a disheveled singer in the middle, surrounded by a whole lotta nothing.”
