That Eric Alper

New York singer-songwriter Brian Dunne announces his fourth solo album Clams Casino will release on September 5 via Missing Piece Records. Self-produced at Dunne’s home in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Clams Casino was inspired by the classic songwriting form of working-class blues placed in an unmistakably modern context.

“Is it so bad to want a good life?” he asks in the opening title track, which releases today. The music video was featured this morning at Rolling Stone, who called the album “an indie-rock, Paul Simon-evoking gem of a record” and said the song “paints a picture of trying to savor little luxuries while struggling to make ends meet.”

Brian Dunne has also announced a fall tour that will take him across the East Coast, with stops in New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Nashville and more.

Brian Dunne on the new single: “I remember seeing the name ‘Clams Casino’ on menus when I’d go out to eat with my parents. It’s kind of an East Coast regional dish that doesn’t really exist anymore-it’s what a working man thinks a rich man eats.” He continues, “The song asks two questions: Why is it so hard to have a good thing? And is it so bad to want a good life? The first verse is a working-class blues, the second is more about shame, and the last is calling myself out for being full of sh*t. Maybe you just want what you don’t have. We all want change, but if we got an invite to the party… we’d probably all just go to the party.”

Clams Casino is the rare rock record that manages to inspire without ignoring the darkness dominating our purview, whose subject matter feels authentically universal yet allergic to cliche, whose characters are equally clever and open-hearted. While the lyrics circle scenes of modern despair, the music is the most uplifting and hard-hitting in Dunne’s catalog. Accompanying himself on nearly all instruments, Dunne sought inspiration from an era of classic rock that tentatively embraced the new wave sound of the late-’70s, incorporating keyboards and synths without delving fully into the digital gloss of the CD era. The resulting album is a burst of energy, a colossal leap forward, and a prolonged moment of direct eye-contact from one of this generation’s sharpest observers of young American life.

Last month, Brian Dunne shared the album’s bittersweet debut single “Play The Hits,” a punchy song about aging and self-destruction built around fatalist drama, which was featured by both Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Following his acclaimed 2023 solo album Loser on the Ropes, and two word-of-mouth successes from his cult-favorite supergroup Fantastic Cat, Dunne sought to craft a more cohesive statement, based on some of the archetypes he’s observed as a working musician and touring artist. “Loser on the Ropes was about failure,” he reflects, “but there was a fight that was ongoing-which is inherently optimistic. You’re still in the ring.” Now his observations arrive once the final bell has rung and the crowd has wandered home: “The bad guys won. What are we going to do?”

Brian Dunne has shared bills with everyone from Cat Power to Caroline Rose, performed on songs with Lizzie No (“Lagunita”) and Caitlin Rose (“The Kids Are All Grown”), and in 2021 landed an unexpected hit in the Netherlands with his standalone single “New Tattoo,” which led to him performing to an audience of 17,000 at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome. Named on “Best Albums” lists by SPIN and Boston Globe, Loser On The Ropes also garnered attention from Paste, Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, and even led to his solo national television debut on CBS Saturday Morning. Dunne is currently on the road with Fantastic Cat for a summer tour supporting the group’s latest release, Now That’s What I Call Fantastic Cat.

Clams Casino Tracklist
1. Clams Casino
2. Rockland County
3. Graveyard
4. Play The Hits
5. Fake Version Of The Real Thing
6. Some Room Left
7. Gracie Mansion
8. I Watched The Light
9. Max’s Kansas City
10. Living It Backwards