Comprised of core and founding members Charlie Hickey (guitar) and Andrew McCarty (drums), the New York-based alt rock act The Soft Underground formed back in 2010, and unsurprisingly the act’s core members quickly began to write, perform and record their own original music. Their creative process typically would have the duo writing and perfecting the instrumentation and arrangements, and then they would cast a guest vocalist, who would work perfectly for each song. Some of their collaborators have included Star & Micey’s Nick Redmond, The StoneCoats‘ Brannon Barnett, Lucero‘s, The Afghan Whigs‘ and Hank Williams, Jr.‘s Rick Steff, and the result was a highly accessible yet unique debut album Lost in Translation, which was released in 2015 to praise from The Big Takeover, Music Street Journal and airplay from Alt Nation.
Slated for a July 27, 2018 release, the duo’s sophomore effort Morning World reportedly finds the duo writing what may arguably be their most personal album to date while continuing their penchant for eclectic variation. As the story goes, the duo spent the past two years laboriously working on the album, doing everything they could to ensure that they expanded their sound and songwriting in new directions; in fact, Morning World‘s latest single “Rachel,” is centered around scuzzy power chords, a propulsive rhythm section and a mosh pit friendly hook that will remind some listeners of mid 90s alt rock — in particular, Deftones, Stone Temple Pilots, Foo Fighters, and In Utero-era Nirvana but with a clean, hyper modern production sheen.
