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Nashville-based band Justin Webb andamp; The Noise is excited to share their new single “Desperate Man.” The track is the latest pre-release single to be releases from their debut album, Stupid Young out on October 4 via Austin’s Chicken Ranch Records. The album was produced by Ben Folds/Hayes Carll bassist Jared Reynolds and engineered by Joe Costa at 3Sirens Studio in Nashville.


“Desperate Man” debuted today at Music Mecca and is on all streaming platforms for any playlist shares.


On the track, Justin Webb says:

"Desperate Man" was originally about the end of a relationship that you never wanted to leave.  Someone had left you, but you wanted them to know it was a mistake … and, you wanted them back — and one day you’d be back… and they’d realize then who you really are … and they’d love you - all talking to yourself in your own head…

Over the years the meaning of the song changed for me.  It became more about my relationship with music and wanting to get back out there.  Again - just in my own head and wanting to return to something that may have left me behind at some point.  I think it’s something anyone can relate to.  We all have goals or relationships (people, art , careers, or whatever) that have ended, and we think, sometimes in our own minds (or maybe screaming inside an empty car) that— “They don’t know what they missed out on.  I’ll be back.”

“Desperate Man” follows the release of the album’s lead single, “A Rose To Chew On,” which Glide Magazine described as “a warping rock ballad that begins with a slow burn before exploding into blistering rock,” praising the band’s revival of authentic rock elements with a modern twist.

In addition to the single release, Justin Webb andamp; The Noise will celebrate their album launch with a hometown release show on October 10 at The Basement in Nashville. Tickets for the show are available HERE. 

Stupid Young is a testament to the enduring spirit of rock ‘n’ roll. Justin Webb andamp; The Noise comprises three former members of Nashville garage powerhouse We Were The States, including Webb on guitar andamp; vocals and co-lead guitarists Ben Moore – who also had a stint in Bully – and Will Pettus. Ben’s siblings, drummer Bryan Moore and bassist BJay Moore, both veterans of Only, round out the lineup. 

“My favorite thing about this record is that the five of us went to the studio, and we were there for two eight-hour days,” says Webb, clearly excited to be rockin’ again following a hiatus to raise a family and clear his head.

“We recorded all the music in the same room together at the same time, with no click track,” he continues. “And that, to me, that feeling — is what music has always been about.”

“That last States record was pretty overproduced. I can remember doing so many vocal takes on stuff, and obviously the click track. It took the fun and the feeling out of it a little bit. And so with this record, when we went in to record it, I wanted us all to have the best time possible and just play some rock ‘n’ roll, you know? So we all set up in the same room and we did all but one song on the first day. I think it was around eight hours or something like that. We did all but one song, and ran out of time. Came back the next day and knocked the last one out. We had so much fun laying those down with Jared and Joe.”

The origins of Stupid Young trace back to a SXSW showcase invitation from Mike Dickinson, owner of Chicken Ranch Records. The label was We Were The States’ previous home, and he took a chance that Webb was ready to play again, in some small fashion. Dickinson very casually suggested Webb should “maybe just play some old songs, maybe play some new stuff that I'd been working on, just to kind of hang out.”

“He recorded the whole set and everything while we were down there,” continues Webb. “And he messaged me after watching one of the videos and said, ‘Hey, I kind of like some of the stuff that you've been working on. Would you want to try to get into the studio and record some of it?’”

The main song piquing Dickinson’s interest was the title track, “Stupid Young.” 

“Hayes Carll is my favorite current songwriter,” Webb enthuses. “I love Hayes Carll's lyrics. So for our anniversary, my wife sent me a message from Hayes.  In the video, he said she told him that we got married ‘stupidly young.’ Hayes then said ‘I'm probably gonna steal that for one of my songs.’ After he said that, I said, ‘No, he's not – I am!’ 

“That song pretty much speaks for itself, as far as the lyrics. Those are real life experiences, in the bridge and in the song. Little did I know that the bass player for Hayes Carll [Jared Reynolds, also formerly with Ben Folds] was going to end up producing the record. I got Will and Ben involved right away, because they still live around here and they're my closest friends.  Then, then it only made sense at that point to talk to Bryan and BJay, who are Ben’s brothers.”

A lot of woodshedding went in before Webb andamp; The Noise entered Nashville’s 3 Sirens Studio. At this point, the band had not even played a single note before a live audience, going against standard rock ‘n’ roll thinking. The sessions might not have gone so well without solid material for Webb, the Moores and Pettus to work with. The bandleader admits that these songs, “for the most part,” hatched during his time away from music.

“There's one or two that I probably first had thoughts about when I was 19 years old,” he elaborates. “The other six are probably more from that hiatus, for sure.”

Opening track “Desperate Man,” with a pulse like Brian Jones-era Rolling Stones, began as a lament for a lost love. It morphed over time into an epitaph.

“The [original] words were actually ‘she left me,’ instead of ‘they left me,” emphasizes Webb. “It was more about wanting so badly to be with someone that had left you behind. Over time, being away from playing music changed the meaning of the song. It changed more to my relationship with music and wanting to come back to it, and wanting people to enjoy it.” 

Webb had a solo version of “Desperate Man”, with parts he liked. But, once The Noise fell together, they transformed the song into “more of what I had hoped it would be.”

The first single, “A Rose To Chew On,” is a good example of the transformative alchemy The Noise performs on Webb’s material. 

“I was thinking about being stuck in a destructive relationship in the middle of nowhere, between two people with bad habits that can't help themselves,” he explains. “Those that do care about them know they aren't good for each other. Ultimately it's the comfort of what you know without seeing or pushing to get on the other side of it.”

The track commences as a shambling blues/country bar band ode to a lover who “crawls just like a beat up truck” and “talks cause she’s had too much.” But with the first chorus – “I don’t mind what the old birds say” – Webb and The Noise ignite it with all the propulsion and soaring atmospherics of 1979 Clash. Except Mick Jones would never have laid on the Ebow hook, reminiscent of David Bowie’s “Heroes,” that Ben Moore stitches throughout “Rose.”

And so it goes, for all eight tracks.

Stupid Young is steeped in the turn-of-the-21st-Century post-Strokes moment when bands drawing on ‘60s garage and late ‘70s punk, such as The White Stripes and The Hives, pushed rap metal off the radio. There might even be the slightest hint of the widescreen technicolor of bands like U2 or Oasis. Except this music has a Southern accent – these are Tennessee boys, after all. Most appreciably, you will not find a single gated snare or or a drop of digital reverb on any inch of this record.

Stupid Young Tracklist

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1. Desperate Man

2. Let’s Do It Again

3. Stupid Young

4. A Rose To Chew On 

5. The Cups

6. Somewhere Between 

7. Remember Me

8. Good Enough