Young Widows

Young Widows formed in Louisville, Kentucky during 2006 when the remaining members of Breather Resist—guitarist Evan Patterson, previously of Black Cross and the National Acrobat among other local groups, bassist Nick Thieneman, and drummer Geoff Paton—decided to continue after singer Steve Sindoni’s amicable departure from that band in December 2005. Patterson assumed lead vocals, and the trio entered the studio the following April intending to cut a second Breather Resist album, yet the emerging material diverged sharply from the metallic hardcore aggression of their earlier work. Consequently they retired the Breather Resist name and catalog entirely, adopting instead the moniker Young Widows for a fresh project whose initial recordings leaned toward noise-rock textures reminiscent of the Jesus Lizard and Shellac while shedding much of the prior metallic edge.

Their debut album, Settle Down City, appeared on Jade Tree in September 2006 and drew additional inspiration from Hoover and the Melvins for its dark, reverb-heavy sound and moody post-punk grooves. Roughly two weeks of U.S. touring preceded the release, after which the band crossed to Europe alongside Seattle’s Akimbo. Drummer Jeremy McMonigle later replaced Paton, and the resulting lineup recorded Old Wounds by assembling live and studio takes under producer Kurt Ballou’s guidance; the album surfaced in September 2008 on Temporary Residence after the band cited insufficient support from Jade Tree. During 2009 they issued a sequence of split singles featuring collaborators from Bonnie Prince Billy to Melt-Banana, followed in 2010 by Robotic Empire’s limited LP Live Radio Performance April 6, 2009.

Over subsequent years the group’s listening habits shifted toward slower, atmospheric acts such as Pink Floyd and Smog, prompting the measured tempos of 2011’s In and Out of Youth and Lightness and the expansive, brooding atmospheres of 2014’s Easy Pain. In 2018 they assembled Decayed: Ten Years of Cities, Wounds, Lightness, and Pain, a retrospective collection of non-album recordings spanning their first decade.