Born Cages

Born Cages released The Sidelines EP[7] on June 18, 2013, which was produced by Jon Kaplan, co-produced by Vlad Holiday, and engineered by Oliver Straus.[8] The EP features three songs from the upcoming full-length album, and 2 exclusive tracks.[9]

Filter Magazine says The Sidelines EP, “beautifully straddles the line between dreamy and discordant … a standout 17 minutes,” and declared it "spellbinding."[10] Vice Noisey describes the music as a “blend of 80s-influenced synth/guitar work and modern pop-rock sounds” and Blackbook Magazine raves, “More than a decade after the riff-heavy heyday of The Strokes, The Vines, The White Stripes, The Hives, and many other bands that put the word “the” before a plural noun, we may be ready for another bout of ripping revivalism… Born Cages certainly makes that argument.”[11][12] Artist Direct says, “The New York indie band totally rocks our world with their brand of ‘80s-style, synthy rock.” [13] Alternative Press wrote, “Don’t Look Back - a soaring rocker that you’ll have no problem dancing to assuming you can put down the air guitar for four minutes.” [2]

The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with first week sales of 87,000 units.[14] In December 2014, the album was certified Gold, having sold over half a million units.[15] The song has also been featured several times on New York Classic Rock station Q104.3's "Out Of The Box" segment with Jonathan Clarke.[16][17][18][19]

In conjunction with the EP, a video for the song “Caiti” was released June 19, 2013, on VEVO/YouTube, and July 8, 2013, on MTV.com.[20][21] On February 13, 2014, Filter Magazine premiered Don't Look Back's official music video.[22]

Photo by Nicole Mago

Born Cages' debut full-length album, I'm Glad I'm Not Me, was released via Washington Square on June 2, 2015. The album artwork was created by London-based illustrator Matthew Cooper, who's worked with Arctic Monkeys, The Kills, Caribou, Franz Ferdinand, Noel Gallagher and Paul McCartney.[23] Due to Rolling Down The Hill and Metaphor's radio play, I'm Glad I'm Not Me became the No. 9 album at Alternative Specialty radio during the week of December 10, 2014.[24]

On August 5, 2014, Buzznet premiered Born Cages' "Rolling Down The Hill," as the band announced a headlining tour in support of the new single.[25] On September 4, Fresh New Tracks premiered a Rolling Down The Hill remix from German producer Glastrophobie, which reached the No. 2 spot on Hype Machine's Popular Remix Chart.[26] Yahoo! Music premiered the song's official music video on November 1, 2014.[27] On November 21, 2014, the video won mtvU's The Freshmen competition.[28] On the week of November 19, 2014, Rolling Down The Hill reached No. 7 on the Alternative Specialty Radio chart, with spins on stations like LA's KROQ and NYC's Q104.3. The single also features B-Side track, "Fuel To The Fire," which was an old demo from the band's first studio recording.

Photo by Nicole Mago

On April 7, 2015, Diffuser FM premiered "I Just Want The Truth, Baby", the second single from I'm Glad I'm Not Me, as an instant gratification track on iTunes.[29] The song was featured on MTV's Catfish: The TV Show, along with indie film No Pay, Nudity, featuring Gabriel Byrne and Nathan Lane.

On April 7, 2017, Born Cages put out their latest release, Exit Signs In A Burning Building. The release is a 7-song mini-album, produced by Vlad Holiday, mixed by Justin Gerrish (Vampire Weekend, The Strokes, Hamilton Leithouser), mastered by Emily Lazar (Arcade Fire, The Killers, Lou Reed), with additional production and engineering by Matt Maroulakos. In an interview, Holiday addressed the band's nearly year-long hiatus while writing the new album, saying that, "There wasn’t a specific process to writing this record other than, write when you wanna write. I don’t like music that feels forced, and sometimes that inevitably happens with a band’s second release, when you don’t want to be in the shadows for too long. But we took the shadows head on, because life’s too short to write shitty songs."[30]

The first song released was Ain't Gonna Happen on December 6, 2016, which reached No. 42 on Spotify's United States Viral 50 Chart on January 9.[31] On February 7, 2017, the band premiered their second single Half Asleep on Pancakes & Whiskey along with more details on the album release.[32] The official music video for Half Asleep was premiered March 8 on VEVO.[33] Born Cages performed songs from the new album at SXSW Music Festival in March 2017, where NPR raved, "Undeniably great songs... Every moment was Instagram-ready, and every song made me want to throw my hands in the air... I look forward to saying, 'I saw them when...'"[1] Born Cages also performed new music for Daytrotter and Paste Magazine's SXSW studio sessions.[34]

The band's final show was a sold out night with the band X Ambassadors at Toronto's legendary Horseshoe Tavern.[35]