Portland's Alien Boy exist within a long tradition of Pacific Northwest indie rock. They're named after a 1980 Wipers EP, and their last album, 2025's You Wanna Fade?, shares its title with a Shins song. Today, Alien Boy announce a new album that draws on a different part of the Pacific Northwest indie rock tradition, the lo-fi acoustic record.
On Friday, they'll release Rearrange My Mind, a new album that reimagines songs from their catalog as four-track acoustic recordings, a la Elliott Smith. Alien Boy have always functioned as a proper band, but singer/guitarist Sonia Weber is their sole permanent member. Weber, guitarist Caleb Misclevitz, and producer Evan Mersky recorded Rearrange My Mind at Red Lantern Studio, and it includes radically reworked versions of some past Alien Boy songs, as well as a few new songs and a hushed cover of Pavement's 1999 single "Spit On A Stranger." Here's what Weber says about the record: I’ve always loved the idea that a good song can shapeshift.
I’ve wanted to do an acoustic record for a while now, but after You Wanna Fade? came out I played a solo-acoustic set on a local radio show and started thinking a lot more about which of our songs could fit well into that style. The vision was pretty narrow compared to when we make big sounding Alien Boy records. I wanted it to sound intimate and kind of haunting, and I wanted it to sound like it came from the PNW.
I’m talking listening to [Elliott Smith's] "St Ides Heaven" on the bus in high school while it’s pouring rain. The full album is out in just two days, but Alien Boy have dropped a couple of advance singles anyway: "Now Yr Calling Me Baby," one of their all-new songs, and their take on "Spit On A Stranger." Check them out below. TRACKLIST:01 "You Wanna Fade? (4 track version)"02 "Now Yr Calling Me Baby"03 "Spit On A Stranger" (Pavement cover)04 "Cold Air (4 track version)"05 "Our World Now"06 "Rearrange My Mind"07 "You Want Me Too (4 track version)"08 "The Way I Feel (4 track version)"09 "I Just Can't Feel It (4 track version)"10 "TV Will Always Make Me Cry (4 track version)"11 "Rhythm Of Control (4 track version)" TOUR DATES:10/16 - Portland, OR @ Showbar (record release show)10/22-23 - Rotterdam, Netherlands @ Left Of The Dial10/24 - Solingen, Germany @ Waldmeister10/27 - Paris, France @ TGBB Fest10/31 - Munich, Germany @ Kafe Kilt11/01 - Berlin, Germany @ Neue Zukunft11/03 - Bristol, UK @ Exchange Basement11/04 - Sheffield, UK @ TBA11/05 - Manchester, UK @ The Lodge11/06 - London, UK @ Pitchfork London Fest11/07 - Newport, UK @ Le Pub11/08 - Brighton, UK @ The Prince Albert Rearrange My Mind is out 10/16 on Get Better.
Check out our 2025 feature on Alien Boy here.
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