Cotopaxi is a new project from Anthony Heubel, who you might recognize from long-standing Pittsburgh punk band Run Forever. Far from the high octane sunny-side-up feel of Run Forever, though, Cotopaxi is full of dark, brooding guitars and pensive harms - think Pedro the Lion, Red House Painters, early Death Cab For Cutie, and other nice sounding stuff like that. We're premiering "Middle of America" from his forthcoming debut album Having All the Fun below, which comes out through Count Your Lucky Stars, purveyors of all things #feels, later this year.While Run Forever breaks free of the shackles of tedium, channelling boredom into energetic rebellion, Cotopaxi feels resigned to them. "Middle of America" captures the ennui of suburban life in an everyday sort of way - financial woes, the omnipresence of fast food, rows and rows of identical houses. It should be idyllic, but instead it's a portrait of towns and cities facing the American dream with their eyes open. The album cover says it all: Heubel sitting alone, cross-legged on a deckchair by a pool that looks like it hasn't been tended to in years, head in hand."You can go almost anywhere in America and find yourself in an outdoor mall somewhere off of the interstate," Heubel tells Noisey over email, "I love Target and Bed Bath & Beyond as much as anyone, and staying at someone's parents house with like six showers and my own bedroom on tour, but it is a problem, right? In cities, too, gentrification is a hard thing to fight and it's easy to live somewhere that caters to you. I shop at Whole Foods while most of the people around it can't afford to."Listen below.
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Having All the Fun is out on April 8 via Count Your Lucky Stars and is available to pre-order now.