Observe the 93rd releases "an eeriness to everything"
originally published: 07/03/2022
Fresh off a recent stint opening for LIT, Mechanicsburg, PA'sObserve the 93rdhas released a new album titled 'an eeriness to everything.'
The alt-rock duo is comprised of vocalist/guitarist Derek Henry and drummer Dylan Zepp. With a focus on raw, authentic expression, the band's songs are guided by a feeling, an idea, an experience, failure, triumph, suffering, joy...any abstract internal entity that yearns to be externalized.
Of the album, Henry says, "'an eeriness to everything' is a title that came to me one morning in the middle of the pandemic. All of our routines and distractions were temporarily dissolved and a broader perspective displaying how strange reality itself is became more clear and potent than usual. This is one of the main themes of the album. It appears most notably on the song 'awareness of death', in which I talk about how we all participate in this 'masquerade of normalcy', when existence is really very abstract and mysterious."
"Other main themes on the album are trauma, unhealthy means of coping, depression, and longing. But, there's always a backdrop of hope behind these dark cathartic expressions, probably most evident in a song title like 'You Are Not Alone'. Sometimes that's all it takes to trudge forward, to know you are not alone in your struggles. That's often what I look for when listening to music myself, and certainly a comfort we hope we can give to someone else who may need it when releasing our own music into the world."
"Well, I certainly hope so, it seems like it is," laughed Blues Traveler bassist Ben Wilson as he discussed what the band has been up to and their preparations before they hit the road once again for a Summer tour. "The band has been quite active over the years through touring and we managed to continue to record some records. We've done two kinds of covers records, the first one was a blues record which actually got nominated for a Grammy which was pretty cool and the next one, we did some soul covers. That one wasn't quite as well received but it was sure fun to make. So, it's been really cool; you have this massive success for a decade or so and then you kind of dip below that cultural Gestalt line where you're just kind of bubbling below the surface and you can do just fine there even though you're not on the cover of "The Rolling Stone" and that's kind of what we've been doing. We've had a good run, it has been fantastic and these summer tours where we get together with these other kind of bands of similar eras with similar kinds of hits; we're very fortunate as kind of a neo-hippie jam band from that era that kind of bucked some of the trends that were going on at the time but we were lucky enough to have a couple of hits and that has allowed us to have kind of a different career than just the straight jam bands do; not that that wouldn't be awesome as well because obviously many of them are doing just fine but it's just a slightly different road but it has been wonderful. We didn't rehearse a whole lot because we've been playing together for 38 years but things are good and we're stoked for this upcoming tour."
Straight No Chaser is bringing its Summer: The '90s Part 2 Tour to State Theatre New Jersey on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. The nine-member a cappella group originated in 1996 at Indiana University in Bloomington and has gone on to sell three million albums, earn two gold records, and amass over 1 billion streams on Pandora.
(SUMMIT, NJ) -- Bring your blankets, lawn chairs, and picnic baskets to Reeves-Reed Arboretum and celebrate summer with their 2025 concert series, Sounds of a Summer Night! All performances will be held on select Wednesday evenings on the grounds of this non-profit public garden located in Summit.
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