The Pretty Graves Photo credit: The Pretty Graves
There’s a place along Connecticut’s southern coast overlooking Long Island Sound, that has become a refuge for The Pretty Graves. It’s where the streets and marshes meet, a beautiful rise above the North Cove, drawing residents and passersby to pause and find beauty, tranquility, and peace. It used to be the town’s landfill.
There’s poetry in the location itself, a community crossroads of natural beauty perched atop a heap of waste in an area once discarded. It provides the inspiration and backdrop for the underground art-rock band’s debut single “Bending Reeds,” which The Big Takeover is exclusively premiering today ahead of its release Friday on L’Appel Du Vide Des Disques.
“Bending Reeds,” with its haunting sound, magnetic lyrical pull, and hypnotic swirl of streetwalkin’ swagger that twists and aches with indie rock grit, is the opening track and lead single to The Pretty Graves’ forthcoming debut album, a pure and throwback rock and roll record arriving just when we need it most, on May 8.
By the time the record hits, summoning the sonic ghosts of great American bands that came before, like The Velvet Underground, Pavement, Wilco, Elliott Smith, and Teenage Fanclub, that spot in the Lower River Valley will be bustling with springtime activity.
But it will remain The Pretty Graves’ own playground, appreciating the beauty and peace it brings, but knowing what once was was far dirtier and darker than what exists now in plain sight.
“That walk is an everyday thing for me,” says Pretty Graves’ frontman Christopher M. Listorti. “This song is about this place where I find peace, even when it seems like the world is crashing down all around me. I saw a finch perched on a bending reed in the marsh. It made me notice that all the reeds were bending from the past windy days. The song is a still life; the lyrics paint the picture.”
Bending in the storm of life but failing to break can define Listorti and the rest of the band, with the songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, and synth/keys player rounded out in The Pretty Graves by Hollis Dunlap on lead guitar and back-up vocals; Glen Metcalfe on drums and percussion; and Mike Pace on bass and Moog. The track, and the entire album, was recorded, mixed and mastered by Brian Charles and Annie Hoffman at Rare Signals in Cambridge, Mass.
Pace quite nicely sums up the mystical appeal of “Bending Reeds,” and how it ties back to that rehabilitated spot in Old Saybrook, adding: “A layer of beauty sitting atop a mountain of discarded waste is a perfect metaphor for our sound… ascending melody and harmony with a low bubbling dissonance rising to meet it.”
Creating The Pretty Graves’ distinctive sound, a fresh dose of indie rock, jangly slacker-pop, and ‘70s-coded detached cool that’s blessed by the spirits that came before and adrenalized by visions of the future for what underground rock should sound like, came fairly naturally for the quartet, which first formed out of the ashes of old projects and within the lonely spaces that the Covid pandemic created a few years ago.
“The Pretty Graves began when Glen and I decided to start something new after our old bandmates moved out of state,” Listorti adds. “We started rehearsing at our friend Mike’s place and asked him to play bass. Then we realized we wanted another guitar player, so I reached out to my longtime friend Hollis. I’m grateful to say the rest is history, and we’re still going strong.”
Like a fully assembled Voltron unit, the foursome has quickly reached creative cruising altitude, bringing together a gang of rock-and-roll lifers for a common cause. They channel the sounds of the past to conjure something pure for the present, doing so in a musical landscape off the beaten path between New York City and Boston.
Free from the push and pull of those cities’ scenes, The Pretty Graves can craft a musical spell on their terms, making space in their dusty ol’ record collections for their forthcoming debut, and proving that brash rock and roll with a cocksure swagger and arena ambitions is far from dead.
“The best part of being in The Pretty Graves is having a creative outlet with my friends,” Listorti reveals. “Our rehearsals and concerts are usually fun, therapeutic, and really fulfilling.” And with life the way it is in 2026, a lot of therapy is necessary.
The next bit of live performance remedy arrives April 16 when they play Scottish Dave’s in Clinton. From there, the Graves hit 33 Golden in New London on April 18; The Juke in Deep River on April 24; and The Oasis Room in New London’s Garde Arts Theatre on May 10.
The album’s record release party goes down May 16 at The Oasis Pub in New London, as Pretty Graves share the stage with Blood Handsome and Clone. It’s an aggressive schedule, but The Pretty Graves are made for the live stage. And they’re not slowing down anytime soon.
New music on the way? Pitch Big Takeover Exclusives.
