• News

• All

Jan 09, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Deerhunter

Deerhunter are releasing a new album, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?, on January 18 via 4AD. Now they have shared another song from the album, “Plains.” In a press release frontman Bradford Cox says the song is inspired by James Dean and the last summer of his life he spent filming Giant in Marfa, Texas in 1955, his final film. Listen to the song below.

Cox had this to say about the song in a press release: “I was listening to the trains. I was up all night. And something glistened in the strange blood-diffused light. My friend was missing. And I was ghost. I was flame. I was bright. I was listening to the trains. I was up all night. ‘Oh, James. You’ve got no reason to stay in these plains.’ I was racing against time with this friend of mine. Collapsing just before we reach the end of the line. He was lifted. Diamond straight. Straight was cold. Cold was black. And black was glistening. All the night - the sound of trains. ‘Oh, James. You’ve got no reason to stay in these plains.’ These plains are barren and hateful terrain. And what remains is the sound of trains.”

Previously Deerhunter shared the album’s first single, “Death in Midsummer,” via a video for the song (it was one of our Songs of the Week). Then they shared another song from the album, “Element,” which Cox called “an elegy for ecology (a landscape done in toxic watercolors).”

Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? is the follow-up to 2015’s Fading Frontier, although in May 2017 they released the tour-only limited edition cassette The Double Dream of Spring. Deerhunter are, as always, led by Bradford Cox. The current line-up also features longtime member Lockett Pundt, founding member Moses Archuleta, Josh McKay, and Javier Morales. The album also features Cate Le Bon playing harpsichord on “Death in Midsummer” and singing on “Tarnung,” Tim Presley of White Fence playing “abstract lead guitar” on “Futurism,” Ben H. Allen III playing a “synthetic bass system” on “Plains,” and Ian Horrocks playing contrabass on “Nocturne.” Deerhunter produced the album alongside Le Bon, Allen III, and Ben Etter. Cox engineered the album with Etter and Samur Khouja, Cox, Etter, and Allen III all mixed the album. Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? was recorded in various cities at several studios: Marfa Recording in Marfa, Texas, Sonic Ranch in Texas, Seahorse Sound in Los Angeles, Maze Studios in the band’s native Atlanta, and in Cox’s attic in Grant Park, Atlanta. The album is 37 minutes long.

Also read our rave 9/10 review of Fading Frontier.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.