Methuen's Lot by Adam McGrath

Adam McGrath, of the tenured band Cave In, and as seen in Clouds, Nomad Stones, and Wear Your Wounds, fell into a deep sleep. He dreamt of a place called METHUEN, the first place to shape him and the original world of which he inhabited. This was the northern Massachusetts working class town that he had grown up in. He traveled through the streets and backroads and saw many characters along the way.

He crossed paths with Alice, chained in her “Jar of Flies,” Mr. Beck with all his “mutations,” and even Sir Zeppelin himself, which had Led him to the “III.” He made it “On the Beach” where the Boys and brothers Wilson harmonized with the sun and found shaky Uncle Neil, who kept us all Young while turning that califrown upside down. He saw the times of future pasts with mix cassette tapes dubbed with nineties hardcore seven inches and LP’s discovered from word of mouth, xeroxed fanzines, and mail order purchase.

Driving his mother’s 1990 Mercury Sable station wagon down Baremeadow Lane, the tape reels spun in the boombox wedged between the front seats, as it screamed decibels into the night. This dream world would be the place he would welcome visits from the family and friends he had lost along the way and saw them unchanged by time. The fabric of this world had been colored and illuminated wholeheartedly by the fantastical and sometimes horrific musings of Mr. Vonnegut, Mr. McCarthy, and Sai King.

Acoustic and electric 6 strings would sound out the mold. Distorted signals through hot vacuum tube transmitters would burn. Demon wind blown into a melodica called for battle while black and white keys engaged in sparkling the sound. The journey would be more important than the destination.

But then he awoke.

Was it a dream, a vision, a nightmare or a song?

Making sense of this would have to be a solo endeavor.

Adam McGrath’s first solo album, “Methuen’s Lot,” is the roadmap to this fever dream. Produced and engineered by Stephen Brodsky, mixed by Adam Taylor, and mastered by James Plotkin, the album sees release on October 4, 2024 via Pax Aeternum.