Big Red Machine — aka the delightful pairing of The National‘s Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon — are set to debut their LP How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? later this month. In the lead-up, they’ve debuted a new song, “New Auburn,” during a live set for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which you can view above. Rounding out BRM’s Colbert set were Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Anaïs Mitchell, The Westerlies, The National’s Scott Devendorf, drummer JT Bates, and keyboardist Nick Lloyd.
The web exclusive set also featured a performance of “Phoenix,” which you can watch below.
When it was released, Dessner had this to say about “Phoenix,” which features vocals from Mitchell and Pecknold:
“‘Phoenix’ was one of the last songs we wrote for this record. I was thinking about The Band and the Grateful Dead …maybe imagining this Big Red Machine album was some version of the Last Waltz. Justin first heard it while driving and immediately the chorus melody came into his head. I shared the sketch with Robin Pecknold, who I’ve been a fan of forever and who I’d been dreaming would join us on this record. Robin wrote the verses and pre chorus as a kind of dialogue with Justin, recalling a conversation they once had backstage in Phoenix. Later Anais wrote words to the chorus and the Westerlies added their magic to the instrumental. JT Bates rumbles around in rare form on the drums on this song. I think it’s what I always imagined Big Red Machine would sound like.”
How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is out 8/27 via Jagjaguwar/37d03d. Pre-order it here.
