Description
Release Date Friday 2nd October 2026
All pre-orders will be dispatched/made ready for collection on that day.
Stone Age Is Now: Poems from Lithic is the new album by musician and poet Caleb Nichols - both a companion piece to his book Lithic: A Hyperballad (Harbor Editions 2026) and a follow-up to his album Stone Age Is Back (Royal Oakie 2025). Across twelve tracks Nichols interpolates poems from Lithic: A Hyperballad with tracks from Stone Age Is Back, bringing new depth to his indie-rock and alt-folk compositions. A meditation on grief, but not in the ways you’d expect, the album explores what it means to be living and dying right now, in this moment of extraordinary change.
Inspired by the raw immediacy of Neil Young, early REM, and Califone, Nichols adhered to a first-take best-take rule and tracked the album in just five days. Produced by Nichols, the album was engineered by Jay Pellicci (Deerhoof, Om, Sleater-Kinney) at Brother’s (Chinese) Recording in Oakland, CA, with Nichols later recording the spoken word overdubs after hours at an empty bar in San Luis Obispo, CA. Pellicci later mixed the tracks and David Glasebrook (Patti Smith, Peter Case, Sugar Candy Mountain) mastered the album at The Garden Shed in Oakland, CA.
Featuring even more experimentation than Stone Age Is Back, the album is peppered with field recordings captured by Nichols from many locations, including Kew Gardens, London; Llan Tysilio, Yns Mon; Treborth, Gwynedd; a secret beach in Bangor; Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow; and Broad Street in San Luis Obispo, CA. In addition to contributions from band members John Metz and Aaron Kroeger, the album features saxophone by Lorenzo Coretese , and Rhys Trimble provides the Welsh translation and performance you hear on “Orme Dream At The Car Park”. Additionally, Nichols took some liberties adapting the poems from the book to the recordings. “You’ll notice that there are differences between the printed poems and the poems recorded here. That is because a poem is never finished and can exist in multiple instances at the same time, like in quantum mechanics. The cat in Schrodinger’s box is both alive and dead; at the bottom of the cliff, our eyes are both: closed and open” says Nichols.
Royal Oakie Records is proud to release Stone Age Is Now: Poems from Lithic, available worldwide on vinyl LP, CD, and digital formats.
“…slightly-off-kilter indie rock vibe that makes you think of Elliott Smith or early Modest Mouse….it’s quietly devastating.” - Psychedelic Baby Magazine
“…captivates in its balance of moodiness and replay-inducing hooks…” - Obscure Sound
"There’s a particular historicity in Caleb’s poetry. It’s a here-and-now which resonates with a queer clarity that lands on timelessness. It doesn’t get more relevant. - Roddy Bottum of Faith No More, Imperial Teen, Man On Man
“Caleb Nichols’ formally restless and inventive poems are “equal parts sex and salvation,” filled with queer desire and bitter sweet elegy for the planet.” - Colin Herd
Tracklisting:
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