Adam Cohen had been performing solo long before forming The Morning Sea, a group he founded with college friend and producer Tony Long, intent in revisiting and often updating the various aspects of traditional American music. In their seven song EP ‘Strange Captive,’ the band offers songs that are often fast paced, but never lose the intensity of the best folk music, nor shy away from occasionally pushing the rootsy envelop in interesting new direction. Take "Talk Yourself Down" for example (streaming): its country-ish sound is only an appearance: the song itself has nothing traditional to it, it could have been written by Radiohead during the ‘OK Computer’ years. ‘Bit My Tongue‘ is a similar experiment, but flirting with desert rock and spaghetti western aesthetics.
LINK: read Rebecca Blandon interview with The Morning Sea.