Jesse Malin (Heart Attack, D Generation, etc) has announced a new live album and concert film, Chasing the Light, due out on June 21 via Wicked Cool Records (pre-order). It was shot by Malin’s regular collaborator Dave Stekert at NYC’s Sheen Center on January 29 and 30, 2022, and it features Tommy Stinson, Catherine Popper, H.R. of Bad Brains, Eugene Hütz of Gogol Bordello. See the tracklist below.
Malin calls the project a “story of how we survived during those years” of Covid lockdown (something he also told us about at the time) “and how we were able to put back into the community that we came out of.”
“Music has a power to say that you’re not alone,” he adds. “The beauty of the Sheen theater and the tightness that the band had achieved from playing all the time was the final chapter of those couple years. We were getting back into normal touring, and everyone was getting back to ‘regular life.’ Looking back at it all, when you have time and people taken away from you, it makes you appreciate the simplest things.”
You can watch the trailer for Chasing the Light below, and hear the first single, which has Malin joined by H.R. to perform Bad Brains’ “I & I Survive.” “H.R. was a childhood mentor of mine” Malin says. “He was spreading the words of Positive Mental Attitude, and teaching us about the musicality and generosity and power that his group Bad Brains had.”
He’s also announced a NYC benefit for H.R.’s medical care; he’s been unable to tour while suffering from SUNCT (Short-lasting Unilateral Neuralgiform with Conjunctival injection and Tearing) headaches. It happens on Saturday, June 22 at Bowery Electric with Eugene Hütz, Jimmy G. of Murphy’s Law, members of Scream, The Mob, and more to be announced. Tickets go on sale today (5/3) at 10 AM ET.
Last week, Irving Plaza hosted a benefit for Malin, who has been receiving treatment after suffering a rare spinal-cord stroke that left him paralyzed from the waist down. You can donate to help fund his medical care here on his SweetRelief Fund.
CHASING THE LIGHT TRACKLIST – VINYL
State of the Art (Tommy Stinson, guitar & vocals)
The Way We Used to Roll
Room 13
Ameri’ka
Shining Down
I & I Survive (lead vocals by H.R)
She Don’t Love Me Now
If I Should Fall from Grace with God (w/ Eugene Hütz)
St. Christopher (lead vocals by Catherine Popper)
Gray Skies
Meet Me at the End of the World
Greener Pastures
CHASING THE LIGHT TRACKLIST – FILM
State of the Art (Tommy Stinson, guitar & vocals)
Gray Skies Look So Blue
Brooklyn
St. Christopher (lead vocals by Catherine Popper)
Shining Down
Ameri’ka
About You
Strangers and Thieves
Sinner
She Don’t Love Me Now
I & I Survive (lead vocals by H.R)
If I Should Fall from Grace with God (w/ Eugene Hütz)
Greener Pastures