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about
Michael Kane & The Morning Afters might be the favorite sons of Worcester, but what does it mean to be kings of a town that lost its crown? It means the path forward can be done on the band’s own terms. And so no one told Michael Kane & The Morning Afters that they couldn’t make an album that doubled as an arena rock-ready, gritty Americana masterpiece.
And so they did, in their forthcoming 2022 album, Broke But Not Broken, issued by State Line Records.
Previews into this new world have come in two parts this year. First, through the weathered soul of March’s “Carol Kaye,” glistening through the false hope that springs eternal across New England as the snow begins to melt. And now, just as the colder weather starts to set in once again, through November’s “Tear This World Apart.”
The second single from Broke But Not Broken is the autobiographical mission statement of Michael Kane & The Morning Afters. Kane missed the rock and roll experience in his younger years, and so “Tear This World Apart” asks if it’s still possible to have those times later in life after a life spent thinking about it. Can a band of elder rock and roll misfits tear this world apart? With a little guest help from Worcester’s James Lynch on guitar -- Kane a longtime confidant of Lynch’s pre-Dropkick Murphys band The Westies -- and Helen Shelden on harmonies, Michael Kane & The Morning Afters deliver the single that could make it happen.
But like any notable news of the now, to understand it one must go back to the start. Kane assembled The Morning Afters in 2016 after years of sitting on the sidelines and watching his friends succeed with music. Kane put his beautiful loser persona to song and began to showcase the serious potential that spent a lifetime trapped in his own body. Michael Kane and The Morning Afters released Laughing at the Shape I’m In on a 7-inch EP through State Line Records in 2017, and in the process became the house band at The Hotel Vernon in Kelley Square.
Wearing the crown of the Heart of The Commonwealth, The Morning Afters began to play live all over New England and the Northeast. They’ve supported Street Dogs and Off With Their Heads, repped Worcester with pride at the Bosstones’ 2018 Cranking & Skanking Festival, and brought their heart-on-sleeve grit n’ wisdom down to The Fest in Gainesville, Florida.
Somewhere along the way, this band of punk scene lifers evolved into a full-blown Americana band, the end result in bloom on Broke But Not Broken. The Morning Afters retain a lot of their early Replacements influence, but enhance it with musical DNA from all over the rock n’ roll map. The result is something that’s all their own, but cast in the stories we’ve all heard growing up. In 2022, these stories will become part of folklore, in Worcester, and beyond.
lyrics
I’ll begin all these songs
With an “I don’t give a fuck start”
With an “I don’t give a fuck start”
An all the older ones as we tear this world apart
And all those other ones
Are just the same old stories about
Breaking each other’s hearts
And all the older ones, we tear this world apart
I’ll begin with a sad song
With my radio dial glowing on my bedroom wall
When I was young I’d hear that screaming
Late at night
And wonder what the other kids
Are seeing in the other side
An all the older ones as we tear this world apart
And all those other ones
Are just the same old songs about
Breaking each other’s hearts
And all the older ones, we tear this world apart
Sometimes life is like a celebrity bio-pic
And nothing ever really comes of it
When you always think you have that shot
Till you look and your the last on the lot
Waiting just to hear them scream “Cut, Scene”
An all the older ones as we tear this world apart
And all those other ones
Are just the same old stories ‘bout
Breaking each other’s hearts
And all the older ones, we tear this world apart
credits
released November 12, 2021
Written by Michael Kane
Recorded by Roger Lavallee at Wachusett Recording in Princeton, MA
Mixed by Benny Grotto at Mad Oak in Allston, MA
Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering in Portland, ME
‘Tear This World Apart’ photo by Douglas Sullivan
‘Tear This World Apart’ cover concept and arrangement by Michael Kane
Michael Kane - Electric and acoustic guitars
Franklin Siplas - Electric guitar
Timmy Weagle - Bass
Jeff Hoey - Drums
Joe Ferraro - Piano and keyboards
Additional Musicians on ‘Tear This World Apart’:
James Lynch - Lead electric guitar
Roger Lavallee - Electric guitar
Helen Sheldon - Harmonies and background vocals
if you like Springsteen (i do) The Hold Steady (i do) and great lyrics that make you think, "Shit, i really need to work on my lyrics" you will dig this. Michael Kane & The Morning Afters
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