Out of the gate, “Wrong End” is an anti-song - a sprawling, post-heartland rock composition that is filled with introspection from Los Angeles four-piece Balto. The first new music from the band in 2023, the song is a winding, deeply personal narrative about acceptance that returns primary songwriter Dan Sheron to the ghosts of his past in Moscow’s Chinatown and features phenomenal interwoven group playing from his bandmates. Echoes of Warren Zevon, Paul Simon, and Leonard Cohen cross paths with Tristan Lake Leabu’s spitting, fuzzed out guitar a la Crazy Horse, a bombastic rhythm section held down by Adam Ditt’s swaggering bass and Sheldon Reed’s thunderous drums, topped off by lush strings that recall the snowed-out finality of the Rolling Stone’s landmark 1971 opus, Moonlight Mile.
Sheron expanded on the meaning of the track saying, “I wrote “Wrong End” in one long stream of consciousness one night in mid-winter 2022, in the immediate lead-up to Russia’s full scale war on Ukraine. As much as it feels like a goodbye to so many parts of myself, it’s really my goodbye to a world that is gone forever. From the very first songs I wrote for Balto, Russia and the times I spent there had become a simulacrum for my idealized self - a light socket to stick my finger in - an open, bipolar conduit - everything, all the time. So 13 years later, I still get lost in the shadows - looking for some new, hidden meaning in the forgotten corners of my memory. But now Russia, that ephemeral world - is gone. I couldn't have known when I found the song that I was saying goodbye with that amount of finality. I will likely never go back.”
Recorded at Owl Foot Ranch, the home studio of legendary producer and multi-instrumentalist Kim Bullard (Elton John, Santana, Yes, Crosby Stills & Nash) and Jean Michel Lapointe (Celine Dion, Sarah McLachlan, Dubmatique), “Wrong End” was Produced by Balto, mixed by Sean O’Brien (Moses Sumney, Lake Street Dive, Matt Berninger) and Mastered by Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Herbie Hancock). This is the second track released from their forthcoming full length album following late 2022’s “Spanish Wine.” The album is due out later this year.
UPCOMING LIVE DATES
05/18-20 | Fisherman’s Village Festival | Everett, WA
06/13-17 | NXNE | Toronto, ON, CAN
