"2:00 AM, all alone, I drunk dialed your mom on the phone to hear a voice that sounds like you..."
The Official Video for "Go To Sleep" by Austin based divergent rock outfit Under the Rug is brilliantly played just like the song that gave birth to it. It is more devilish, twisted, pained, moving, smarter, surprising and thoroughly entertaining than your average Netflix series, for some reason 'The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window' comes immediately to mind. Don't (please) don't watch it but instead delve into interesting sonic art like that made by Under the Rug. At the core of this band is singer songwriter Casey Dayan and while "Go To Sleep" is laced with pain, that pain is tempered with faint strains of self deprecation. In that way I am reminded of an artist like Harry Nilsson whose dark places contained those cosmic comedic moments that can make horrible moments feel more bearable. Casey is an incredible singer with a vocal aesthetic that as a storyteller has an potent classic pop quality on one hand but on the other hand feels totally rock forward. He can belt out like no other and you feel moved by the emotional shapes that come out of his mouth. The song has chamber pop tones, post rock ascensions and bits of weirdness from the toy mechanical song box to the metal shrieks like lawn furniture dragged along concrete.
"Go To Sleep" is from Under the Rug's soon to be released ten track sophomore album "Dear Adeline". A five year journey of grief and healing. The songs are powerful cathartic reflections of Casey as he navigated through the loss of his mother and the dissolution of a romantic relationship at basically the same time. He shares:
“If you’re not surprising yourself or learning something through the songwriting process then your songs will probably be boring. The first few songs we wrote for Dear Adeline were written right after my mom died and my relationship ended and are really reactionary, and then the rest I wrote as I was figuring things out over the last few years. Each song on the album is a different stage of dealing with those events.”
Besides the seismic shift of loss, "Dear Adeline" was written while Under the Rug (as a trio), Casey, Sean Campbell (guitarist) and Brendan McQueeney (drums) relocated from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas. In some ways, the move felt like new beginnings.
“There’s something exciting about being in a new area and experimenting in a new space,” says McQueeney. “We had no idea how anything was going to sound in our new studio, so we were like kids, just trying things and playing around and it gave us this new energy.”
Jesus, I lost my father 30 years ago last December and my mother not long after that. It changes you forever, you feel collapsed, orphaned and lost. You never fully heal but you deal with it and other life changing moments like having children of your own or changing other people's lives for the better, spreading and receiving love keeps your flame burning. My heart goes out to Casey and this bandmate who most certainly shared pain and held each other up. "Dear Adeline" officially drops February 25, 2022.
-Robb Donker Curtius
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A change in perspective can paint a picture in a whole new light. Austin, TX trio Under the Rug took this idea to heart when creating their stunning LP, Dear Adeline, a ten-track collection of emotive, dynamic indie rock that chronicles grief, tumult, and healing after the loss of a loved one and simultaneous dissolution of a romantic relationship. Like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, Dear Adeline was written and self-produced in real time over the course of five years, each track capturing a specific moment in time that, when put together, creates a beautiful, three-dimensional portrait of the grieving and healing process. “If you’re not surprising yourself or learning something through the songwriting process then your songs will probably be boring,” says vocalist Casey Dayan. “The first few songs we wrote for Dear Adeline were written right after my mom died and my relationship ended and are really reactionary, and then the rest I wrote as I was figuring things out over the last few years. Each song on the album is a different stage of dealing with those events.”
Since forming over a decade ago, Under the Rug have cut their teeth as songwriters and engineers, writing and recording dozens of projects, amassing a dedicated fanbase, garnering praise from major publications like American Songwriter and independent tastemaker blogs including Mystic Sons, Two Story Melody, Comeherefloyd, LA On Lock and more, and even receiving a co-sign from The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle.
In addition to the natural growth that comes with the passage of time, Dear Adeline was written in part during a major shift for Under the Rug, as the trio—Dayan, guitarist Sean Campbell, and drummer Brendan McQueeney—relocated from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas. That change spurred their creativity in a new direction, pulling them out of a self-described rut that was the result of staying in one place for too long. “There’s something exciting about being in a new area and experimenting in a new space,” says McQueeney. “We had no idea how anything was going to sound in our new studio, so we were like kids, just trying things and playing around and it gave us this new energy.”
Stretching out such an emotionally raw project over a period of years, however, took an understandable toll on the group and Dayan in particular, whose own experiences are the primary inspiration for Dear Adeline. “Making this record was hard!” says Dayan. "There were times when I felt done with it—I’d moved on and was happy—but I’d started this years’ long project that was asking me to keep putting myself back in that headspace.”
Listeners will find that the group’s trust in one another and willingness to lay themselves emotionally bare results in an album that is as emotionally resonant as it is sonically compelling. At its core, Dear Adeline is a stadium-ready indie/alt record, but it continuously twists in different directions, dipping into prog, bluegrass, and folk territories throughout its runtime.
Dear Adeline kicks off with its title-track, a reflective folk/rock song written immediately after Dayan’s mother passed away and his relationship dissolved. It finds the vocalist attempting to write from the perspective of his future self, a self-penned reminder that one day things will be better. “I was in a really dark place when I started writing,” says Dayan. “But what was harder was trying to figure out how to end the saga, trying to see ahead. The way it finally ended is way more mature than it started, more of an observation about relationships in general rather than just the immediate anger I was feeling. In songwriting, you kind of have to be empathetic towards your characters, which is hard when it’s someone who hurt you. But I’m definitely better for it.”
Elsewhere on the album, the group takes a more high-concept approach to examining the grieving process. “Go To Sleep” is a mesmerizing ballad about the weight of insomnia, while “Eating Carrots” is a raw, somewhat humorous depiction of desperation in the throes of emotional distress.
To hear Dear Adeline as it is being released is to hear an empathetic chronicle of the healing process, but also an impressive exercise in restraint when it comes to editing. “These songs were all written at a specific moment in time,” says Campbell. “When we look back at them it’s easy to judge them and want to update them, post-healing, post-closure, but you have to leave them alone.”
“Some of these songs are just downright salty, if I could now, I would go back and edit some of them,” adds Dayan, “Be a little more mature, maybe, but I think that vulnerability is where the magic is. Just gotta let them sit and be what they are.”
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Under the Rug, indie rock, folk, storytelling, carthartic, moving, grief, healing, sophomore album "Dear Adeline", "Go To Sleep" Official Video, rock ballad, grand pop, post rock,
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