It’s getting hard to keep up with Peter Buck’s various music projects. The legendary R.E.M. guitarist has now teamed up again with veteran indie-rock singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur two record a second collaborative album under the Arthur Buck moniker. The aptly titled Arthur Buck 2 will be released on October 3 via Arthur’s own label, Lonely Astronaut Records.
Videos by American Songwriter
The duo has just debuted an advance track from the album, “Sleep with One Eye Open,” as a digital single. The song features backing vocals by Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker. A companion music video for the soulful, melodic rock tune also has premiered at the Arthur Buck YouTube channel.
[RELATED: Peter Buck Talks New Supergroup Drink The Sea and What’s Next]
Arthur Buck 2, which can be pre-ordered now, is a follow-up to the duo’s self-titled 2018 debut album. The new record, which features 10 tracks, was produced Jacknife Lee, who also worked on R.E.M.’s final two studio albums.
Buck and Arthur recorded the album with a backing group that featured Scott McCaughey on bass, Linda Pitmon on drums, and Gregg Foreman on keyboards and other instruments.
Buck has played with McCaughey and Pitmon in multiple projects, including Filthy Friends and The Baseball Project. McCaughey also was part R.E.M.’s touring band for many years, and he and Peter play together in the group The Minus 5 as well.
According to a press statement about Arthur Buck 2, the album finds the duo “infusing fresh elements of hi-and-lo-fidelity ingenuity without sacrificing their unreservedly enthusiastic approach to timeless rock ‘n’ roll songcraft.” Many of the songs were written while Peter and Joseph were touring together in 2018 to promote the debut album.
Joseph Arthur on the New Arthur Buck Single
Arthur describes “Sleep with One Eye Open” as a “classic rock ‘n’ roll tune with a simple theme.”
He continues, “To be the protector, or perhaps the paranoid partner? This one introduces some wah-wah lead work by me, which becomes a bit more prevalent as the album continues. Intense background vocals by Corin Tucker … and a welcome horn section give it even more classic rock gravitas.”
About Buck and Arthur’s Shared History
Arthur and Buck became friends when Joseph toured as R.E.M.’s opening act for a series of shows in in 2000. The Arthur Buck album came about after Joseph was invited by Peter to perform at an all-star music festival Buck presented in 2016 near his residence in Todos Santos, Mexico. While in Mexico, Arthur left behind a Dobro, and when he returned there in 2017 to try to find it, he and Peter began collaborating on songs. They knocked out eight tunes in three days.
Not long after that, Arthur invited Buck to sit in with him at a gallery show in Los Angeles. During soundcheck, the duo came up with three more songs. A few days later, they headed to Portland, Oregon, to record the tracks. After additional overdubs were recorded at the respective home studios, the Arthur Buck album was completed. The duo supported the 2018 record with a series of shows in North America and Europe.
More recently, Buck and Arthur worked together in the supergroup Silverlites, which also featured Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson and former Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin. The band release a self-titled debut album in November 2024.
Buck’s Other Current Musical Endeavors
Impressively, Buck is involved with a variety of other musical projects that are releasing albums and/or touring in 2025.
In July, the guitarist released a new collaborative album with British singer/songwriter Luke Haines titled Going Down to the Rive … to Blow My Mind. He and Haines will kick off a U.K. tour in support of the album on August 14. The Minus 5 will be the special guest at those concerts.
After that, a new supergroup collective featuring Buck called Drink the Sea Buck will be releasing two debut albums, Drink the Sea I and Drink the Sea II, on September 19 and October 3, respectively. That group also features Martin, ex-Queens of the Stone Age multi-instrumentalist Alain Johannes, and veteran British singer/songwriter Duke Garwood.
Buck also will be heading out on a joint U.S. tour featuring his band’s The Minus 5 and The Baseball Project. The trek kicks off September 10 in Jacksonville, Florida, and runs through a September 30 concert in Atlanta. The Minus 5 is currently supporting its recently released album Oar On, Penelope!
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with American Songwriter, Peter said Drink the Sea is considering possibly touring in October and November of 2025.
Arthur Buck 2 Track List:
- “Sleep with One Eye Open”
- “Where Did You Go?”
- “Love at First Sight”
- “No Answer”
- “Fall In Love with Me”
- “Average Ghost”
- “Don’t Try to Understand”
- “Not So Modern Now”
- “Pow”
- “Muscle Shoals”
(Photo by Dean Karr)
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