Casey Neill & the Norway Rats

"Subterrene" is the first album in 5 years for Casey Neill & the Norway Rats, a band with a reputation as a Portland supergroup. The Decemberists' Jenny Conlee-Drizos plays keys, Eels' Chet Lyster plays guitar, with additional contributions from Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck. Neill's raspy and gritty storytelling lead the way. While not a traditional concept album, Subterrene follows a distinct story arc, and the ominous-yet-defiantly-optimistic portraits it paints were inspired in equal parts by vintage sci-fi novels, our current political climate, and the globetrotting manner in which Neill's lived for the past few years. "I started buying old trade paperback copies of Ursula K. Le Guin science fiction books," he explains. "Her stories are so political and dark, but her perspective on the world is still totally filled with hope, and that was very much on my mind while I was writing these songs." At the same time, Neill was having flashbacks to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner during multiple tours of Japan with Big Bridges—his side project with legendary guitar hero Takashi O'Hashi—and getting a firsthand look at the current state of America as he reconnected with his activist roots on a marathon tour on behalf of an environmental group protesting Trump administration policies. "There's an ugliness out there that needs to be confronted," says Neill, "but I think in the process, we also have to be careful not to lose whatever spark we have inside us. We're not trying to fight what we hate; we're trying to defend what we love."