“Where words fail, music speaks.” – Hans Christian Andersen

Fifty thousand years ago, Thag Jones noticed a picture of his ex-girlfriend painted on the wall of a friend’s cave. She was depicted wearing an off-the-shoulder bearskin, and Thag recalled that magical day the previous year when they had foraged for grubs and non-poisonous berries along a stream that was befouled with wooly mammoth waste. “Me like,” Thag grunted, unfortunately within earshot of his current girlfriend, thus resulting in Thag, his spear, and his club being banished from the cave that the two of them shared. Sensing that he would soon be overwhelmed with loneliness, not to mention that he would soon freeze to death, Thag squatted before a hollow log, took up his club, and began to drum out a tattoo of despair…

Thag Jones may have been the first of our kind to lend musical shape to the amorphous fog of overwhelming loss. Fast forward to a more advanced but less civilized day, and The Rising Suns offer us “The Loneliest Space on Earth.” That loneliest space being your own head.

The singer recognizes that he’s in a bad mental spot, but he hasn’t completely written off the future. He just needs some help, and maybe an effective coping mechanism or two. Or three.

I don’t even know me
So how can you say that you do
If you hold my hand maybe
Maybe we’ll just see this through

The lyrics are starkly personal, void of picturesque allusions, closer in spirit to those of a singer-songwriter folkie than of an alternative punk. In the Obscure Reference Department, the lyrics bring to mind Making the Clocks Move-era Kevin Devine. Musically, the song is a mini-suite, with the theme being explored through multiple variations. The second verse, with a softly-strummed guitar nearly overwhelmed by powerful drums, was particularly arresting.

The Rising Suns, from Orlando, Florida, self-identify as “a punk-tinged alternative rock band, providing delicious rock n’ roll to the angst-starved masses of the world.” I imagine the nearby Disney World provides a solid supply of customers, though the Disney-goers I’ve observed were more angst-ridden than angst-starved. The Rising Suns are Jon Myers (vocals), Zach Jestus (guitar and backing vocals), Justin Sacharoff (bass and backing vocals) and Andrew Province (drums).

“The Loneliest Space on Earth,” written by Jon and Zach, is (ironically) from the new album, The Happiest Place on Earth, just released today. On their Bandcamp page, the group describes the album as “a thematically dense work dealing with loss, identity, mental illness and existential crisis [and] traversing a wide range of styles, from spacey, bass-driven grooves to guitar-led rebel anthems.” The Happiest Place on Earth is the group’s second effort. Their previous album, From Me To You, appeared in January 2016.

You can support deserving independent musicians like The Rising Suns by visiting their Bandcamp page and downloading your favorite tracks. And be sure to follow the band on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Special note: The excellent album art is by Ronni-Marie. Be sure to follow her on Instagram.