Greg Freeman Sets the Terms with "Cahokia"
Words by Matt Keenan
Photo Credit: Gabe Long
Greg Freeman is back with "Cahokia," the first single off his upcoming album All Set The Bone, out October 2nd via Transgressive/Canvasback. It arrives with a 16mm video from Gabe Long, shot in New York this past summer.
The song opens the record and sets its terms. Named for the ancient Indigenous mound-building civilization that rose along the Mississippi near present-day Illinois and later vanished, "Cahokia" uses that history as a warning — consumerism, climate dread, and creeping authoritarianism folding into each other until it's hard to tell who's driving the cycle and who's caught in it.
Freeman wrote and recorded the album after leaving Burlington for a remote stretch of the Southwest and stepping away from day jobs to focus on music full-time — upheaval that shows up in songs about people barely hanging on. Musically, it carries traces of early Pavement and Fugazi, pushed into stranger, more idiosyncratic territory: guitar freakouts, horns, psych detours, constant key changes. It was recorded with John Congleton.
As Freeman puts it: every album's supposed to scare you a little.
All Set The Bone is out October 2nd. Freeman is currently on a run of European festival dates, with a long US/Canada tour kicking off in October — full list below.
Watch "Cahokia" now, and check out the previously released "Indu" video if you haven't already.
Greg Freeman — Tour Dates
08/27 — Paris, FR @ Supersonic
08/28 — Eindhoven, NL @ Hit the City Festival
08/29 — Vlieland, NL @ Into The Great Wide Open
10/20 — Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
10/22 — Toronto, ON @ The Mod Club
10/23 — Lakewood, OH @ Mahall's
10/24 — Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
10/25 — Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon *
10/27 — St. Paul, MN @ Amsterdam Bar & Hall
10/28 — Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge
10/30 — Denver, CO @ Marquis $
10/31 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court $
11/02 — Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern $
11/03 — Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater $
11/05 — San Francisco, CA @ The Independent $
11/06 — South Pasadena, CA @ Sid The Cat Auditorium $
11/07 — San Diego, CA @ Voodoo Room at House of Blues San Diego $
11/10 — Austin, TX @ Antone's Nightclub #
11/11 — Dallas, TX @ Club Dada #
11/13 — Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade – Purgatory Stage #
11/14 — Asheville, NC @ Eulogy ^
11/15 — Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall ^
11/16 — Washington, DC @ The Atlantis ^
11/18 — Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church ^
11/20 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall ^
11/21 — South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground Ballroom ^
* w/ Hello Shark ` w/ Walker Rider $ w/ Trinity Ace # w/ Touch Girl Apple Blossom ^ w/ Robber Robber
