London – Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, also known as The Milk Carton Kids, are about to release their sophomore album, Monterey! During the two years since their breakthrough debut record, The Ash & Clay, Pattengale and Ryan have had one positive experience after another. The duo received a Grammy nomination for “Best Folk Album” and won the title for “Group of the Year” at the 2014 Americana Music Awards. Then the combination of high profile performances and notable interviews in the Coen Brothers’ and T. Bone Burnett’s concert documentary “Another Day/Another Time” brought the band its largest audience yet. Evidence of how much The Milk Carton Kids are liked is made obvious by the fact that the band’s North American tour of 55-cities during last spring sold all tickets months ahead of time.
Monterey is already generating lots of anticipation for May but the title track is out now. Listen to it via the SoundCloud stream below:
The composing and recording of Monterey was approached by Ryan and Pattengale not through a traditional studio setting but on stages in various spaces: the concert halls, churches, and theaters across North America that have always coaxed the pair’s most unrepressed expressions. This course of action prompted The Milk Carton Kids, to finally perform for the record with the same spontaneity and fearlessness typically only attained in their live shows. The two gentlemen have worked together so tightly that family and friends can no longer tell who has written which song. The vocals for this second album hear the duo’s expectant harmonies move farther apart so that the quirks and idiosyncrasies of their individual identities can shine through, all the while remaining exuberant and gliding; the appeal even more apparent for the showing of their scars.
Thematically, Monterey takes listeners on a road trip across a reverie – or perhaps a nightmare – through an America of fire and blood that is simultaneously recognizably the land of their forefathers and the result of our own choices. While some of the questions contemplated on Monterey are political in nature, the songs become more and more purely personal as well.
Monterey comes out May 18, 2015 via Anti-.
Pre-orders are available now through the band’s online store, iTunes, Google Play and Amazon.
