East River Pipe Preps <i>We Live in Rented Rooms</i>

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Nov 23, 2010

Since he started recording in the early '90s, FM Cornog (aka Fred Cornog) has put together a number of achingly depressing albums under his nom de plume East River Pipe. Throughout his career, the one-time Sarah Records signee has crafted countless tunes on cheap portable studio equipment that chronicled a lifetime of depression and substance abuse. While it's unclear exactly what the singer will be on about on his upcoming album We Live in Rented Rooms, his label home of Merge explains that, personally, the musician seems to be in a better space.

A press release from the label explains that while East River Pipe "has painted his America as a neon-lit wasteland filled with deluded losers, cheats, junkies, ultra-capitalist businessmen, freeway-roaming dreamers, and the tragically fated," the artist has a pretty solid home life these days. While he once bunked in a Hoboken, NJ train station, he has lived happily with his wife Barbara Powers, whom he met in that unfortunate situation, and their eight-year-old daughter for quite some time. When not putting his hours in at a local Home Depot, the singer is hard at work on his music.

Despite his good fortunes, Cornog can still craft some heart-tugging tunes. "Cold Ground," the first cut to be leaked from East River Pipe's seventh full-length, wisps tranquil walls of white noise around some folky strums, making for another melancholic addition to a hefty back catalogue. The track can be grabbed for freehere courtesy of Merge.

We Live in Rented Rooms will be released February 15.

Latest Coverage