Modern Baseball

Co-songwriters Brendan Lukens and Jacob Ewald fronted Philadelphia indie quartet Modern Baseball, which surfaced in the mid-2010s with a blend of melodic pop-punk, emo, classic indie rock, and acoustic punk. The group advanced from modest college-band origins to worldwide notice after signing with Run for Cover Records, whose release of the band’s third LP, Holy Ghost, in 2016 drew broad critical praise and registered on charts in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.

Lukens and Ewald launched the project at Drexel University in Philadelphia in 2012, shaping catchy pop-punk-inflected indie rock that echoed Say Anything and Motion City Soundtrack while drawing on the confessional style of Dashboard Confessional and the humor of the Front Bottoms. The pair, already high-school friends, began as an acoustic duo until they recruited Sean Huber on drums and Ian Farmer on bass to complete the lineup. Their first album, Sports, circulated locally before lo-fi tracks that captured teenage unease amid social media gained wider attention online in 2013. While still enrolled at university the members scheduled tours around classes, a routine interrupted when they landed an opening slot with fellow Philadelphia act the Wonder Years. That opportunity led to a contract with Run for Cover Records and a return to the studio for the follow-up, You’re Gonna Miss It All, issued in 2014. An EP titled MOBO Presents: The Perfect Cast EP featuring Modern Baseball appeared on Lame-O Records the next year, followed in May 2016 by the third studio album, Holy Ghost. Working for the first time with outside producer Joe Reinhardt, the band embraced expansive stadium-rock gestures that produced their largest and most ambitious sound to date. In early 2017 Modern Baseball declared an indefinite hiatus prompted chiefly by mental-health concerns. Although the members reconvened for several performances that year, among them a one-off show alongside Daniel Johnston, subsequent songwriting energy moved toward Ewald’s Slaughter Beach, Dog project and Lukens’ solo material.