The Brook & The Bluff come roaring back with “Super Bowl Sunday,” a radiant, hard-hitting eruption of feeling that turns fear, avoidance, and self-reflection into a vivid, full-throttle anthem for growth, change, and the messy, exhilarating process of becoming yourself again.
follow our Today’s Song(s) playlist
Atwood Magazine Today's Songs logo
“Super Bowl Sunday” – The Brook & The Bluff
“Super Bowl Sunday” came 14 weeks early, and right on time.
Fun, radiant, and irresistibly spirited, The Brook & The Bluff’s latest single is a charming dose of sonic sunshine that’s arrived just as we enter the darkest stretch of the year (petition to end daylight savings, anyone?). It’s the kind of song that lifts your head toward the light and makes you feel something again – a smile-inducing indie rock daydream drenched in heart and heat, and bursting with life.
The stars were hanging
like a blanket on the night sky
I’m wide awake, watching
satellites float by
I spend my years
picking fakes with a keen eye
Close the blinds
when the world feels tight
Am I just waiting for the end times?
The world is burning, I’m just inside
Or do I wanna see the sunrise?
Paid off ’cause I can never sleep right
Super Bowl Sunday - The Brook & The Bluff
“Super Bowl Sunday” is the lead single off The Brook & The Bluff’s forthcoming fifth album, ‘Werewolf’
Released November 5 via Dualtone Music Group, The Brook & The Bluff’s “Super Bowl Sunday” is a hard-hitting burst of feeling and a vivid, colorful jolt to the senses – the sound of a band refusing to stand still. The Nashville-based quartet channel pure blue-sky revelry here, trading melancholy for motion and introspection for release.
“Do you wanna throw it all away? Find a place to feel something,” frontman Joseph Settine sings, his voice aching with urgency and hope in equal measure. The band’s chemistry is electric – guitars shimmer and churn, drums crash and glow, and harmonies soar like sunlight through fog. It’s cathartic, endearing, and endlessly replayable: A track that’s as exhilarating as it is emotionally grounding.
Do you wanna throw it all away?
Find a place to feel something
Or are we standing on our last leg
Running in circles for nothing?
“‘Super Bowl Sunday’ is a song about falling back into a box that feels comfortable, resisting growth and staying stuck, mostly out of being plain old scared,” the band – comprised of Joseph Settine (lead vocals), Alec Bolton (guitar), John Canada (drums), Fred Lankford (bass), and Kevin Canada (keyboards) – tell Atwood Magazine. “It’s looking at your life at a crossroads and saying something insane like, ‘I’d rather watch the game with the boys,’ instead of making a real decision. It’s all of that avoidance, covered up with some rippin’ guitar.” That juxtaposition – triumphant music paired with self-reproachful lyrics – is part of what makes The Brook & The Bluff so special. They’ve always been masters at disguising heartbreak in beauty, but here the balance feels sharper, more deliberate, and more alive than ever.
Basking in The Brook & The Bluff's Big Happy Accident, ‘This Could All Go Nowhere’
:: FEATURE ::
The single marks the first taste of the band’s upcoming fifth album Werewolf (out March 6 via Dualtone Records), a record they describe as a return to their rock and roll roots and the raw, live energy that built their foundation.
“We wanted to come out of the gates really hot, so we picked the most urgent feeling song of the bunch to lead the charge,” Settine explains. “The whole idea behind this record was to bring the same energy we bring to our live shows to every song. There really isn’t a more fitting way to introduce Werewolf than with ‘Super Bowl Sunday.’”
“We felt like [it] had that crazy first punch feel that’s maybe a little shocking,” he smiles. “It’s a great fit narratively because it is mostly just self-reflection, I was trying to look at my role in my life falling apart, and honestly I was a piece of sh*t about a good bit of it.”
The stars were hanging like a blanket on the night sky
I’m wide awake, pull the wool up over my eyes
I spend my years saving face and keeping inside
Scared of a change and what it might feel like
Am I just waiting for the end times?
The world is burning, I’m just inside
Or do I wanna see the sunrise?
