Enumclaw, the rising rock four-piece and recent Best of What’s Next act out of Tacoma, Washington, have shared one last single ahead of their debut album Save the Baby before its release this week. Our fifth preview of the album after “2002,” “Jimmy Neutron,” “Cowboy Bepop” and “Park Lodge,” “10th and J 2” is out now alongside a music video.
One of the last tracks on Save the Baby, “10th and J 2” is also quietly one of the album’s best, a gleaming, twang-tinged strummer in which Aramis Johnson fights to safeguard his self-belief, even in the face of anxiety, isolation and doubt. Over Eli Edwards and Ladaniel Gipson’s steady low end, Johnson and Nathan Cornell interweave warm acoustic chords and distant pedal steel, setting these heartland rock sounds against Johnson’s aspirational lyrics: “You should have it quoted / Say it all the time / I will be, I will be / Who I’m destined to be,” he sings, his heart set on running down that dream.
”‘10th and J 2’ is about the apartment I wrote the album in and how I felt inside of it,” Johnson explains, continuing:
I spent more time inside of that apartment than maybe anywhere else in my whole life. It’s such an important place to me. I spent most of my time in that space trying to come up with this plan to get out of my situation, to try and “make it out” as they say. It took a lot of self reflection and hard work but I knew I could do it. This song is me trying my hardest to be the person I know I’m destined to be.
The band’s “10th and J 2” video (dir. Ian Ostrowski) collects footage of Enumclaw on tour, capturing candid moments of Johnson, Edwards, Cornell and Gipson out on the road, pursuing their destiny as a band.
Check out the “10th and J 2” video and Enumclaw’s 2022 Paste session below, and find their tour dates further down. Save the Baby is out this Friday, Oct. 14, on Luminelle Recordings.
Enumclaw Tour Dates:
October
14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar *
15 – Santa Fe, NM @ Tumbleroot Brewery & Distiller *
17 – Kansas City, MO @ recordBar *
18 – St Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill Duck Room *
19 – Cincinnati, OH @ Top Cats *
21 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar *
22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg *
23 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair *
24 – Holyoke, MA @ Race Street Live *
26 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern *
27 – Detroit, MI @ El Club *
28 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop *
29 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Music Hall *
30 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon *
31 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line *
November
02 – Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge *
03 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall *
04 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall *
05 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell *
06 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Space *
10 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom *
11 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Catalyst Atrium *
12 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall *
13 – Sacramento, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post *
16 – Eugene, OR @ Sessions Music Hall *
17 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom *
18 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret *
19 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune *
December
09 – Spokane, WA @ Lucky You Lounge w/ Milly
(* = supporting illuminati hotties)
