The North Country Share New Single 'Procrastinator'

Washington, D.C.-based experimental pop band The North Country will release their new EP Born at the Right Time (Exquisite Corpse) on July 15 via Misra (pre-order).

A follow-up to 2020's America and Afterwards the new EP, written and recorded entirely remotely during the height of the Covid lockdowns, marks a new stage of creativity and collaboration for the band.

Today, the band is pleased to share "Procrastinator" the first single to be lifted from Born at the Right Time (Exquisite Corpse). The song and official video, which was directed by The North Country's guitarist Jon Harmon, debuted today at Music Mecca and can also be shared at YouTube. The single will also be available this Friday on all streaming platforms for any playlist shares.

On the video Jon Harmon says:
We wanted to make something cheeky about the impulsive scrolling that has become muscle memory for so many of us who interact with social media. The best laid plans are often waylaid by the promise of novelty only a swipe away. The scrolling feed becomes its own piece of media, fragments stitched together determined by our own participation, simultaneously disorienting and hypnotically homogenous.

The North Country have also announced several east coast tour dates where they will make the live debut of songs from Born at the Right Time (Exquisite Corpse). The upcoming tour will include shows in May in Philadelphia, Norfolk, Washington, D.C., and Charlottesville, VA. All upcoming shows are listed below.

2020 was going to be The North Country's year. After the successful release of two singles, "Future Humans" and "Freaks," sold out release shows in D.C. and New York and a tour to SXSW coming up, the band was gearing up to share their music and brimming with optimism. Then Covid struck. Just as it did for literally everyone else on planet earth, the rude awakening halted all momentum, forcing the band to cancel their tour, just two days before they were set to play their first show.

The lockdowns were a clarifying moment for everyone and for The North Country it was no different. While some bands paused, and some fizzled out, the shared disappointment of having to stop everything only strengthened the bonds within the band. Between outdoor rehearsals in freezing cold weather and regular Google hangs, the band persevered through the lockdown and sought to collaborate and redefine what it meant to be in a band in a time when literally being in the same room with someone had the potential to be a serious health hazard.

Determined to still collaborate, and desperate to stave off the monotony of endless netflix scrolls, the band came up with the idea for the project that would become Born at the Right Time (Exquisite Corpse), a true covid-lockdown record, written and recorded completely collaboratively and completely remotely using only home studio equipment.

The process was this: each member of the band would write and record a short piece of music then send it to one other person in the band. Then they would work on it, adding to it for one week and then pass it along to one other person in the band. Using a 6x6 matrix of non-repeating numbers in rows and columns they set up a schedule so that each piece of music was passed to a new person in the band, in a unique order, and each person sent to and received from someone new each week. Nobody heard the whole thing until the very end.

The rules were simple: One or two ideas added per round. Ideas can be instrumental, structural, lyrical. Don't be afraid to get weird.

Watch the new music video here:

The North Country Tour Dates

May 19 - Philadelphia @ The Pharmacy
May 20 - Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong
May 21 - Norfolk, VA @ Chichos Backstage
May 22 - Charlottesville, VA @ Champion Brewery

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