Band of Horses finds youthful inspiration for 5th album

UPDATE: Nov. 5

Due to illness, tonight's Band of Horses show set for Old National Centre has been postponed until Nov. 28. Previously purchased tickets will be honored.

Original story

For his band’s fifth album, Band of Horses singer and songwriter Ben Bridwell had to merge his band’s well-marinated vibe of thoughtfully deployed indie-rock disenchantment with the most rock ’n’ roll of modern-guy topics: his bunch of kids.

The father of four young girls, Bridwell leaned heavily into his role as dad for the band’s “Why Are You OK.” The album is steeped in the Charleston, S.C.-centered band’s dreamy, gently crashing sound that comes, as always, with a kiss of country. But his role as father and husband informs the record, too, and not just because of how he had to write and record it.

Here are five things to know in advance of the band’s Nov. 5 show at the Old National Centre:

1. “Why Are You OK” features assists from a strong roster of indie-rock notables. It was produced by Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle, executive produced by Rick Rubin and features work by Dinosaur Jr. mastermind J Mascis.

2. The prevailing songwriting archetype involves a satisfying cavern of solitude, the writer vanishing into a wood-fired cabin or some mountain lair and emerging with some majestically conceived Zen masterpiece. This is generally impossible for a guy with four daughters. As such, Bridwell wrote “Why Are You OK” basically in the thick of the fathering process, between play times and diaper changes and beach trips. (The song “In a Drawer,” for instance, was started about seven years ago. “I could just never figure out how to write the dang thing," he told Rolling Stone in May. "I could never push it over the hill. It was a boulder, you know?”)

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3. Which is not to say this is a record about how awesome Diaper Genies are. (Editor’s note: They are.) First single “Casual Party” is ostensibly about being stuck with a bunch of strangers at a game/dance/PTO meeting making stifling small talk. To perform the track on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in May, Band of Horses involved a backing cast of puppet hype men. Dancers? Yeah, we have no idea, but they reprise their roles in the equally bonkers video.

4. As the story goes, Rubin wasn’t actually involved in the record until he heard a Band of Horses song on the radio, pulled the car over and made a call. As with most stories involving Rubin, details of the call are unavailable, but Bridwell says it essentially was the catalyst that pushed the record from notebook to completion.

5. That title? It’s the autocorrect version of some words his daughter mashed on his wife’s phone. But it makes a fantastic album title anyway.

If you go:

When: 7 p.m. Nov. 5, Old National Centre, 502 N. New Jersey St.

Tickets: $35

Info: www.livenation.com