NYC’s Radiator King has released long-awaited third album Unborn Ghosts. The record was produced by Shaul Eshet and Don DiLego (Jesse Malin), and features drummer Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls, Violent Femmes), Jesse Malin guitarist Derek Cruz, and bassist Ed Goldson (Ghostface Killah, Passion Pit).
The brainchild of New York-via-Boston troubadour Adam Silvestri, Radiator King has shared bills with Jesse Malin, Pile and L.A. Witch, and has been covered recently by PopMatters, American Songwriter, New Noise and more.
Thematically, Unborn Ghosts and its hardscrabble characters travel many paths. The son of a prizefighter learns that there’s grace in dusting yourself off after being knocked down, and that sometimes the toughest fight is with one’s self. A salty ship’s crew, lost on the sea after an epic odyssey, struggles desperately homeward. Old bluesmen leave the farm—and the church—behind in search of transcendence and immortality. Strangers meet and fall in love, then years later, when the relationship ends, part and become strangers once again. Childhood friends dream about what they’ll become and cling to each other as life scatters them on the wind. The journey of an immigrant becomes a metaphor for the unmoored life of a touring musician grasping for a sense of home. Death steals an innocent child from this world but can’t extinguish her light.
Above all, though, Unborn Ghosts grapples with the idea that you can’t run from the past, that you must confront your demons. And that if you do, waiting for you on the other side is a future in which you can tap back into the spirit of youth, with all its curiosity, wonder and blank-slate possibility.
Here’s what the music press is saying about Radiator King’s Unborn Ghosts…
“Spectral, punk-tinged folk … grapples with the idea that you can’t run from the past—that you must confront your demons.” – THE BIG TAKEOVER
“Pensive, bittersweet.” – NORTHERN TRANSMISSIONS
“A rickety shanty of beat poet theatrics and profound insight.” – BEATS PER MINUTE
“Channels the spirit of rock & roll.” – NEW NOISE MAGAZINE
“Channels Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.” – ATWOOD MAGAZINE
“Gorgeous … looks back on the innocence of childhood.” – POPMATTERS
“Brandishing a dilapidated trash-folk aesthetic through which he dismantles the foundations of a handful of genres, Radiator King’s Adam Silvestri positions himself as some sort of blues-punk oracle, a man outside the normal flow of time with the ability to twist our perspectives.” – BEATS PER MINUTE
You can pick up a vinyl copy here, or stream the record on Spotify.