Last year, Gary Lightbody revealed that he was working on a country sideproject by the name of Tired Pony with R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. Now, Lightbody has revealed details of the upcoming Tired Pony album, 'The Place We Ran From'.
Tired Pony also features the talents of and top Irish producer Garret 'Jacknife' Lee, Bangor singer/songwriter and former Reindeer Section member Iain Archer, as well as several musicians who have previously played with Snow Patrol and R.E.M. Meanwhile, there are guest appearances from She & Him duo M. Ward & Zooey Deschanel and Editors frontman Tom Smith. Yes, it's quite the supergroup.
A newsletter sent to the Snow Patrol fanclub stated, "Tired Pony began life as a doodle in Gary's jotter. During idle moments on Snow Patrol's year-long tour cycle for their last album, A Hundred Million Suns, Gary began writing songs for this imaginary band. Forward to January 4th 2010, a cast of characters assembled at Portland's Type Foundry studio; from the extended Snow Patrol family there was Troy Stewart, Iain Archer, Belle & Sebastian's Richard Colburn and producer Garret 'Jacknife' Lee, who brought in Tired Pony's final two members, Peter Buck from R.E.M. and Scott McCaughey, the Seattle musical polymath who's been R.E.M.'s full-time auxiliary member since 1994. The result is The Place We Ran From a record that begins quietly, and ends with a four-minute feedback storm, with any number of peak moments within."
The band's official website features the following 8 minute video giving a behind the scenes sneak preview of Tired Pony in action.
Tired Pony will play their debut live show at The Forum, London on July 14th.
Meanwhile, R.E.M. have announced that the 25th anniversary reissue of their 1985 album 'Fables of The Reconstruction' will come with a bonus rarities disc entitled 'The Athens Demos', featuring early recordings of 14 tracks. The reissue is due for release on July 9th.
