Groundbreaking indie rock band IDAHO has announced their eagerly awaited new album, Lapse, available Friday, May 31, 2024 via Arts & Crafts. Pre-orders are available now. Later this year, IDAHO will release a vinyl box set comprised of their long out-of-print first three albums, Year After Year (1993), This Way Out (1994), and Three Sheets to the Wind (1996), plus a bonus disc of rare and unreleased material from the era. More details to be announced soon.
IDAHO’s 10th studio album and first all-new collection in more than 13 years, Lapse is heralded by today’s premiere of the wistful anthem, “On Fire” – available everywhere now. An official music video premieres today via YouTube. Recorded in 29 Palms, California, on the outskirts of Joshua Tree National Park, the intensely evocative “On Fire” “sounds like IDAHO circa ‘96 when we were a full band,” says co-founder, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Martin. In the face of inertia and in contempt of obscurity, the tirelessly independent Martin – working in collaboration with newcomer Robby Fronzo contributing guitar and songwriting – conjures and compels the rebellious excellence of IDAHO’s earnest, yet ornate, 90s-rooted indie rock. “Break some records break a sweat / Before you’re fuckin dead,” Martin sings with soft, righteous incision, beneath an aqueous mix of feedback and ambience – a reminder of the eternally punk ethic at the core of IDAHO’s passionately slow, sad music.
“Recording Lapse commenced on January 1, 2022, following a lively New Year’s Eve at the Out There bar in 29 Palms,” says Jeff Martin. “Nursing a rare hangover, I welcomed guitarist Robby Fronzo, fresh from LA, into my mother’s desert house amidst much excited barking from my pit bull Thurmon and producer/engineer Bill Sanke’s pit/lab mix Maggie. Over the next few months, this record took shape, inadvertently paying homage to IDAHO’s past, largely influenced by my collaboration with Robby. Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, Robby reached out to me on Instagram and offered his assistance in completing the demo snippets I was sharing online… Every record since Hearts of Palm in 2000 has been more of a solo effort so the synergy of collaboration is a cool thing to have back in the fray. The high desert setting lent its voice to this LP… how could it not? The colors, textures and endless sky sunsets. Thank you mother Lynda for letting us desecrate your sanctuary for the good part of ‘22. The large living room afforded us a chance to spread out, get loud and let the sound waves develop the way they should. As fate would have it, Bill had to depart, leaving me with the task of mixing the album alone. I often wonder if a professional could have achieved a better result, but nevertheless, I take pride in finally breaking IDAHO’s dry spell.”
