Former Bomb the Music Industry! bandmates Jeff Rosenstock and Laura Stevenson already released an EP of Neil Young covers, Still Young, in 2019, and ahead of their tour together celebrating the EP, they've surprise-released a second one! Younger Still is out today (11/3) via Polyvinyl, and features their takes on "Razor Love," "Comes a Time," "Hey Babe," and "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere." Stream it below.
Jeff and Laura started working on the new EP in 2019, but it was delayed by the pandemic and each of their solo projects. They reconvened over the summer in Los Angeles to finish it, and they also asked each other "five common questions" about the EP, which you can read below.
Laura and Jeff's tour together begins later this month, including a sold out NYC show at Bowery Ballroom on December 16 with Gladie. Jeff also has dates in January with Cheekface, and Laura supports Bright Eyes in Portland, ME earlier this month. See all of their upcoming dates below.
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FIVE COMMON QUESTIONS RE: YOUNGER STILL BY JEFF & LAURA
WHO ARE YOU?! JEFF ROSENSTOCK: Hello, and thank you for taking the time to think of these questions! The two of us have been friends for years, we grew up in neighboring towns in Long Island - Laura in Rockville Centre (Joan Jett's rockin' hometown) and me in Baldwin (Taylor Dayne's rockin' hometown.)
LAURA STEVENSON: HI! “Good to see you” SEE? Jeff and I both grew up on Long Island where we spent a lot of time “on the beach.” When we were kids we would go “out on the weekend” to ska shows AND THAT’S WHERE WE MET! But then one day I said “come on baby, let’s go downtown” and then we both moved to the city around the same time and NOW? We live on opposite sides of the country! Jeff lives in “L.A.”
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!
LAURA: We have done something that we hope Neil Young doesn’t hate. Because we love him.
We covered some of his songs again. He didn’t say he was mad the first time. We just love him, okay? So we did it again, OKAY? WHAT’S WITH THE THIRD DEGREE?
JEFF: I kinda get the aggression here! It's such a paradigm shift that is kind of alarming (and confusing!) at first - two dear friends who are musicians, making an EP of Neil Young covers… again!
WHY DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?!?!
JEFF: We had such a nice lil' time making the last EP Still Young, so we immediately dove into another! We recorded two songs before I moved across the country with a plan to record two more the next time I was back in town. Joke was on us though LULZ - a global pandemic happened, those two songs never got finished and Laura and I didn't see each other for almost two years!
LAURA: Two years is a long time, baby. Also, in that time I gave birth, baby. To a baby. Once she was old enough to be left home alone I got on an airplane and flew out to “L.A.” and it was so nice to hang out with my good good pal.
HOW COULD YOU HAVE DONE SUCH A THING?!?!?!
LAURA: I flew Southwest south-west and that’s how I got there. It was really honestly pretty cool. We picked a few songs we loved and I listened to them all on the plane but we had zero ideas about how we were going to do anything so we were VERY LUCKY that it turned out so nice. Magic happens! Luckily!
JEFF: We recorded this in my basement, and when we first went down there I was pretty nervous about this big list of songs we thought could be cool to do something with. To kind of shake the cobwebs off, Laura sat down on the piano, I quickly made a beat on the 808 and we started playing through “Razor Love” (from the massively underrated Silver and Gold.) Later on, we played through “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” a few times, just having fun playing music together again. And wouldn't ya know it, the crappy phone recordings of these rough playthroughs actually sounded kinda good! Which was a relief 'cause we didn't have any time to waste!
LAURA: We made Younger Still in like 3 ½ days and some of it was spent watching “The Bear” while I used a breast pump. Riveting show! Recording was just fun. I helped set up mics which was dangerous as I am clumsy but I didn’t fall once! Neither did Jeff! It was just nice to do 2+ years of catching up with an old friend while doing what we love most. Playing music and eating.
WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!?!?!
JEFF: Don’t be that way about it - You know exactly what we want!! Listen to the EP and have a nice time, OKAY?!!?! Lavish praise upon us for having the bravery to cover four Neil Young songs again!!! Tell our story which, incidentally, is not our story but Neil’s story!!
LAURA: “Hey babe,” there “comes a time” in everybody’s life where they just want to hang out and listen to some good songs that two people who are friends didn’t write. Makes sense? GO LISTEN!
JEFF: Oh yeah, and we will eventually be putting this on a 12” record with our other EP, those discarded tracks from my final days in Brooklyn and a few more that we will record after Younger Still catapults us to fame we’ve never imagined and Laura and I develop cold hard bitterness towards each other!! So brace yourself for that in the future!!
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JEFF ROSENSTOCK & LAURA STEVENSON: 2022 TOUR
11/18 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill %
11/19 - Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge - Hollywood Forever Cemetery %
11/20 - Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s %
12/04 - Phoenix, AZ @ Zona Rock Festival
12/09 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall ^
12/10 - Detroit, MI @ The Sanctuary ^
12/11 - Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern ^
12/15 - Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall ^
12/16 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom ^
12/17 - Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church Sanctuary ^
12/18 - Woodstock, NY @ Colony ^
% w/ Anika Pyle
^ w/ Gladie
JEFF ROSENSTOCK: 2023 TOUR
01/06 - San Diego, CA @ Soma Sidestage #
01/07 - Long Beach, CA @ Long Beach Arena &
01/10 - Las Vegas, NV @ 24 Oxford #
01/12 - Reno, NV @ The Alpine #
01/13 - Sacramento, CA @ Harlow's #
01/14 - Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theatre #
05/27-28 - Atlantic City, NJ @ Adjacent Festival 2023
# w/ Cheekface
LAURA STEVENSON: 2022 TOUR
11/13 - Portland, ME @ State Theatre *
* w/ Bright Eyes