Vocalist-guitarist Jolie Lindholm used to front the Rocking Horse Winner, a very good South Florida emo band who never quite got their shine and broke up in 2004. You’ve heard her voice if you’ve listened to either of the first two Dashboard Confessional albums; she duetted with Chris Carrabba on tracks across 2000’s Swiss Army Romance and 2001’s Gold-certified The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most. Unfortunately, we haven’t heard much from her in the years since.
Today, that changes. The Darling Fire, a new Lindholm-fronted supergroup announced last year, debuts the first hint of new tunes.
The rumbling post-hardcore track “For the Loveless” finds Lindholm joining forces with a host of characters from the Sunshine State’s vibrant emo, metalcore, and indie rock scenes of the past two decades (the family tree is so deep that we just listed them all below.) It’s the first single off the Darling Fire’s debut album Dark Celebration, due June 14 on Spartan Records. The whole thing was produced and mixed by J. Robbins, frontman of recently-reunited D.C. punks Jawbox.
The band explains to Billboard via e-mail how pressures of modern society helped inspire “For the Loveless”:
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There’s a certain segment of the Japanese population that isolate themselves from the world by choice, for months or even years at a time. They do this partly due to fear, sometimes due to mental illness and often because they simply prefer to be removed from society. “For the Loveless” was written for these confined adolescents and adults, the Hikikomori, but also speaks to anyone who feels particularly unique or isolated.
Find “For the Loveless” below, along with the Darling Fire’s complete lineup. (The band also credits Eric Fensler for the spoken-word sample at the song’s beginning.)
Vocals-guitar: Jolie Lindholm (The Rocking Horse Winner)
Guitar: Jeronimo Gomez (Poison The Well, The Rocking Horse Winner, As Friends Rust)
Guitar: Matthew Short (Jasperwal, D_Composure, Rival Science)
Bass: Gregg Moore (No Fraud, Slap of Reality, Pull)
Drums: Steven Kleisath (Further Seems Forever, Shai Hulud, Useless Things, Strongarm)
Tour dates and the Dark Celebration pre-order are available here.
And if you need an introduction to the Rocking Horse Winner, check out their 2002 slapper “Miss You.”