The Mayflies USA’s decision to reunite for their fourth album in 30 years was precipitated by, of all things, a mystery illness. There’d been a few one-off reunion shows over the past decade, not to mention 2002’s Walking In A Straight Line, which would’ve made a damn-fine sendoff for the North Carolina power-pop stalwarts. Three years ago, guitarist Matt Long was leveled by an unexplained ailment that left him hospitalized.
“His whole system went insane, to the point where doctors said he would’ve been gone in a week had he not come in,” says singer/guitarist Matt McMichaels.
Long’s first request upon discharge: to record another Mayflies LP. Produced by longtime Connells sound engineer Tim Harper, everything on Kickless Kids (Yep Roc) is efficiently delivered, high-energy and catchy and hell—all Mayflies hallmarks. The band describes this “labor of love” as their most organic album to date.
Here’s more on each track from Long, McMichaels and bassist/singer Adam Price.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Thought The Rain Was Gone”
McMichaels: “This song came together almost like magic. We worked it out in band practice one afternoon and played it live for the first time that same night. People were singing along by the time we got to the second chorus. I used to buy lilies for my girlfriend, and it was only after we got married that she told me she’d always hated lilies because they drop their petals everywhere when they start to die. That image was my jumping-off point for a song about alienation and disconnection. I’d also been reading about Capgras syndrome, a disorder where you’re convinced that the people around you have been replaced by imposters. It turns out the flowers my wife really likes are gerbera daisies, so now I get her those instead.”
2) “Calling The Bad Ones Home”
Price: “This song is about a night from my teenage years when I may have consumed a little bit too much of a certain substance, and I found myself on the phone—an old-school landline with a curly cord, to paint the picture. Maybe it was the sister of a friend I’d called, then forgotten who I was calling? But I vividly remember, decades later, the feeling of being trapped on the line for eternity with this person, who started to warn me about the ‘Bad Ones’ who were coming. ‘The Bad Ones are coming home,’ she said. A terrible experience, but it provided inspiration for this song, which we approached with a somewhat counterintuitive, upbeat ’70s Steely Dan/Stones feel, including slap bass and a funk clavinet.
3) “Kickless Kids”
McMichaels: “I wrote this one about being a teenager in Asheville, N.C., and the constant quest to find something to do—something to make you feel alive. My friends and I shared the feeling that the world—or our world, anyway—didn’t really work the way it was supposed to. I remember reading an interview with Paul Westerberg where he was asked why the Replacements were so self-destructive in their early years, and he just said, “We were knuckleheads.” That was me … Still is, probably. This song seems to capture the overall feeling of the album, so that’s why we made it the title track.”
4) “Railway Spine”
McMichaels: “Train accidents were apparently really common back in the 1800s. When people were traumatized after a train accident but didn’t have any apparent physical injuries, the condition was called ‘railway spine.’ Nowadays, we call it PTSD. ‘Railway Spine’ is about survival and forgiveness in the face of decay and continual decline. I really like all the cryptic aphorisms at the end of the song. It’s like a priest who’s making up the sermon as he goes along. If you watch Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark” video on mute while listening to this song, you’ll leave your body and find yourself in a very strange place. Try it.”
5) “Less Lost”
Price: “For quite a while, my wife and I moved about twice a year—first to various apartments in Chapel Hill, then to Ithaca, N.Y., where we continued apartment jumping, and finally for a year in Iowa City, before moving back to North Carolina. ‘Less Lost’ is about that feeling of displacement and rootlessness, and the yearning we often felt to return home to Carrboro. Appropriately enough, it’s the only song on Kickless Kids featuring our beloved original drummer, David Liesegang.”
6) “Cabbagetown”
Price: “Cabbagetown is a historic neighborhood of Atlanta, a city the Mayflies played many times when we were touring in the late ’90s and early aughts. It’s become gentrified in recent years but has a rich history as a haven for artists and bohemians. The song, like several on the album, is written from the perspective of a former druggie freak looking back with a kind of wistful, ironic grandiosity on his glory days. As a point of minor Mayflies trivia, it’s the only song in the catalog to feature anything approaching a drum solo.”
7) “Jewel Of Russia”
McMichaels: “This song came to me as I was walking back to my hotel after having many drinks at Russia House, a now-defunct bar and restaurant in Washington, D.C., that was all red-velvet curtains and hidden doorways. I may have been imagining my grandfather having a midlife nervous breakdown on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Or thinking about my tallest friend falling a very long way and breaking. I don’t know—I wasn’t there.”
8) “Summer Kept Slippin’”
Long: “I wrote this on vacation with my family in the summer of 2022. I’d just gone through a pretty terrible medical episode that dumped me in the hospital for four days, and I was having long conversations with myself about my own mortality. My head was in a pretty introspective place. While this was happening, I read about an old next-door neighbor and friend from my college and post-college days living in Chapel Hill whose younger brother had just died of an OD. I also found out that her older brother’s wife had died recently. I was reflecting on how terribly fragile life was and how quickly things can go sideways. I always keep a guitar close, because you never know when inspiration will strike. One afternoon, with all these thoughts swirling around my mind, I picked up my trusty acoustic, Rosa Lee, and this song just happened. Was it worth the four days in the hospital? No. But I am glad it exists.”
9) “Come On Down”
Price: “The writing of the songs on Kickless Kids spans two-plus decades. ‘Come On Down’ is probably the oldest song on the album, originally written and demoed during the Pity List recordings. It’s a country song. The Mayflies have always been associated with classic power pop, but I love country music—and it’s always been a subtle stylistic influence on a lot of our stuff. ‘Come On Down,’ however, is 100-percent Americana. If the chords and melody don’t make that clear enough, we brought in the great Greg Readling (Chatham County Line), who plays a gorgeous pedal-steel track. Greg also graces the album on Matt’s song, ‘Summer Kept Slippin’.’”
10) “Twilight’s Alright”
McMichaels: “This one’s about that strange sense of powerlessness that comes from watching someone you love drifting away. All you can do is catalog the memories and try to hold on to whatever’s left.”
11) “Roll It Down The Line”
Price: “Aging is a theme we return to frequently on Kickless Kids, and it felt appropriate to end the album with a song about the big guy himself, Mr. Death. It’s not only about death. It’s maybe more about inevitability—the way you ultimately can’t escape yourself and follow yourself the whole way to the grave. But it’s also about death … cheerfully. Ironically enough, it was largely captured live. Tim hit record as Tony, Matt and I did a run-through with me on acoustic guitar warbling out a scratch vocal. It was late, we’d had a few drinks, and the run-through caught exactly the right loose mood and feel. Later on, we brought in the ‘Mayflies Singers,’ some select friends and family, to give it the valedictory vibe we were looking for … loved ones singing at a drunken wake.”
