The Still Out reissue coming; song w/ Adam Franklin of Swervedriver (who they reformed to open for) out now

New York City indie rock band The Still Out — who we recently mentioned were reforming to open some shows for their friends in Swervedriver —  formed in the late 2000s by producers Josh Stoddard and Arjun “Arj” Agerwala. Stoddard tragically passed away in 2021, and Agerwala is reforming the band and reissuing their 2008 album Crystallized in tribute to his best friend and bandmate. 

Crystallized has been off streaming services for a while, but returns on Friday, August 21 with the release of a deluxe, remastered edition.  Agerwala tells us:

We didn’t make the record for anyone but ourselves. It has taken me nearly five years to recover from Josh’s death. It feels fitting, now that I’m able, to share our vision and bring something beautiful out of that darkness. This album is now both a tribute to him and a literal record of our friendship and creative journey together. I want anyone who may be into this to be able to hear it. It also feels like a tribute to our mentor Adam Schlesinger [of Fountains of Wayne]. I know that his passing affected Josh deeply.

Before taking a break, The Still Out were signed to label Hi-Speed Soul, opened shows for Swervedriver and Longwave, and released a single in honor of Adam. 

Meanwhile, Crystallized track “Let the Listeners Hurt,” featuring guest vocals and guitar from Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin, has been released as a single, and is streaming everywhere now, Listen below. 

Arj also told us more about the song. He said: 

Josh’s infectious bass riff formed the backbone of this song’s demo that was eventually built up with heavy layered guitars. After Josh played the song’s skeleton in a Jersey City bar, Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin happened to hear it and approached him to find out who wrote it. He offered to play on it, and within a few days, Josh and I were in the studio with him rounding out the tune with Adam’s iconic lead guitar and vocals. The result is a loud and taut burst of dynamic intensity, a celebration of movement and vitality.

The reissue was remastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone and includes previously three bonus tracks which are live recordings from a show at Arlene’s Grocery in NYC with Mikey from Swervedriver on drums. 

We recently had Adam Franklin of Swervedriver on the BrooklynVegan podcast and he told us this about The Still Out album and their return: 

The album…is a really great album actually…Arjun’s sort of…regrouped the band so that’s going to be awesome….and there’s a single on the album that…I sing and play guitar on…so I think people are going to dig that if they haven’t heard it before because that’s another record that…they seem to take from elements of sort of alternative rock, metal-ly bits, shoegazey bits.

Catch The Still Out supporting Swervedriver on the ‘Raise at 35’ tour at the White Eagle Hall in NJ on August 28 and on August 29 at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.