The Sheila Divine Are Back with New Album The Morbs

The record release party comes to the Sinclair tonight. —Michael Marotta

This post originally appeared on Vanyaland.


This year felt like it finally delivered the permanent return of Boston indie rock powerhouse the Sheila Divine. After nearly a decade of reunions, one-offs, and a few bouts of new music, the beloved rock band has released new record The Morbs, a cohesive collection of tunes that not only follows up 2012’s The Things That Once Were, but serves to re-establish the Sheila Divine as one of Boston’s greatest acts.

And it’s the record where singer/guitarist Aaron Perrino re-found himself.

“This one was definitely my mid-life crisis album,” Perrino tells Vanyaland. “I was reassessing how important music was to me after years of convincing myself otherwise. This album is the first one in a while where I tried to take my time and be thorough with the recording process. We used a lot more synths and ambient sounding guitars. There are still the signature TSD wall of distortion moments, but I think the album is a little more introspective then previous ones.”

Part of that reassessment was Perrino finding the ability to pull back a bit. He says that The Morbs, now available to stream via the Zippah Records Bandcamp below, was a far more collaborative effort than past Sheila Divine material, with bassist Jim Gilbert and drummer Ryan Dolan contributing significantly to the writing process. “I really let Jim and Ryan have a bigger role in dictating the tempos and vibes of the songs,” Perrino says. “I went in with looser ideas and let the band creatively influence the direction of the songs.”

Listen to The Morbs below, and mark your calendars for the record release party, going down tonight at the Sinclair in Cambridge, which doubles up as the Daykamp Poster and Photo show, with The Field Effect/Box Tiger supergroup Weakened Friends and Boston neo-glam heroes Sidewalk Driver also on the bill.

The Sheila Divine: November 25, 8 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge, 617-547-5200, sinclaircambridge.com.



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