Having shared his latest album, NO DREAM, as a surprise release last week, punk legend Jeff Rosenstock has given a track-by-track run-through of his new record.
If you’re even a casual fan of the punk, indie, or DIY scene, the name Jeff Rosenstock would be a familiar one to you. Rising to prominence as a member of The Arrogant Sons Of Bitches and Bomb The Music Industry!, Rosenstock has performed with countless other bands such as AJJ and The Bruce Lee Band, and has even served as a producer for Melbourne outfit The Smith Street Band.
Having gone solo in 2015, Rosenstock has released a number of albums since, including We Cool?, Worry, and 2018’s critically-acclaimed Post-. Last week though, Rosenstock surprised everyone by releasing his latest record, NO DREAM.
Released with no promotion or publicity, the album has already proven itself as a firm favourite with fans. Available via a by-donation download via Quote Unquote Records, or as a physical release via Polnvinyl, it’s on track to be one of the year’s best.
To celebrate though, Rosenstock has been kind enough to give us a run-through of each of the tracks on the majestic release that is NO DREAM.
Check out ‘NO TIME’ by Jeff Rosenstock:
Jeff Rosenstock talk us through NO DREAM
Hi, I’m Jeff, when asked what the first thing I could think about for each track on this record I thought of the following:
‘NO TIME’
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I wrote most of this song in a parking lot of a mall. I was diving into a particularly bad spiral of news on my phone, and watching people use tragedies to grandstand about their own altruism.
It’s a difficult thing to talk about gracefully, but that vibe can make me anxious about whether or not we can actually end the tragedies we face, or if we’re only good at addressing them in a way that enhances our self-image.
I wonder if I’m guilty of doing the same, so I wanted to own up to my fears and flaws right at top and hopefully move on from them and become a person I would actually like to be.
‘Nikes (Alt)’
Okay, so this song is about what it’s about (y’know, cool shit like targeted advertising and social media plumbing the depths of your low self-esteem for profit, baby!) but the important thing to know here is that there were supposed to be Oi! Oi! Oi!’s right after the guitars go “wheedle wheedle wheedle wheedle” at the beginning but I got cold feet.
This song was kicking around my head for a while, but I finally wrote lyrics/demoed it after finding out our friend Brittany took her own life. The punk heart of this record is with her in mind and in hindsight I bet she’d be annoyed that I chickened the fuck out on the Oi!’s.
‘Scram!’
I wrote this song inspired by teenagers in America standing up for their right to go to school without being shot by an assault rifle.
The response to those kids from the people in power (who have been bought by the gun lobby) was to espouse ridiculous bullshit like “well, if you’re not going to have a civil conversation then we’re not gonna listen…” as if they haven’t been making the decisions that have led to mass gun violence in America for decades, not listening to our cries to stop please.
I didn’t want it to feel as bleak as all that though – I wanted to write a celebration of the youthful tenacity we should all aspire to, a fuck you to the haters, a 2020 “na na na na hey hey goodbye” to sing while rising up against your oppressors.
Check out ‘N O D R E A M‘ by Jeff Rosenstock:
‘N O D R E A M’
It was hard to articulate what I was trying to say in this song – I went back and rethought it a lot and I’m still not sure I got there… Maybe it’s just that the content of this song scares me.
I had the opening line and riff for a really long time and then read about another mass shooting in America while on the bus to New Jersey and the rest kinda spilled out of me. They happen regularly here.
It is immensely tragic that there is no end in sight for violence in America, and no matter how aware we are of it being woven into the fabric of our country, the system is stacked against peace.
‘STATE LINE’
And fuckin’ here’s a song about bein’ on the road, mate! I’ve always been hesitant to write songs about traveling (a lot of them are very bad) but in all honestly this has been our lives for the past four years straight so it seemed weird to keep ignoring that.
Whenever I’m searching back to try and find photos of (for example) the first time I ever flew to Europe to play music, I invariably will find a few pictures of toilets – some with crazy stickers and graffiti on ’em but mostly just ones that looked different or sci-fi (the toilets in this one German airport look like they’re from the future.)
‘f a m e’
We wanted it to sound hypnotic so we looped the vocals a bunch. This one definitely got figured out with the band, it was fun to really stretch this part (which is like, not long for a normal band I bet) and make it dense and then burst into some punk shit.
I am so stoked Laura Stevenson sang on this record, especially this and ‘The Beauty Of Breathing’ ’cause we sing the whole thing together and that’s my fave. But especially especially this one ’cause it’s rad to hear her sing “leave me the fuck alone” over some double kick hardcore shit.
Check out ‘N O D R E A M‘ by Jeff Rosenstock:
‘Leave It In The Sun’
Ummmm… I think this is my favorite song on the record? Drinking after Mikey Erg band practice, I was talking about how one of the sides of the new record was WAY too long and they were just like “you gotta write another song.”
It’s a pretty mournful song, it’s the only one that was written after I knew we were moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles so I hear a lot of my friends in here. It makes me think about the beach that summer, Mikey Erg Band, having time to get beers with buddies in Brooklyn ’cause I knew I was going to be gone soon.
‘The Beauty Of Breathing’
This is a heavy-ass song. Kevin saw me play this solo at a show in Hawaii while I was out with the Bruce Lee Band, like right after I finished the lyrics maybe even that day, and said he really liked it so it encouraged me to keep playing it. I love playing this song, I’m stoked it’s finally on a record it’s been kicking around forever.
‘Old Crap’
I always thought it was cool that Neil Young has a song called ‘Piece Of Crap’ on a record so this is an homage to that. This song had no bridge for a long time and now I’m like what the fuck was this song without the bridge.
I always get stoked when we’re playing some skate punk shit. The beginning was recorded on a Tascam 388, which is different than how the other songs were recorded.
‘***BNB’
Both of these stories are true. Another part of my current life as a touring musician is that it is occasionally cheaper & nicer to rent someone else’s home on an app whilst staying in a town for a few days than stay at a hotel. And better than burdening a friend with 7 people for a bunch of days.
We don’t like fuck ’em up or anything, but it’s hard not to look at stuff on the walls, on shelves or in the shower. We definitely rummage through the cabinets looking for food too. I wonder if they just expect that’s gonna happen. I wonder if they know we’re a band and we’re gonna drink some beers in their house.
Check out ‘Monday At The Beach‘ by Jeff Rosenstock:
‘Monday At The Beach’
NEW WEEZER.ptx, I’m so happy you turned into a song! Over the last summer I tried to make it a point to go to the beach whenever possible – on days off, leave early/work late, etc. Even if just to go for an hour.
When you live in a city sometimes there’s not enough time to do the shit you’re trying to do so you deprive yourself of going to the beach ’cause it’s always kinda far and takes a while. But it’s always worth it. Once this virus shit is gone, I’m gonna go to the beach.
‘Honeymoon Ashtray’
This one’s fun to play, I love the way Dan and Laura’s voices sound on this. I don’t know, the lyrics kinda explain it and there’s no particularly fun story about this song! Nope nothing weird and hilarious to see here, definitely no specific event we all text each other about late at night to reminisce on. Just a tune, that’s all!
‘Ohio TPKE’
This song was kinda written in 2016, but I couldn’t quite figure out where it wanted to go. Little pieces of it kept popping up. Riffs and shit. The part about being on the airplane. Our buddy Bob played trombone on this song in my basement. We had just moved and I didn’t have a trash can for him to empty his spitvalve so I just used an empty record box which to this day it is still my trash can. I’m stoked this became a song.
Jeff Rosenstock’s NO DREAM is out now.
