Piebald - Tales for the Rages

After nearly two decades without a full-length album, Piebald returns with Tales For The Rages – a record shaped slowly, honestly, and stubbornly over six years (2019-2025) of writing and recording. It’s their first studio album since 2007, arriving not only from a place of nostalgia, but mostly because the songs simply wouldn’t leave them alone.

Tracked in several marathon-turned-family-reunion sessions at The Den in North Reading, MA, the album was recorded and engineered by longtime friend and collaborator Doug Batchelder. Doug also helmed the band’s last studio record and their recent Christmas EP, making him an unofficial fifth member and producer whenever microphones are involved.

Ever since Piebald reunited in 2016, ideas kept piling up. Scraps of melody, half-muttered lyrics, and riffs that wouldn’t sit still. Tales For The Rages is the sum of all those moments, pulled together with the same anthemic spirit the band has carried since 1994, but with the perspective and shape of where they’ve been since. It picks up right where they left off, and somehow also moves forward.

The songs swing between heartfelt, clever, and delightfully ridiculous, basically, the classic Piebald cocktail. Under all the hooks and harmonies, a current of social awareness is flowing: reflections on how humans treat each other, the weirdness of the modern world, and the inequality that’s everywhere you look. They’re not giving a lecture, just trying to make sense of everything like everyone else, but with guitars.

In making this record, Piebald tried to go backwards to go forward. They revisited the spirit of their early work not to repeat it, but to reconnect with what made those songs matter, then push that energy into something that feels inclusive and relevant today.

They know fans will always hold the classics close. This album isn’t trying to replace them; it’s another chapter in a story that somehow keeps unfolding. If you told them years ago they’d be releasing a new record in 2026, they’d have said “No way.” Yet here they are, proud and grateful to share this next chapter with the world.

Tales For The Rages will be released on Iodine Recordings. The Boston label is  known for championing meaningful reissues from bands like Quicksand, and for helping preserve Piebald’s own catalog with multiple album reissues. This marks their first release of brand-new music on the label, and the band couldn’t imagine a more fitting home.

Formed in Massachusetts in the mid-1990s, Piebald built a lasting following through constant touring, sharp songwriting, and a distinct balance of melody, humor, and emotional honesty. Their catalog has remained influential across indie and alternative circles and continues to resonate with longtime listeners while being rediscovered by new audiences through reissues, streaming, and live appearances. Since reuniting, the band has remained active on stage and in the studio, steadily building momentum toward new material rather than revisiting the past. Tales For The Rages reflects that continued evolution, a record rooted in the band’s identity and positioned to connect just as strongly with listeners encountering Piebald for the first time.

“After years of reunion shows and the quiet accumulation of ideas, Tales For The Rages feels like a natural continuation of a story that never really ended. Written slowly and deliberately, it reconnects with what made Piebald’s music matter in the first place while reflecting the perspective that only time can bring.” – Iodine Recordings