The Past Is Still Alive

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Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) created The Past Is Still Alive during a period of personal grief, when they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. Segarra uses their lyrics as a way to immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, and to honor both the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves. "Segarra has created an epic tale of life on the road, a nearly mythic version of their own life story that stands alongside other great American musical travelogues," exclaims NPR Music. "Career-defining." Rolling Stone says: "Segarra has honed their craft into a cohesive, astonishingly realized singer-songwriter record ... the best batch of songs Segarra's ever written." Paste calls it "a celebratory measure of love, sanctuary, and defiance ... In their hands, the trauma of the present day is a prelude to the possibilities of a better tomorrow."

Description

Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra, they/them) opens the doorway to a language and world that are finally their own. Out now on Nonesuch Records, The Past Is Still Alive represents a new beginning in Segarra’s lauded evolution as a storyteller. During a period of pain and personal grief, they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and the history of activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. Discovering a stronger, more singular style of writing, Segarra uses their lyrics as memory boxes to process their trauma, identity and dreams for the future. They immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, illustrate the many shapes and patterns of time’s passing, and honor the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves, as they deliver a first-person telling of their life so far. It is both a memoir and a roadmap, and though The Past Is Still Alive was made in North Carolina and produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Kevin Morby, Waxahatchee), the Bronx-born, New Orleans-based Segarra brings listeners to places far beyond: vivid experiences of small shops and buffalo stampedes in Santa Fe, childhood road trips to Florida, struggles of addiction in the Lower East Side, days-long journeys to outrun the cops in Nebraska, and more across their most magnetic collection of songs yet.

Nonesuch Store orders include a limited-edition, autographed print of handwritten lyrics to the song “Colossus of Roads” while they last.

You can watch the video for the opening track, “Alibi,” here:

The Past Is Still Alive is an album grappling with time, memory, love and loss, recorded in Durham, NC, a month after losing my father,” Segarra says. “‘Alibi’ is a plea, a last ditch effort to get through to someone you already know you’re gonna lose. It’s a song to myself, to my Father, almost fooling myself because I know what’s done is done. But it feels good to beg. A reckoning with time and memory. The song is exhausted with loving someone so much it hurts. Addiction separates us. With memories of the Lower East Side in the early 2000s of my childhood, mixed with imagery of the endless West that calls to artists and wanderers.”

The follow-up to their acclaimed Nonesuch debut, LIFE ON EARTH—which landed on Best of 2022 lists from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR Music, Mojo, Uncut, among others—The Past Is Still Alive sees Hurray for the Riff Raff reunite with Brad Cook, while further expanding their creative cast of collaborators. Anjimile, Conor Oberst, and S.G. Goodman all join Alynda Segarra on vocals at various points throughout the LP, with a band of musicians including Cook, Libby Rodenbough, Matt Douglas, Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, Mike Mogis, Phil Cook and Yan Westerlund. Mike Mogis also mixed the album, and it was mastered by Heba Kadry.

The “nature punk” of Life on Earth marked a departure for Hurray for the Riff Raff, as they contemplated surviving and thriving amidst a world in crisis. The Past Is Still Alive brings the focus back inwards, with arrangements that are raw, melodies direct and indelible, and lyrics that are personal yet largely rooted in family and community. There are love songs to real characters, locations and mythic figures like Sky Red Hawk (“Buffalo”), the first trans woman Segarra ever met (“Hawkmoon”), queerness and sacred spaces for outsiders and the vulnerable, in the aftermath of the Club Q shooting (“Colossus of Roads”), leaving home behind and discovering oneself on the edge of the world (“Snake Plant”), short-lived romances and the wisdom gained through chaos (“Vetiver”). Elsewhere, in the self-portraits painted on “Alibi,” “Ogallala” and other album highlights, Segarra reflects on the land they have traveled, the hardships witnessed and bravery gained while running away from everything and everyone they knew at age seventeen, hopping freight trains and hitchhiking across the country with a band of street urchins.

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Recorded at Puff City in Durham, NC
Produced by Brad Cook
Engineered by Brad Cook and Paul Voran
Mixed by Mike Mogis
Mastered by Heba Kadry

Photography by Tommy Kha
Design by Mike Krol

Album Status
Artist Name
Hurray for the Riff Raff
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Alynda Segarra, lead vocal (1-10), acoustic guitar (1-10), shaker (1-8, 10), harmony vocal (5, 8, 10)
Brad Cook, bass guitar (1-9), acoustic guitar (2), Wurlitzer (3), pocket piano (4), OP-1 synthesizer (4), vibraphone (8)
Phil Cook, electric guitar (1, 8, 9), piano (1, 2, 4, 7-10), organ (1-10), dobro (2, 4), Wurlitzer (5, 6), marimba (5)
Yan Westerlund, drums (1-10), tambourine (1, 4-10)
Mike Mogis, pedal steel (2, 10), synth bass (10), synths (10)
Meg Duffy, electric guitars (3, 5, 6, 8), synth guitar (5), harmony vocal (5), slide guitar (6)
Matt Douglas, baritone and tenor sax (5, 10)
Libby Rodenbough, fiddle (7, 9)
S.G. Goodman, harmony vocal (8)
Conor Oberst, harmony vocal (9)
Anjimile, harmony vocal (10)

reissues?
new-release
Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
Glow-in-the-dark LP+MP3
Price
30.00
UPC
075597900743
Label
Orange LP+MP3
Price
25.00
UPC
075597902648
Label
CD+MP3
Price
13.00
UPC
075597902655
Label
96/24 HD FLAC
Price
10.00
UPC
075597902617
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
075597902600

Track Listing

News & Reviews

  • "Hurray for the Riff Raff is the perfect music for this moment," Anna Sale says of the guest on her Slate podcast, Death, Sex & Money. "In it, you hear the sweep of American history and propulsive motion, coming together in joy and protest and marking losses in family and community, and Alynda Segarra's voice—clear and melodic with a sly punk edge." You can hear their conversation, about Segarra's life and music, here.

  • Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) has released an official music video for their song “Buffalo.” One of many highlights from The Past Is Still Alive—one of The Best Albums of the 2020s So Far, per Pitchfork—“Buffalo” is a love song about survival, patience, miracles, and memories of real people and places that Segarra experienced during trips to New Mexico. In the video, directed by Jeff Perlman, Segarra takes over the Field Museum in their brand new home of Chicago, roams alongside a herd of wild buffalo, and shines a light on extinct and endangered species. Hurray for the Riff Raff also performed the song on The Kelly Clarkson Show. You can watch both here.

  • About This Album

    Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra, they/them) opens the doorway to a language and world that are finally their own. Out now on Nonesuch Records, The Past Is Still Alive represents a new beginning in Segarra’s lauded evolution as a storyteller. During a period of pain and personal grief, they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and the history of activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. Discovering a stronger, more singular style of writing, Segarra uses their lyrics as memory boxes to process their trauma, identity and dreams for the future. They immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, illustrate the many shapes and patterns of time’s passing, and honor the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves, as they deliver a first-person telling of their life so far. It is both a memoir and a roadmap, and though The Past Is Still Alive was made in North Carolina and produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Kevin Morby, Waxahatchee), the Bronx-born, New Orleans-based Segarra brings listeners to places far beyond: vivid experiences of small shops and buffalo stampedes in Santa Fe, childhood road trips to Florida, struggles of addiction in the Lower East Side, days-long journeys to outrun the cops in Nebraska, and more across their most magnetic collection of songs yet.

    Nonesuch Store orders include a limited-edition, autographed print of handwritten lyrics to the song “Colossus of Roads” while they last.

    You can watch the video for the opening track, “Alibi,” here:

    The Past Is Still Alive is an album grappling with time, memory, love and loss, recorded in Durham, NC, a month after losing my father,” Segarra says. “‘Alibi’ is a plea, a last ditch effort to get through to someone you already know you’re gonna lose. It’s a song to myself, to my Father, almost fooling myself because I know what’s done is done. But it feels good to beg. A reckoning with time and memory. The song is exhausted with loving someone so much it hurts. Addiction separates us. With memories of the Lower East Side in the early 2000s of my childhood, mixed with imagery of the endless West that calls to artists and wanderers.”

    The follow-up to their acclaimed Nonesuch debut, LIFE ON EARTH—which landed on Best of 2022 lists from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR Music, Mojo, Uncut, among others—The Past Is Still Alive sees Hurray for the Riff Raff reunite with Brad Cook, while further expanding their creative cast of collaborators. Anjimile, Conor Oberst, and S.G. Goodman all join Alynda Segarra on vocals at various points throughout the LP, with a band of musicians including Cook, Libby Rodenbough, Matt Douglas, Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, Mike Mogis, Phil Cook and Yan Westerlund. Mike Mogis also mixed the album, and it was mastered by Heba Kadry.

    The “nature punk” of Life on Earth marked a departure for Hurray for the Riff Raff, as they contemplated surviving and thriving amidst a world in crisis. The Past Is Still Alive brings the focus back inwards, with arrangements that are raw, melodies direct and indelible, and lyrics that are personal yet largely rooted in family and community. There are love songs to real characters, locations and mythic figures like Sky Red Hawk (“Buffalo”), the first trans woman Segarra ever met (“Hawkmoon”), queerness and sacred spaces for outsiders and the vulnerable, in the aftermath of the Club Q shooting (“Colossus of Roads”), leaving home behind and discovering oneself on the edge of the world (“Snake Plant”), short-lived romances and the wisdom gained through chaos (“Vetiver”). Elsewhere, in the self-portraits painted on “Alibi,” “Ogallala” and other album highlights, Segarra reflects on the land they have traveled, the hardships witnessed and bravery gained while running away from everything and everyone they knew at age seventeen, hopping freight trains and hitchhiking across the country with a band of street urchins.

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Alynda Segarra, lead vocal (1-10), acoustic guitar (1-10), shaker (1-8, 10), harmony vocal (5, 8, 10)
    Brad Cook, bass guitar (1-9), acoustic guitar (2), Wurlitzer (3), pocket piano (4), OP-1 synthesizer (4), vibraphone (8)
    Phil Cook, electric guitar (1, 8, 9), piano (1, 2, 4, 7-10), organ (1-10), dobro (2, 4), Wurlitzer (5, 6), marimba (5)
    Yan Westerlund, drums (1-10), tambourine (1, 4-10)
    Mike Mogis, pedal steel (2, 10), synth bass (10), synths (10)
    Meg Duffy, electric guitars (3, 5, 6, 8), synth guitar (5), harmony vocal (5), slide guitar (6)
    Matt Douglas, baritone and tenor sax (5, 10)
    Libby Rodenbough, fiddle (7, 9)
    S.G. Goodman, harmony vocal (8)
    Conor Oberst, harmony vocal (9)
    Anjimile, harmony vocal (10)

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Recorded at Puff City in Durham, NC
    Produced by Brad Cook
    Engineered by Brad Cook and Paul Voran
    Mixed by Mike Mogis
    Mastered by Heba Kadry

    Photography by Tommy Kha
    Design by Mike Krol