Dawes release new song, "St. Augustine At Night"; new album out Oct 2

Article Contributed by Big Hassle Media | Published on Friday, August 7, 2020

GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER ARRIVES VIA ROUNDER RECORDS ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2

Veteran rockers Dawes have announced today’s premiere of their profound new single. “St. Augustine at Night” is available at all DSPs and streaming services; an official lyric video is streaming now via YouTube.

“‘St. Augustine at Night’ is a song about one’s relationship to their hometown,” says Dawes’ frontman Taylor Goldsmith, “but also is a song about the varying degrees in which we all watch our lives pass us by.”

LISTEN TO “ST. AUGUSTINE AT NIGHT”

WATCH “ST. AUGUSTINE AT NIGHT”

“St. Augustine at Night” marks the latest single from the Los Angeles-based band’s eagerly awaited seventh studio LP, GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER. Produced by 6x GRAMMY® Award-winner Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit) at Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A, the album arrives via Rounder Records on Friday, October 2; pre-orders are available now.

PRE-ORDER GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER

GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER was first heralded by last month’s premiere of “Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?” The high-spirited track is joined by an official companion video, directed by actress/filmmaker Caitlin Gerard and streaming now at the official Dawes YouTube channel. Last month also saw Goldsmith nominated for an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics” for the song “Memorized” from the NBC show This Is Us.

“Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?” was met by widespread applause upon its July premiere, with Rolling Stone hailing it as “a turbo-charged Eighties heartland rocker that finds Goldsmith narrating an interaction between two people, one of whom is still plagued by a past relationship.” “From the sounds of ‘Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?,’ bringing everyone closer to the process has led to a bigger sound,” declared Consequence of Sound. “As Goldsmith’s classic melodies and riffs continue the thread of Dawes’ decade-long career, the percussion snaps like a whip crack and Lee Pardini’s keys reach Roy Bittan levels of drama as they’re pushed to the forefront.”

LISTEN TO “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE TALKING TO?”

WATCH “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE TALKING TO?”

GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER – which marks Dawes’ first release on their new label, Rounder Records – follows a series of acclaimed self-released albums including 2013’s STORIES DON’T END, 2015’s ALL YOUR FAVORITE BANDS, 2016’s WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE, and 2018’s PASSWORDS, all of which reached the top 10 or higher on Billboard’s “Top Rock Albums” and “Americana/Folk Albums” charts.

From its first downbeat, GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER sees Goldsmith grappling with the expectations of adulthood on a remarkable cycle of new songs fueled by many of the same elements that first earned the band worldwide attention and applause – graceful melodies with kinetic riffs and intricate musical interplay. Throughout the album, Dawes once again prove incredibly adept at pushing the emotional limits of the classically structured rock song, a testament to their tightly honed yet imaginative musicianship and the gripping specificity of Goldsmith’s songwriting. A culmination of their entire catalogue and decade-long career all wrapped up in nine glorious tracks, GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER reclaims the rugged urgency and easy confidence of Dawes’ early work while tapping into the veteran band’s intense musical connection more effectively than ever before.

“In the past, I’ve definitely been more precious about the way I wanted the songs to sound, but that’s never as fun,” Goldsmith says. “The music we make is everyone’s mode of expression, and the other guys all have chops that I don’t have and never will. The fact that we’re able to lean on each other and celebrate each other as individuals just makes us so much more excited about getting to play together in this band.”

photo credit: Clara Balzary