Green (guitar) — release their new single, “Road Song,” via Angel Tapes / Fire Talk. “Road Song” follows the release of “Corner” — a b-side from the cassette reissue of their hushed debut EP, Umarell — which was praised by Chicago Reader, Post-Trash, NPR Music and more.
“Road Song” presents a full-band iteration of Sleeper’s Bell, actualizing Teppema's longstanding vision for the project. While Umarell and “Corner” put Teppema’s skill as a songwriter at the forefront of minimal production and instrumentation, “Road Song” fleshes out the project’s contours, reflecting the collaborative nature of Teppema's songwriting and Green's production alongside Leo Paterniti. With injections of saxophone and wurlitzer, as well as skittering percussion from recording engineer Jack Henry (Friko, Hemlock, Free Range), “Road Song” is free-wheeling and immediate. “Being born is going blind,” Teppema sings, lifting a line from Townes Van Zandt, “and we’re looking for the words to find // the way it felt when we were young.”
Of “Road Song,” Teppema comments: “It’s partially about the sunk cost fallacy — you put so much time and energy into something that you forget you’re allowed to try something new. But then, sometimes, you put so much into something and then you’re a long way from where you started, and you have to figure out how to get back, or how to pivot.
“It’s also just about being a kid. I miss how visceral all my feelings were. I feel everything like that again when I’m driving long distances. And I listened to a lot of Townes as a kid, in the car with my dad. ‘Nothin’ was one of the first songs that ever made me feel sad. So I ripped that line from him and made it about me.”