The Lawrence Arms’ Chris McCaughan revisits childhood in this exclusive Sundowner song 

The past few years have seen a number of punks discover a predilection for solo-acoustic folk-rock; Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music even gathered a bunch of them up—like Tim Barry of Avail and Kevin Seconds of 7 Seconds—for his annual Revival Tour. Chris McCaughan of The Lawrence Arms has performed on that tour as Sundowner, his rootsy side project.

Next week, McCaughan releases Neon Fiction, his third album under the Sundowner moniker, via The Lawrence Arms’ ancestral homeland, Fat Wreck Chords. Today we’re premiering its opening track, “Cemetery West,” named for the Chicago neighborhood where McCaughan grew up. He had this to say about the song:

I was born in Chicago. The kind of place that lives in your blood and bones. And I did grow up, like the song says, in a northside neighborhood just west of a cemetery. [Daniel] Burnham is buried there. So “Cemetery West” is a song of origins, of half-truths, of histories that live with us as we create new ones. It’s about an unalterable past and uncertain future, about choosing to find a way forward with the darkness on your heels. Maybe, more simply, it’s about a trigger that finally clicks over after so many years of your index finger poised against it.

Neon Fiction comes out September 3 and is available for preorder.