Pinegrove Announce New Album Marigold, Share Video for “Phase”

The New Jersey alt-country outfit Pinegrove have announced a new record, Marigold, to be released in January 2020. The album will be the group’s debut on their new label, Rough Trade Records, and the announcement comes with a single and video for one of its tracks, “Phase.”

“Phase” feels like a return to Pinegrove’ former sound on their acclaimed record, Cardinal. In it, there’s a driving drum beat and palm-muted guitar setting the stage for frontman Evan Stephens Hall’s ardent yelps. The restrained verse builds to a chorus where everything comes to a crescendo at Hall’s cry of “I’m torn right through / Divided right in two.” There’s some fantastic slide guitar fills within, giving the track Pinegrove’s signature almost-country feeling.

The accompanying video for the single—directed by Colin Read—shows a man abruptly waking from a slumber to sleepwalk across his city. With eyes closed, he leaves his house, disrupts traffic and steals a busker’s guitar to begin playing music. As he walks he’s surrounded by dreamy blue lines accenting the half-real world through which he wanders. Later, he barges into a Pinegrove rehearsal and steals a dumbfounded Hall’s guitar to close the track out.

At the heart of the lyrics on “Phase,” Hall is wrestling with the self-defeat of sleeplessness, fighting with intrusive thoughts as he lays his head down. He describes his struggles with the condition:

The song “Phase” is more or less about insomnia—trying to sleep but things racing in your mind, looking around your room, looking at things from the perspective of your bed, seeing all the things you could do or should be doing, enumerating tasks, making lists in your head, moving through anxieties and eventually, hopefully, into sleep.

Pinegrove took a year-long hiatus after Hall issued a statement in response to an allegation of “sexual coercion” made against him in 2017. Since then, their self-release of Skylight in 2018 and new record deal with Rough Trade have shown the group attempting to put those events behind them. Drummer Zach Levine sees Pinegrove as a continually evolving group navigating through a changing world. “This is a lifelong project,” he says. “We’re always thinking about how to be better humans and humanists. It’s about how to keep going, and to respond to the world as it is right now.”

Marigold is set for release on Jan. 17, 2020, on Rough Trade records and is available for preorder here. You can watch the video for “Phase” and Pinegrove’s 2017 Paste studio session below, and find the band’s album details and tour dates further down.

Marigold Album Art:

Marigold Tracklist:
01. Dotted Line
02. Spiral
03. The Alarmist
04. No Drugs
05. Moment
06. Hairpin
07. Phase
08. Endless
09. Alcove
10. Neighbor
11. Marigold

Pinegrove 2020 Tour Dates:

February
01 – Tucson, Ariz. @ Club Congress !
03 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Crescent Ballroom !
04 – San Diego, Calif. @ The Music Box !
05 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Roxy !
06 – Pioneertown, Calif. @ Pappy & Hariots !
08 – Pomona, Calif. @ The Glasshouse !
09 – San Francisco, Calif. @ The Fillmore !
10 – Sacramento, Calif. @ Harlow’s !
12 – Seattle, Wash. @ The Neptune !
13 – Portland, Ore. @ Wonder Ballroom !
15 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ The Complex #
16 – Denver, Colo. @ Gothic #
18 – Santa Fe, Calif. @ Meow Wolf #
19 – El Paso, Texas @ Lowbrow Palace #
21 – Austin, TX @ Emos #
22 – Houston, TX @ White Oak #
23 – Dallas, TX @ Trees #

March
18 – London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall $
19 – Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique $
20 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso Noord $
21 – Berlin,Germany @ Lido %
23 – Hamburg, Germany @ Hafenklang %
24 – Cologne, Germany @ Gebäude 9 %
25 – Wiesbaden, Germany @ Schlachthof %
26 – Paris, France @ Le Boule Noir %
28 – Dublin, Ireland @ The Grand Social %
30 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 TV Studio %
31 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2 %

April
01 – Bristol, UK @ SWX %
02 – London, UK @ Electric Ballroom %

! – w. Support from LAKE

1. – w. Support from Whitney Ballen
   $ – w. Support from Buck Meek (of Big Thief)
   % – w. Support from Katy J Pearson