Pinegrove Cardinal Album Release

ALBUM REVIEW: ‘Cardinal’ by PINEGROVE + Interview, Photos, and Tour! | Released February 28, 2016

by • February 29, 2016

Pinegrove is making “New Friends.” 🙂

I had the serendipitous opportunity of seeing Pinegrove last year as they opened for Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) in the venerable and much missed Asbury Lanes, in Asbury Park, NJ.  I pulled out my earplugs and planted myself in the center front of the stage.  What unfolded was an experience one does not have too often.  In front of me was a band I instantly knew was going to be very big.  Their short set dripped with raw emotion touching on relationships, self doubt, fear of the unknown, and fearing that the singer did not know what to be afraid of.  The singer had near perfect-pitch, and the drummer held the beat with a sublime yet subtle shuffle and sharp crack of the snare.

Meet Pinegrove.

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Evan Stephens Hall is the lead singer and songwriter of the band.  He is an angular and slender fellow who could pass for Huck Finn in a Broadway adaptation of the Mark Twain novel. At 26 he could easily be asked for ID at any local liquor store yet when he speaks he proffers the thoughts of a much older soul.

I had an opportunity to spend a few minutes with Stephens Hall.  Click Below to listen to our discussion of his band, James Joyce and the difference between Modernism and Postmodernism.

Pinegrove Interview 2016:

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Cardinal, the band’s newest and first release on Run-For-Cover Records clocks in at just over 30 minutes.  But contained in that 30 minutes is a man walking down a road, early morning perhaps, talking to himself.  He knows that the room he is about to enter is filled with people he does not know, perhaps it is the first day in a new school, perhaps he is at a party where most, if not all of the people, are strangers and he just wants to fit in.

He remembers a time when he was in love.  He remembers a time when he was falling in love and felt the nervous energy of letting her know how he feels.  He is falling out of love and runs into her new boyfriend and gets the taste of metal in his mouth when he realizes that his relationship with her is over.  Stephens Hall offers a stream-of-conscious story, offering us the description and details of his own Leopold Bloom — like experiences of the day.

As he walks, the music begins to play and the band keeps up with every stride.  As he slows to think, the band slows down, if he kicks a rock down the road the band changes their beat with him but never fails to maintain their gait, and when he trips the band stumbles with him and is there to give him a way to get back to the rhythm of his stride.

Pinegrove’s album, Cardinal, has a spacious DIY-Indie feel, but has the full continuum of a soft whisper, through to the screams of a man who insists you rage, rage against the dying of the light.  The harmonies are lush and the instrumentation reminds us that there really are some amazingly talented people who have not sold their souls to writing commercial jingles or singing about getting drunk and smashing their car.

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Pinegrove already released a number of self-promoted collections of songs which have been culled together on Everything So Far.  There too, you will find songs about love and loss as well as redemption and resolution.

Cardinal is a near perfect if not completely perfect album.  It is a collection of songs that should have been written by a band that has already had tremendous commercial success and is just now  returning to its roots.

Buy this album now, if only for the fact that you will then be able to tell your friends that you heard of Pinegrove when they were just starting off.  Get in on the ground floor because the strength of this band and the literate songwriting of Stephens Hall is about to garner a lot of attention.

Pinegrove is supporting Cardinal with a cross country tour often opening for The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die and Into it Over It. The stage at The Social in Orlando will see this lineup April 10th, 2016 and The Irving Plaza on April 22nd for those local to New York City. Catch them in these intimate rooms while you can.

ORLANDO – Get Tickets to Into It. Over It. w/ PINEGROVE on APRIL 10!

NEW YORK CITY – Get Tickets to Into It. Over It. w/ PINEGROVE on APRIL 22!

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Pinegrove performing at their record release show at the Old Mogul Theatre in Montclair, NJ February 26, 2016.

Pinegrove Cardinal Album Review and Photographs by Doug Dresher.

P.S. ShowsIGoTo.com WILL Be Doing A Ticket Giveaway for the Orlando show! 🙂


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