Jake Bellows — the leader of Omaha’s Neva Dinova and man behind one of our favorite tunes, “Spring Cleaning” — has a debut solo record out this summer. Titled New Ocean, the album marks a return to releasing music for Bellows, who had moved down to L.A. and sold his Les Paul to buy a Datsun pickup (not unlike Neil Young in “Out on the Weekend”). He put 18 demos to tape before heading out, though, and joined collaborators for a drive that fall “in a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle that didn’t have heat, a speedometer, a fuel gauge, seatbelts, or radio. They made it as far as Lincoln, NE, before the car caught fire at 4 in the morning.” Bellows, Heath Koontz, the Faint’s Todd Fink, Whispertown’s Morgan Nagler, Ryan Fox, and Ben Brodin made it to ARC Studios for a quick-paced session soon after. There’s more to the backstory, but that part, in addition to being a longtime fan of this guy, works for me.
Saddle Creek are releasing pre-orders of New Ocean on July 23rd. In the meantime, here’s a track Bellows shared on a preview EP earlier this year — it isn’t a proper single, but this album cut, “Help,” is very promising regardless. Hear it below with the LP’s trailer:
“Help”