THE STEPHEN STANLEY BAND ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM BEFORE THE COLLAPSE OF THE HIVE FOR RELEASE ON NOVEMBER 10 VIA WOLFE ISLAND RECORDS
SHARES NEW SINGLE FOR “HERE COMES THAT RAIN”
Toronto-based singer-songwriter and guitarist, Stephen Stanley may most immediately be known as a founding member, lead guitarist and vocalist with acclaimed, early 90’s alt-rock band, The Lowest of the Low. The groups undeniable and “genuinely timeless album” (Exclaim!), Shakespeare My Butt…, earned gold record status and saw the band share stages with the likes of Billy Bragg, The Violent Femmes, amongst many others. Fame took the band on a relentless, highly pressurized and ultimately, band-fracturing tour schedule. Stephen was featured in the group’s recent documentary, Subversives that was released in September of this year.
Stephen ultimately, had his own mark and music to make and The Stephen Stanley Band became his focus. He’s assembled a collection of trusted players and has gone on to log monumental shows with the likes of, 54•40, Bob Mould, Cracker, Lee Ann Womak, Jake Clemons, Willie Nile, The Jayhawks, and Lloyd Cole. He’s played festival stages in Germany, and toured across the UK and Ireland.
Today, The Stephen Stanley Band announce their new album, Before The Collapse Of The Hive (Wolfe Island Records) will be released on November 10, 2023. It’s an album brimming with raw, unflinching urgency, steadfast observation and soul-searching storytelling that highlights Stephen’s immediate world: those he loves, and those he’s lost.
Stephen shares a lead single with “Here Comes That Rain” written with his two daughters in mind (his daughter Alisa has created all the artwork for the record). “This song is an open letter to my daughters and their generation. Not an apology, not a satisfactory explanation but more of a conceding of, ‘I can’t believe it either!’, in regards to the state of the world we have left them with. But that sentiment lives alongside a belief that their generation will be the voice of change that we once thought we were, but now they must be at all costs.”
The Stephen Stanley Band will play a record release show on December 1 at the Redwood Theatre. Tickets are available HERE. Other live dates, including a set at Blood Brothers Brewing on album release day November 10, are noted in full below.
Recording the album on on Wolfe Island became an integrated life experience. Start and stop times were not regimented. “Often, we’d go and play a set at the Hotel Wolfe Island (co-owned by album producer and album contributor, Hugh Christopher Brown) and recording would just take place around the timing of the show.”
Except for Kate Fenner and Ron Hawkins, outside of his band, everyone who played on the new record lives on Wolfe Island. A wonderful stable of players and singers, deeply affected the sound of this new work, produced again, by Hugh Christopher Brown.
The Stephen Stanley Band’s internationally acclaimed record, Jimmy & the Moon (2017), saw Stephen and his band going into the studio with a clutch of songs they had spent a long time pre-producing. Before The Collapse Of The Hive was very different. Due to long periods of time where no one could get together, six songs on this record were entirely new, starting off with acoustic guitar and vocals and building the songs from there.
If Jimmy & the Moon was loosely written about Toronto and the changes the city has gone through in his time, this album looks deeper at our collective place in a world seemingly falling apart. It’s a continued conversation between Stephen and his close friend and beloved radio enigma, Dave Bookman, whom Stephen shared the loss of, just prior to starting to work on these songs – two of which are in honour of that friendship and reflecting on the time spent finding the words for such an unexpected goodbye. “‘Before the Collapse of the Hive’ – man, that title means so many different things to me as I write this. Some of which will be obvious, others which are mine alone…”
More music, videos and details will follow soon.
The Stephen Stanley Band
Stephen Stanley – Vocals, Guitars
Chris Bennett – Guitars, Vocals
Chris Rellinger – Bass Guitar
Cam Pyziak – Drums
with
Hugh Christopher Brown – Piano, Hammond B3, Keyboards, Vocals
Pete Bowers – Percussion
Jason Mercer – Banjo, Double Bass
Rocky Roberts – Lap Steel
Kate Fenner – Vocals
Sarah McDermott – Vocals
Suzanne Jarvie – Vocals
Ron Hawkins – Vocals
Michael Blake – Saxaphone
Stephen Stanley Discography
Shakespeare My Butt… – 1991 (Lowest of the Low)
Hallucigenia – 1994 (Lowest of the Low)
Nothing Short of a Bullet – 2002 (Lowest of the Low)
That Thin Wild Mercury – 2003 (Stephen Stanley)
Sordid Fiction – 2004 (Lowest of the Low)
Non Barking Dog – 2009 (Too Many Sisters)
Jimmy & the Moon – 2017 (Stephen Stanley Band)
Live Static Roots – 2020 (Stephen Stanley Band)
Before the Collapse of the Hive -2023 (Stephen Stanley Band)
The Stephen Stanley Band
Before The Collapse Of The Hive
(Wolfe Island Records)
Release Date: November 10, 2023
Before The Collapse Of The Hive Track Listing
1. Chase That Devil
2. The Winnipeg Gun
3. Straw Man
4. You’re No Exception
5. Here Comes That Rain
6. The Owl
7. The Ballad Of Lou Room
8. No Love Lost
9. Hornets
10. Hey Darlene
11. Holding Back On Someday
Tour Dates
October 21, 2023 @ Fergus, ON TICKETS HERE
November 10, 2023 @ Blood Brothers Brewing, Toronto ON (Solo Set)
November 24, 2023 @ Sellers + Newel Second Hand Books – Toronto , ON
December 1, 2023 @ Redwood Theatre, Toronto, ON – TICKETS HERE *Before The Collapse Of The Hive Release Show* (w/ Kate Fenner & Hugh Christopher Brown)
December 2, 2023 @Hotel Wolfe Island, Wolfe Island (w/ Kate Fenner & Hugh Christopher Brown)
December 23, 2023 @ Sauce On The Danforth, Toronto, ON (featuring Chris Bennett 4-7 pm Holiday Show)
Artist Links
Background Photo Credit: Russell Styles
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LOWEST OF THE LOW – WELCOME TO THE PLUNDERDOME
SPILL FILM REVIEW: SUBVERSIVES | THE HISTORY OF LOWEST OF THE LOW
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: RON HAWKINS – TRASH TALKIN’ AT THE SPEED OF SOUND
SPILL NEWS: TORONTO-BASED SONIC ENVY SIGNS LOWEST OF THE LOW
