Two years ago, Nick Lowe had almost convinced himself that his days of making records
were over. As detailed in a lengthy retrospective feature in Rolling Stone this past December,
Lowe had ridden into 2018 astride a storied forty-plus year career as an artist, producer
and one of the most-revered songwriters of his generation. But suddenly, the affable rockernext- door felt he had to step back to take stock of his situation.

“And then along came the Straitjackets.”

That’s Los Straitjackets, America’s beloved masked men of surf-and-spy guitar instrumentals.
Propelled by last year’s well-received Tokyo Bay / Crying Inside EP (Conan O’Brien
personally chose them to perform “Tokyo Bay” on the show’s final week of music bookings,
before changing to its new 30-minute format), Lowe returns this spring with three crackling
new originals “Love Starvation,” “Blue on Blue” and “Trombone,” plus a cover of an
obscure Phil Spector-produced gem, “Raincoat in the River.”