We Make Our Own Bad Luck is the new album from Illinois rock act New Ruins, the follow-up to their first release, The Sound They Make, from 2007. Droning acoustic/electric rock haunted by rural spectres, songs rendered in sepia-tone, but updated with DIY studio machinations. Since their debut the original duo of songwriters J. Caleb Means and Elzie Sexton has expanded into a quintet, featuring bassist/multi-instrumentalist Paul Chastain (Velvet Crush, Matthew Sweet), drummer Roy Ewing (Braid, Very Secretary), and Andrew Davidson (Tractor Kings, Chemicals) on bass and auxiliary percussion. New Ruins is a band as comfortable in a stage-shaking three-guitar line-up as it is in a more intimate stripped-down acoustic setting.

ALL MUSIC GUIDE: "Dark-hued pop music that strikes a balance between melody-driven pleasure and guitar-fueled malaise."

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