To introduce Matt Sweeney and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy in any way other than kook geniuses seems a disservice. That they are. Kooks and geniuses. I know neither of them personally, so I say this based entirely on their public appearances. The prolific Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – real name Will Oldham – is a character in and of himself. He looks like he came down from the Appalachian Mountains with his banjo strapped to his back, eager to play a beautiful song while drinking whiskey and make fun of you. Matt Sweeney is an incredible guitarist. He's played in too many bands to reference, most notably Zwans. If you've seen Iggy Pop live in the last handful of years, he's the guy playing lead guitar. Back in 2005, these two collaborated on an album that would go on to be cherished, obsessed over, and thrown into the vault of cult classics by anyone with good taste and appreciation for independent music. The album was called Superwolf.

At the time, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy was, quite literally, a music making machine. Matt Sweeney was producing and collaborating on too many albums to count. The album wasn’t “properly” promoted, whatever that means. But the absolute lack of press and touring and coverage almost added to the extreme cult status of it all. If you knew about the album, or even the collaboration of these two kook geniuses, it was either word of mouth or local shows (probably at Max Fish) or a recommendation from your guy at the local skate shop. Spotify didn't exist. Instagram didn't exist. How did we find out about music back in those days?

Fast forward to 2021, last week to be specific, and the Superwolf name was suddenly floating around and flashing on screens in ways it never before had a chance. Only this time, the name was Superwolves. "Implying," as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy explains in a recent GQ interview, "that we have gone forth and multiplied."

The news of their latest album in 16 years came with a video of lead single, "Resist the Urge," directed by Kevin "Spanky" Long and Atiba Jefferson. If you're familiar with Spanky's Instagram feed, it's a reminder of his insane creative abilities, cutting and resizing and manipulating footage to bring a surreal experience to what would ordinarily be a sick clip. "Spanky and Atiba's video rules," says Bonnie 'Prince' Billy in the press release. "We try and make the listener feel insanely at home in a musical space. Atiba and Spanky have made us feel like we own a share of the skateable world." –Maya Eslami

Listen to more Superwolves here.