The Place We Ran From

Tired Pony, spearheaded by Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, is a collaborative project featuring the talents of R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and Belle and Sebastian's Richard Colburn, in addition to guest turns by She & Him's Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, Editors' Tom Smith, and more! Tired Pony began as a sketch in Gary Lightbody's imagination. During the idle moments on Snow Patrol's year-long tour for their acclaimed album A Hundred Million Suns, Gary began writing songs for an imaginary band. Upon the tour's completion, he decamped to Portland, Oregon's Type Foundry studio, inviting along Troy Stewart, a regular touring member of Snow Patrol; Iain Archer, a longtime Snow Patrol collaborator; Richard Colburn, Belle & Sebastian's drummer and former collaborator with Lightbody in Reindeer Section; and producer Garret Jacknife Lee (U2, Bloc Party), who helped to recruit Tired Pony's final two members: Peter Buck from R.E.M. and Scott McCaughey, R.E.M.'s full-time auxiliary member since 1994. Inspired by his love of Wilco, Calexico and more, Gary set out to make what could be called an American gothic album, a country-tinged gem that looked at the darkness of America. "I wanted to write a twisted love-letter to the States" is his way of explaining it, and oh, what a letter it is. Instituting a no more than two takes rule, the album was made quickly, with the entire recording session lasting only a week. At the end of it all, the players felt so close and so connected, they decided to take Tired Pony out of the studio and into the world. As Peter Buck puts it: "It certainly felt at the end of the week like it was a band, and that this was a good place to start. It would be crazy not to pursue this." A record of real resonance and cohesion. It's the best work Lightbody has done; Peter Buck hasn't been near anything this affecting in many a year either.