Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician Jack Riley can trace the origins of his music career to when he was five and making music on a thrift-store emblazoned with Kurt Cobain‘s name. Riley moved to New Orleans for college, where dabbled in punk and fell in love with shoegaze before founding the first iteration of Bedridden. The Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician recruited Pasadena, CA-born jazz trained Sebastian Duzian (bass) and Claremont, CA-born Nick Pedroza (drums), who grew up on rock, metal and jazz to form a live band.
The first lineup released their debut EP, 2023’s Amateur Heartthrob, a noise-washed blend of shoegaze, DIY and indie rock that Riley says is a “coming-of-age EP — these formative stories about not having a bed, dating, being kind of a jackass. I was making fun of myself a lot.” The EP caught the attention of Julia’s War Recordings‘ Douglas Dulgarian, who then signed the band.
The band relocated to Brooklyn. After relocating, the band recruited Wesley Wolffe (guitar) to complete the band’s lineup as a newly minted quartet. The current incarnation of the band encompasses a patchwork of styles, influences and friends that the band’s Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based frontman has accumulated over the years.
The next iteration in the band’s development and maturation is their full-length debut, the Aron Kobayashi Ritch-produced Moths Strapped to Each Other’s Back. Slated for an April 11, 2025 release through Julia’s War Recordings, the album’s titled is derived from a mysterious missive Riley received on the popular astrology app Co-Star. The 10-song album’s fuzzed out and sometimes gnarly songs sees the band ruminating on dating, drugs and survival. “Last year I was way too reliant on other people — my partner at the time, my friends,” Riley says. “I was strapped to them in a weird way — and flying in circles. This album is about that time.”
“Some of these songs have been around for years,” says Riley, adding that they were recorded last February at Brooklyn’s Studio G. “As opposed to Amateur Heartthrob, we attempted to blend more clean guitars into a driving sound to capture more clarity — one that also sounds live… and raw.”
Moths Strapped to Each Other’s Back‘s first single “Etch” is a woozily mournful, Dinosaur Jr. ripper built around fuzzy power chords, rousingly anthemic, mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses and thunderous drumming that’s anchored around a seething, simmering anger that inspires a daydream about punching someone in the jaw. We’ve all been there at some point or another.
“‘Etch’ was a rhythmic accident that didn’t stem from any direct inspirations,” Riley explains. “The irregular triplet line came to me first and sounded somber, yet hostile. It lent itself well to phrases I had written not about heartbreak, but about the subsequent temper that it had induced. I was dreaming of fighting, I was dreaming of winning that fight, and lastly dreaming of defaming my competitor. The song is frantic and doesn’t have a tonal center. With its weaving guitar harmonies laid underneath countering vocal melodies, it sounds to me like that regretful fistfight that I was longing for.”
The band has two New York City dates: Tonight at Baby’s All Right and March 20, 2025 at Bowery Ballroom. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.
Tour Dates
FEBRUARY
5 – Baby’s All Right – Brooklyn, NY
MARCH
5 – Foto Club – Philadelphia, PA
6 – Otto Bar – Baltimore, MD
7 – Banditos – Richmond, VA
8 – Swanson Warehouse – Greenville, SC
9 – Funny House – Atlanta, GA
10 – Free Store – New Orleans, LA
11 – Cartman House – Houston, TX
12-16 – SXSW – Austin, TX
17 – Bar DKDC – Memphis, TN
18 – Ryman 2 – Nashville, TN
20 – Bowery Ballroom – New York, NY
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