Biography
New Orleans-based indie pop outfit Generationals craft hook-filled tunes that draw liberally from rock and pop's '50s, '60s, and '70s heyday, while maintaining a modern sensibility. Emerging in the late 2000s, the band built upon their earlier popularity as members of the Eames Era, issuing albums like 2009's Con Law and 2011's Actor-Caster. After signing to Polyvinyl, they hit Billboard's Heatseekers Chart with both 2013's Heza and 2014's Alix. Following the year-long 2018 singles compilation, State Dogs: Singles 2017-2018, they delivered 2019's Reader as Detective and 2023's Heatherhead.
Guitarists and songwriters Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer launched Generationals in 2007 once their prior project, Eames Era, dissolved. Sharing ground with early labelmates Dr. Dog, Spinto Band, and Capitol Years, the pair favored a lo-fi approach that their strong musicianship elevated, yielding a fresh spin on sugar pop psychedelia. Their Park the Van debut, Con Law, landed in July 2009, with the equally saccharine follow-up Actor-Caster arriving two years later.
The duo shifted to Polyvinyl for their third LP, Heza, then issued the '80s synth pop-leaning Alix in 2014; both projects registered on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. To mark the label's twentieth anniversary in 2016, Generationals contributed a cover of "In Green" by Volcano, I'm Still Excited!! to the Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl collection.
State Dogs: Singles 2017-2018 arrived in 2018 as a roundup of tracks cut and released one by one throughout the preceding year. Around that time Widmer relocated to Wisconsin while Joyner stayed in New Orleans, yet the pair kept writing and recording through file exchanges. They resurfaced in 2019 with Reader as Detective, highlighted by the single "I Turned My Back on the Written Word."
By 2021 the two reconvened in Athens, Georgia, to lay down material straight to tape. Though the sessions felt inspiring, the results dissatisfied them, so the project was set aside. They later revived it, tracking partly solo and partly together at Widmer's Wisconsin residence before completing the record remotely with multi-instrumentalist and producer Nick Krill. Heatherhead emerged in June 2023, presenting a captivating mix of textural indie pop built on guitars and synths, including the track "Elena" with guest Sarah Jaffe.
Guitarists and songwriters Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer launched Generationals in 2007 once their prior project, Eames Era, dissolved. Sharing ground with early labelmates Dr. Dog, Spinto Band, and Capitol Years, the pair favored a lo-fi approach that their strong musicianship elevated, yielding a fresh spin on sugar pop psychedelia. Their Park the Van debut, Con Law, landed in July 2009, with the equally saccharine follow-up Actor-Caster arriving two years later.
The duo shifted to Polyvinyl for their third LP, Heza, then issued the '80s synth pop-leaning Alix in 2014; both projects registered on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. To mark the label's twentieth anniversary in 2016, Generationals contributed a cover of "In Green" by Volcano, I'm Still Excited!! to the Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl collection.
State Dogs: Singles 2017-2018 arrived in 2018 as a roundup of tracks cut and released one by one throughout the preceding year. Around that time Widmer relocated to Wisconsin while Joyner stayed in New Orleans, yet the pair kept writing and recording through file exchanges. They resurfaced in 2019 with Reader as Detective, highlighted by the single "I Turned My Back on the Written Word."
By 2021 the two reconvened in Athens, Georgia, to lay down material straight to tape. Though the sessions felt inspiring, the results dissatisfied them, so the project was set aside. They later revived it, tracking partly solo and partly together at Widmer's Wisconsin residence before completing the record remotely with multi-instrumentalist and producer Nick Krill. Heatherhead emerged in June 2023, presenting a captivating mix of textural indie pop built on guitars and synths, including the track "Elena" with guest Sarah Jaffe.
Albums
Half Hearted
2024
Heatherhead
2023
ILEANA
2021
Reader As Detective
2019
State Dogs: Singles 2017-18
2018
Alix
2014
Heza
2013
Singles
