In 2004, when Chapel Hill, N.C. resident Django Haskins lifted the name of his new band from the title of one of Leonard Cohen’s most beloved albums — the ’70s classic New Skin for the Old Ceremony — it could have been viewed as foolhardy bravado or a case of brilliant foresight. Given The Old Ceremony’s decade-plus history with a consistent lineup, its unbroken string of routinely excellent albums and press kit crammed with glowing reviews, the latter would seem the obvious conclusion.
While a member of International Orange, Haskins envisioned an orchestral collective with the ability to perform music beyond the ken of typical Rock bands. After securing a local residency, Haskins and The Old Ceremony honed its unique Chamber Pop sound, becoming one of Chapel Hill’s most popular live attractions. Mere months after assembling, The Old Ceremony wrote, recorded and released its eponymous debut album and hit the road.
Over the next seven years, the quintet released one incredible album after another (including 2006’s Our One Mistake, widely acknowledged as one of that year’s best, and 2012’s Fairytales and Other Forms of Suicide, the band’s excellent debut for Yep Roc Records) and toured with The Avett Brothers, Cake, The Polyphonic Spree and many others.
Also in 2012, Haskins returned to Europe (the band’s inaugural European tour had taken place the previous year) with members of Big Star, R.E.M., The dB’s, The Posies, Robyn Hitchcock, Ray Davies and others for a series of shows celebrating the genius of Big Star’s Sister Lovers/Third album. That association paid major dividends on The Old Ceremony’s new album, the just-released Sprinter, which features contributions from producer Mitch Easter, arranger/dB’s spark plug Chris Stamey and R.E.M. bassist/vocalist Mike Mills, all of whom weave fascinating new colors and textures into the band’s musical richness.
With Sprinter, Haskins and The Old Ceremony tap into a deeper vein of Pop diversity, accessing the likes of My Morning Jacket, World Party, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Whitley and Spoon, while never abandoning a molecule of its own hard-fought identity. Perhaps this is the new skin that The Old Ceremony has been working toward all along.
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2015.
