Orion Free Concert Series: Memphis PowerPop Festival ft. The Connells, The Sonny Wilsons, and Your Academy

MPPF Set Times:

5:00: YOUR ACADEMY
5:45: THE SONNY WILSONS
7:00: THE CONNELLS

The Connells, one of North Carolina’s most successful indie rock bands, released “Steadman’s Wake” in 2021, their first full-length album since 2001. Beyond the fact that “Steadman’s Wake” is the group’s first new release in over 20 years, it is the first Connells’ album to feature their two newest members, guitarist Mike Ayers and drummer Rob Ladd (who have been in the lineup since 2002 and 2012, respectively), and the band’s first record made up of songs contributed solely by Mike Connell,  who happens to take on a more prominent role as vocalist.

Even though it’s been 20 years since their last recording, The Connells never quit playing live, and Mike Connell never quit writing songs. Eventually enough material came together to suggest it was finally time to make another record. “Steadman’s Wake” features eight new songs that have never been released, while three of the album’s songs previously appeared in different versions on 2001’s “Old-School Dropouts” – a collection of demos recorded at the group’s practice space.

“Steadman’s Wake” was originally to have been released in 2020 but was held up due to the pandemic, a hard delay for a band that had waited so long for this followup. It joins the catalog as The Connells’ ninth full-length album in a career going back to 1984. That was when the band first formed in Chapel Hill at the University of North Carolina, debuting a year later with “Darker Days.” Their 1987 Mitch Easter-produced album “Boylan Heights” established The Connells as college-radio favorites, and they went on to work with producers including Gary Smith, Hugh Jones and Lou Giordano on subsequent albums.

Three Connells albums made the Billboard 200 charts in America, but their biggest commercial success came overseas. “’74- ’75,” a pensive and moody ballad from 1993’s Giordano-produced LP “Ring,” reached the top-10 in 11 different European countries in the mid-1990s (including No. 1 in Sweden and Norway). The song’s evocative time-traveling video, juxtaposing then-and-now photos of alumni from The Connells’ hometown Broughton High School, also earned a cult following with fans making their own video versions.

“We’ve been trying to figure out if there’s some kinda theme to this new record,” says MacMillan. “If anything, I’d say it’s 20 years older. The minor-key-heavy chord progressions and the way Mike puts songs together, still give it dark undertones. But the lyrics seem a little more upbeat than before, even if it still has that longing aspect. It feels a little more grown-up than we’ve done in the past – more upbeat and not quite as cynical. Every record we’ve ever made, we’ve thought it was the last one. Maybe this really will be it. Then again, as long as we’re still playing, chances are that Mike will still be writing songs. We’ll see.”