For more than 15 years, the punk rockers from Philadelphia, The Menzingers, who are equally appreciated by fans and critics, have established a decades-long reputation as street warriors with an unbeatable song catalog.
On August 15, 2023, they expanded their impressive repertoire with the announcement of their seventh studio album "Some Of It Was True," which will be released on October 13 via Epitaph Records.
Singer and guitarist Greg Barnett reveals: "Written over the last two and a half years in hotels, back rooms, basements, and rehearsal spaces, and recorded during a life-changing retreat in the South, 'Some Of It Was True' is the realized version of what we set out to do when we founded this band 17 years ago - to have fun and be ourselves."
The band also presents the lead single "Hope Is A Dangerous Little Thing" today, which strikes a balance between confessional lyrics and anthemic sounds.
The link to the video for "Hope is a Dangerous Little Thing" is as follows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrrxeRWebqw
Four years after the release of Hello Exile (2019), The Menzingers presented an EP with acoustic reworkings (From Exile, 2020), on which the band, according to Chorus.FM, "flexed their creative muscles and made the most of their time in quarantine." Subsequently, Greg Barnett's solo album Don't Go Throwing Roses In My Grave (2022) was praised by Kerrang! for its "clear, no-nonsense songwriting." This was around the time when Some Of It Was True began to come together.
Together with Grammy-nominated producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, The War on Drugs, Waxahatchee), the quartet set off to El Paso, Texas, to record at the legendary Sonic Ranch. With his incredible ear, Cook helped tackle the immense task of capturing The Menzingers' unmistakable live energy within the confines of a studio. The result is their most immediate and energetic album to date, with a sound that is both rich and raw, complementing the increasingly prismatic songwriting of the group.
"The Menzingers are as real as it gets," says Cook about his time in the studio with the band. "I had a blast working with these guys and was often brought to tears. They are truly committed to artistic development in a way that I found both refreshing and beautiful. I’m a fan now."
Regarding the influence Cook had on the band, Tom May says: "Brad fundamentally changed the way we approached the album. We talked about music and developed a vocabulary for how we work together, and that led us to chase the feeling instead of worrying about locking things down immediately."
Lyrically, "Some Of It Was True" is an example of how the band's songwriting has expanded beyond their own personal experiences by drawing from what is happening around them and from the lives of those who keep the lifeblood of this world running.
They acknowledge that they are in a completely different place than when they founded in 2008, and this album embraces change, definitely for the better. "This record just feels different for us," explains Barnett. "It’s a really important album in our catalog and a pivotal moment in our history. We have the freedom for our fans to grow with us now, and after writing these lyrical songs about where we are in life, we decided to take the stories of other people and make something bigger out of it."
On August 15, 2023, they expanded their impressive repertoire with the announcement of their seventh studio album "Some Of It Was True," which will be released on October 13 via Epitaph Records.
Singer and guitarist Greg Barnett reveals: "Written over the last two and a half years in hotels, back rooms, basements, and rehearsal spaces, and recorded during a life-changing retreat in the South, 'Some Of It Was True' is the realized version of what we set out to do when we founded this band 17 years ago - to have fun and be ourselves."
The band also presents the lead single "Hope Is A Dangerous Little Thing" today, which strikes a balance between confessional lyrics and anthemic sounds.
The link to the video for "Hope is a Dangerous Little Thing" is as follows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrrxeRWebqw
Four years after the release of Hello Exile (2019), The Menzingers presented an EP with acoustic reworkings (From Exile, 2020), on which the band, according to Chorus.FM, "flexed their creative muscles and made the most of their time in quarantine." Subsequently, Greg Barnett's solo album Don't Go Throwing Roses In My Grave (2022) was praised by Kerrang! for its "clear, no-nonsense songwriting." This was around the time when Some Of It Was True began to come together.
Together with Grammy-nominated producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, The War on Drugs, Waxahatchee), the quartet set off to El Paso, Texas, to record at the legendary Sonic Ranch. With his incredible ear, Cook helped tackle the immense task of capturing The Menzingers' unmistakable live energy within the confines of a studio. The result is their most immediate and energetic album to date, with a sound that is both rich and raw, complementing the increasingly prismatic songwriting of the group.
"The Menzingers are as real as it gets," says Cook about his time in the studio with the band. "I had a blast working with these guys and was often brought to tears. They are truly committed to artistic development in a way that I found both refreshing and beautiful. I’m a fan now."
Regarding the influence Cook had on the band, Tom May says: "Brad fundamentally changed the way we approached the album. We talked about music and developed a vocabulary for how we work together, and that led us to chase the feeling instead of worrying about locking things down immediately."
Lyrically, "Some Of It Was True" is an example of how the band's songwriting has expanded beyond their own personal experiences by drawing from what is happening around them and from the lives of those who keep the lifeblood of this world running.
They acknowledge that they are in a completely different place than when they founded in 2008, and this album embraces change, definitely for the better. "This record just feels different for us," explains Barnett. "It’s a really important album in our catalog and a pivotal moment in our history. We have the freedom for our fans to grow with us now, and after writing these lyrical songs about where we are in life, we decided to take the stories of other people and make something bigger out of it."
