Last year, the great veteran singer-songwriter Cass McCombs released his album Interior Live Oak. McCombs’ old friend and collaborator Chris Cohen co-produced the LP. Cohen, formerly of Deerhoof and the Curtains, has released a bunch of his own albums; the most recent is 2024’s Paint A Room. Now, McCombs and Cohen have gotten together to release a new collaborative two-song 7″ single.
McCombs and Cohen worked together on the loose, pretty new songs, “Steel Reserve” and “Ignis Fatuus, Hinkypunk, Sharkfins And Ambergris.” McCombs started the songs with the lyrics, and he asked Cohen to come up with the music. The 7″ will only be available on McCombs’ North American tour, which starts later this month. The first date of that tour is a Mar. 19 show at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, and Cohen will join McCombs for that one. Here’s what McCombs says about the new songs:
Chris composed the music, and I did the words. Our longtime friend and mutual collaborator Trevor Shimizu drew the artwork. Chris has weaved throughout my music over the years — he played guitar on my first LP, A, as well as on “County Line,” he co-produced Interior Live Oak, and he is a remarkable musician and songwriter. Both songs are somewhat cracked meditations on dignity. “Steel Reserve” explores the bushes, hidden away. Public life has nothing to offer dignity. “Ignis Fatuus” is a pirate’s treasure collected from an Earth stained with blood and madness — stolen from W.B. Yeats.
And here’s what Cohen says:
Cass and I go back to early 2000s Bay Area. I’ve always thought he was an amazing songwriter, so I was very happy when he sent me lyrics. I took it as a dare, as the words were tricky and the forms unusual ones for songs, but I followed them exactly as they were. The music is my reaction to the words as I understood them. Also Cass is a killer guitar player, so I had him come in and put some classical guitar on top of “Steel Reserve.” We both harmonize and trade verses on “Ignis Fatuus,” so it is our first proper duet.
Below, check out both songs and McCombs’ upcoming tour dates.
TOUR DATES:
3/19 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge *
3/20 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom ^
3/21 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall ^
3/22 – Northampton, MA @ The Iron Horse ^
3/24 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz ^
3/25 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern ^
3/27 – Ann Arbor, MI @ The Blind Pig %
3/28 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall %
3/29 – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium %
3/30 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club %
4/01 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater $
4/03 – Boise, ID @ The Shrine Ballroom +
4/04 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern @
4/05 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater @
4/07 – Petaluma, CA @ Mystic Theater @
4/09 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall @
4/10 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room @
4/11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour @
4/25 – Austin, TX @ 29th St. Ballroom #
4/27 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Beer City Music Hall #
4/28 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada #
4/30 – Nashville, TN @ The Blue Room #
5/01 – Birmingham, AL @ Lakeview Marina Music Park
5/02 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl #
5/03 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle #
5/05 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle #
5/07 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ardmore Music Hall #
5/08 – Washington, DC @ The Atlantis #
5/09 – Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall &
6/01-07 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera a la Ciutat
* with Chris Cohen
^ with Jennifer Castle
% with Danny Arakaki
$ with Ross James
+ with Jens Kuross
@ with Hand Habits
# with Lael Neale
& with Garcia Peoples
The “Steel Reserve” b/w “Ignis Fatuus, Hinkypunk, Sharkfins And Ambergris” single is already streaming on Hardly Art/Domino.
