Ted Leo releases new 'Heaven's Off' EP (listen)
Today is a Bandcamp Friday, and Ted Leo has surprise-released a new Bandcamp-only EP for the occasion, Heaven’s Off EP, April 2023. He says:
Well folks, A little bit all over the place, but I worked very hard to get some new songs finished for this one. “Coming Back to Bloom,” I finished writing and tracking last weekend, and “Heaven’s Off” I wrote Wednesday night and tracked last night (tonight, as I’m writing this). Because of that, “Heaven’s Off” is not in its final form. I tracked some tin whistle, but the pitch was off, it was already midnight, etc. I opted to lean into the scrappy on that one. They both lean into the Irish a little, actually, which gave me the idea to release a formerly 7″ box set only B-side, “Love’s Too Long (for Pike County),” which is NOT that Irish, but does have a similar twang. And with THAT song, I had the help of Aimee man in writing the bridge, which led me to remember that we’d never really released another song that Aimee helped me write, “Gideon Gray.” We played this live as The Both, but only ever made it available as a Maximum Fun premium for pledges, when we were doing our podcast. Here it is in all its rough and smooth glory, drummed on and recorded by Scott Seiver, of… many things – Pete Yorn, Tenacious D, CUD, etc. Finally, we turn back to punk, and I drop ANOTHER rarity never released beyond the fabled 7″ box set of b-sides, “Anonymous@1:34,” a musing on (among other things) what open comments sections did to the brain in the previous decade; and then, the obligatory cover – “The Shape of Things to Come,” by The Headboys. I’ve been going back to a lot of UK 82 stuff, and this song by what’s otherwise mostly a power pop band, struck me as something I could bend successfully down into the chorus-y gutter, a la late Blitz. I hope it satisfies!
Stream the whole thing below.
Ted also recently reunited his ’90s band Chisel, and he does guest vocals on the new album by his brother Chris Leo’s reunited ’90s band The Van Pelt.
