Antietam to Release New Album 'The Counting Game' on Dromedary Records
The band also shares new single and video 'Every Other Star' ahead of the release.
Antietam is set to release a new album, THE COUNTING GAME, on September 4 through Dromedary Records, accompanied by a new single and video titled 'Every Other Star.'
Photo Credit: photo courtesy of Ellen Qbertplaya
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjpapw
On September 4, Antietam will return with their anticipated 14th studio album, THE COUNTING GAME, out via Dromedary Records on vinyl, CD, and digitally (pre-order). The band has shared the album's lead single 'Every Other Star' and its accompanying music video, which debuted at Glide Magazine. A reflective meditation on time, the song finds the band's Tara Key looking to the night sky as a reminder of connection and timelessness.
On the song, Tara Key says:
'When getting older, it is easy to tally up the prosaic and dial out the magical. It's not really about loss of faith or hope or other intangibles with more indistinct edges, but it is partly about loss for sure. So sliding into fall every year, looking for Orion is a touchstone for me. Yes it is the easiest constellation to spot so there's no flex in sighting it. If you are talking mythology, Orion's myth is problematic—I prefer the hunter to the stalker of the Pleiades. But on the first night I walk outside and see it, I feel like I am connecting to timelessness: I remember 45-year-old me mixing Victory Park at the beach house and stumbling outside to see it over the sea. I remember six-year-old me drawing shapes on the fogged-up window of a school bus coming home from a night football game, Orion appearing within my design. I remember 69-year-old me coming out of Steve Silverstein's studio in Brooklyn while mixing this record and exclaiming to him 'There it is!' I remember everyone who is gone. And for a moment it all fits together like a jigsaw puzzle and I am overcome with gratitude for what I have seen and who I have travelled all this with—and I feel ungrounded in a very potent and positive way. Like magic.'
For more than four decades, Antietam have occupied a singular place in American underground rock. Formed in New York City in the mid-1980s by guitarist and vocalist Tara Key and bassist Tim Harris, and joined in 1990 by drummer Josh Madell, the trio have built a body of work that spans punk, indie rock, experimental music, and guitar-driven improvisation while remaining fiercely independent and unmistakably their own.
THE COUNTING GAME finds the band expanding its sound while retaining the qualities that have defined Antietam for decades: Key's soaring guitar work, Harris' melodic bass lines, and Madell's intuitive, propulsive drumming.
The album arrives after a remarkable career that began with Antietam's debut at CBGB in 1984 and has since encompassed a deep catalog of acclaimed albums, countless live performances, side projects, collaborations, and artistic reinventions. Along the way, the band earned praise from critics including Robert Christgau, Robert Palmer, Ann Powers, Greil Marcus, and Greg Kot, while developing a devoted following that continues to discover their four-decade-long discography.
Rather than serving as a retrospective, THE COUNTING GAME pushes forward. Alongside the band's trademark guitar-driven songs, the album introduces new textures and collaborators, including a cello and violin duet from Tim Harris and Katie Gentile on the title track, atmospheric contributions from Gentile, Mark Howell, and Tara Jane O'Neil on 'Winter Watch,' banjo from Kentucky musician Steve Cooley on 'Dorado Gold,' and guest vocals from Josh Madell's daughter, Trixie Madell, on 'Spy Vs. Spy.'
Throughout their history, Antietam have defied easy categorization, moving fluidly between melodic rock, noise, improvisation, and experimental forms while maintaining an unwavering commitment to their own artistic path. THE COUNTING GAME stands as the latest chapter in that story: a bold, adventurous record from a band whose creative curiosity remains as vital as ever.
After more than forty years, Antietam are still looking ahead.
THE COUNTING GAME Track List
1. Way Too Well
2. Spy Vs. Spy
3. Dorado Gold
4. The Finest Line
5. Every Other Star
6. Winter Watch
7. Good Advice
8. Coco Bella
9. The Counting Game
10. Coney Island
Photo Credit: photo courtesy of Ellen Qbertplaya
