We are pleased to premiere ‘Foundlings,’ a new collection of rarities, covers and previously unreleased recordings from Dead Meadow.

‘Foundlings’ is not a conventional new Dead Meadow album. Its seven tracks were recorded at different points between 2002 and 2024, bringing together songs left behind from album sessions, one-off studio recordings and contributions to various tribute projects. Heard together, they form a loose history of the band across more than twenty years.

The recordings feature guitarist and vocalist Jason Simon and the late Steve Kille on bass, with Mark Laughlin and Stephen McCarty sharing the drum parts. They come from different periods and circumstances, but the character of the band remains immediately recognisable: Simon’s guitar moving between heavy riffs and drifting, effects-laden passages, Kille’s bass holding everything together, and the slow, natural pulse that has always been central to their music.

Among the covers are Powell St. John’s ‘Kingdom of Heaven,’ recorded during the Sonic Cathedral sessions, The Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows,’ dating from the sessions for ‘The Nothing They Need,’ and Led Zeppelin’s ‘No Quarter,’ originally recorded for a Cleopatra Records tribute. None of them sounds like a straightforward cover. Each is drawn into Dead Meadow’s own world and allowed to move at the band’s particular pace.

The remaining tracks come from sessions connected to ‘Voyager to Voyager,’ EarthQuaker Devices and the Committee to Keep Music Evil, where the band recorded with Anton Newcombe and Rob Campanella of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

There is also no getting around Steve Kille’s presence throughout the collection. Kille, who died in early 2024, had played alongside Simon since before Dead Meadow began and helped shape both the sound and visual identity of the band. ‘Foundlings’ does not turn these recordings into a formal memorial. It simply allows his playing, and the musical relationship at the heart of the group, to be heard again.

When we spoke with Jason Simon about the making of ‘Warble Womb,’ he explained that the band would play a song together until they arrived at something that simply felt like Dead Meadow. That same quality ties ‘Foundlings’ together. These recordings may have been separated by years, but none of them feels out of place.

‘Foundlings’ will be released on July 31 through Heavy Psych Sounds Records.