Hoo Boy, has it been a busy month for our boii Jeff Rosenstock. In the process of releasing his great new album We Cool? (did we mention it was very good? Read our review of it), Jeff has been showing up all over the place, doing interviews, reaching a peace treaty with sinks everywhere, and even playing all five boroughs of New York in one day. Because covering all those things in individual posts would be arduous (taking the easy way out is highly underrated imo), we decided to round a lot of those links up in one place for your viewing pleasure. In no particular order:
- Purevolume, who premiered the We Cool? banger “You! In Weird Cities”, have a full stream of the album available, accompanied by in-depth track-by-track commentary from Jeff himself. The commentary is the real treat here, as Jeff goes into a lot of detail about each song’s creation and reveals his favorite aspects of the record. Listen and read here.
- With the release of We Cool?, Jeff and Side One Dummy Records have set up a contest to win a signed LP, CD, poster, and two tickets to a show of your choice from Jeff’s upcoming tour. To qualify, take one of the “We Cool?” photo templates to make your own album cover for Jeff to see/criticize mercilessly! Winners will be chosen March 17th, so time is almost up! Check out the official contest video below, which features non-animate cameos by The Mountain Goat’s John Darnielle and Space Jam-era Michael Jordan, so you know it will be excellent.
- Jeff recently talked to our fellow Boston Scene Party member Vanyaland about the reasoning behind the switch from recording as Bomb The Music Industry to recording as Jeff Rosenstock, writing sad songs that sound happy, and (most importantly) which LOST character he identifies with most. The tone of the entire interview is excellent, and you can check it out here.
- VNYL, a Los Angeles based vinyl sharing service, has a new feature called #FirstSpin, where established musicians that love vinyl records get to talk about their favorite records and other aspects of their collection. Jeff’s entry is the first in the series, where he proclaims his love for Pet Sounds and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
- Jeff also recently covered the Neko Case song “Nearly Midnight, Honolulu” and released it on his Soundcloud. Listen below:
- Frequent Jeff collaborator Mike Campbell interviewed Jeff for Noisey recently, where Jeff ranked his Bomb The Music Industry output from best to worst. Interestingly, the placement of certain albums on the the list is probably not what you would expect, and it highlights a lot of the creative process that was involved in each album.
- Speaking of interviews, Jeff is featured in the newest edition of RMP Magazine, which is “a free, monthly, and downloadable PDF magazine featuring rock, metal and punk bands” (hence the title). Jeff’s interview begins on page 32/33 of the PDF.
- As we previously posted, Jeff took part in a Reddit AMA on the day of his new album’s release, which you can check out here. Highlights include an interestingly comprehensive look at Jeff’s work history since the beginning of his music career, the startling news that he enjoys pizza more than burritos (the ultimate question) and plenty of positive advice, like an occasionally vulgar zen master.
Aaand that should cover it for the next week or so. We Cool? is out via Side One Dummy Records, and physical copies of the album can be purchased on their website, while digital copies of this and all other Jeff related projects are available as download by donation at Jeff’s own Quote Unquote Records. Jeff can be seen next at The Royale on March 21st for the Boston stop of his tour with Andrew Jackson Jihad (tickets are still available here).
Finally, check out this live set from back in December that features We Cool? standout “I’m Serious, I’m Sorry”: