People love to look back on the 90s for a very good reason: It really was a better time back then. The economy was humming along, the biggest government scandal centered around a blowjob (and not, say, torture or mass surveillance), and men with soul patches and bleached-blonde hair charmed the nation with power pop ballads about the struggles of being abandoned by their fathers.I'm thinking of one songsmith in particular—Art Alexakis of Everclear, who scored major hits with tracks like "Wonderful" and "Father of Mine," which embody the sort of music you will love when you're 13 and your emotions are raging, distance yourself from at 18 in an effort to impress your peers with your taste, then quietly get back into when you stop reading rock critics and just want to listen to some pop-grunge twang.
Though Everclear has faded from public view over the past decade and a half, the band has kept on trucking along and has a new album, Black Is the New Black, coming out April 28 via The End Records. The new songs feel a little rougher around the edges and a little more grown up than the ones that made me feel feelings back in 2000, but "Sugar Noise," which we're premiering above, is still a solid rock song. This summer, the band will embark on the fourth incarnation of their Summerland Tour with American Hi-Fi, Fuel, and Toadies.Preorder the new album here.