The End of Feel Good Music by No Show Ponies - Available on Streaming - November 18, 2024

In honor of the occasion of the president-elect’s recent victory and less-than-auspicious cabinet nominations, it seems appropriate to revisit and reexamine a work from my past. On Monday, November 18th, 2024, The End of Feel Good Music by No Show Ponies will be available for the first time on all streaming platforms. 

Written during George W. Bush’s 2nd term–against the backdrop of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the larger war on terror, the authorization of The Patriot Act, the proliferation of waterboarding and other advanced interrogation techniques, and the 2007-2008 financial crisis–Jeff and I felt (somewhat amusingly, given recent events) that things in America couldn’t get much darker. 

Having moved to Austin, Texas in 2006–our eyes burning with zeal and artistic ambition–we labored to make a name for ourselves, to garner attention for our songs, and to lasso the sounds in our spinning heads. The period from our arrival in Austin, the initial recording sessions for our debut “Texas” album, and the preternatural gestation period between the start of recording and the album’s eventual release in April 2009, would prove to be a time of both great joy and great upheaval in our lives. 

While the events surrounding The End of Feel Good Music remain largely unpleasant, I am pleased that the songs exist–forever in posterity and in perpetuity–and perhaps that is enough. I can also say that we were trying to write songs using ironic language that, to us, attempted to capture the absurdity of the time, which some would argue we achieved.