Paid off ’cause I can never sleep right
At its core, Werewolf is about rediscovery – a reflection of the band finding themselves again after nearly a decade of constant motion. Settine wrote through heartbreak and reinvention, pulling together the threads of loss, identity, and renewal into a record that thrums with life. “Werewolf is about us finding ourselves again collectively, figuring out after three albums and two EPs what we really wanted to be moving forward – and the answer was a rock band,” he says.
“The lyrics and the story deal with a lot of things I have often written about – the self-reflection and sometimes self-denigration cycles that I spin in and out of, leaving a decade-plus long relationship and starting over, all of the heartbreak and grief that comes with that, and even some of the remembrance of what was great, or the hope of something new. It all translated into this electric and pulsing batch of songs that is, I think, our most alive feeling project yet.” That clarity radiates through every riff and refrain here, where the band’s exuberance becomes a kind of catharsis all its own.
The Brook & The Bluff Chase Melancholic Joy on 'Bluebeard,' a Soulful, Swashbuckling Triumph
:: INTERVIEW ::
“Super Bowl Sunday” captures that spirit in full. It’s loud and lively, but never shallow – a song that holds its optimism close to the ache it came from.
“*You know that living’s such a hard thing, loving something that you can’t change,*” Settine sings, his voice carrying the weight of acceptance. There’s heartbreak beneath the gloss, and that’s what makes it so human.
Do you wanna throw it all away?
Find a place to feel something
Or are we standing on our last leg
Running in circles for nothing?
You know that living’s such a hard thing
Loving something that you can’t change
Are you gonna throw it all away?
But it was Super Bowl Sunday
It’s a soundtrack to renewal – a reminder that even in our avoidance, we’re still growing, still learning, still moving toward the light. Super Bowl Sunday isn’t just an anthem for the moment; it’s a burst of warmth for the winter ahead, and a damn good reason to believe that rock and roll – and everything it stands for – is still very much alive.
Because in the end, you don’t have to throw it all away to feel something – sometimes, all it takes is a great song.
Continue below for our full conversation with The Brook & The Bluff, where they dig into the heart of “Super Bowl Sunday,” the crossroads that shaped it, and the charged, re-centered, and reinvigorated vision behind Werewolf – a record that promises to be the band’s biggest and boldest statement yet!
— —
:: stream/purchase Super Bowl Sunday here ::
:: connect with The Brook & The Bluff here ::
— —
“Super Bowl Sunday” – The Brook & The Bluff
The Brook & The Bluff © Luke Rogers
The Brook & The Bluff © Luke Rogers
A CONVERSATION WITH THE BROOK & THE BLUFF
Super Bowl Sunday - The Brook & The Bluff
Atwood Magazine: The Brook & The Bluff, congrats on “Super Bowl Sunday”! You've said this song is about falling back into a box that feels comfortable, resisting growth and staying stuck, mostly out of being plain old scared. What's the story behind this track?
The Brook & The Bluff: This whole song really came together in one day. Alec and I (Joseph) went over to Micah’s house and Alec had this huge instrumental and riff that he played us and we immediately just ran with it. I was going through so much life change at the time, losing my relationship of over a decade, moving out, trying to pick up the pieces and put them back together all in one motion. I was processing in real time. It really all melded so perfectly, and I think this song is one of the ultimate expressions of Alec and I’s writing partnership, this overwhelmingly triumphant and optimistic music with some lyrics that don’t necessarily match.
How much of this song is observation of the self, vs. of those around you, etc.? Is it a personal rebuke or is it a more universal story of communal inertia?
The Brook & The Bluff: It is really a little bit of a combination of all of the things. I was using my self observation to sort of extrapolate outwards and identify some general things that I feel like can ring true universally. So much of my journey has been second guessing my feelings, or maybe stifling them out of fear, avoiding big things because maybe it’s just easier to live that way – I was feeling all of the ramifications of those decisions and I felt like I had seen the same thing play out in other places. It’s kind of like those jokes you will hear about how guys will spend ten hours watching football with their best friends and when you leave you haven’t talked about anything but the big third down in the fourth quarter. I had just gotten to a point where I was sick of myself doing that, being willfully closed off to the most important things in my life.
What makes you the most excited about this new song? How is it special for you?
The Brook & The Bluff: The thing I am the most excited about with this new song is to go out and play it live. We really returned to this idea of us being a band again, and this song brings a special level of energy to our group that is a full embodiment of that idea. Just loud rock and roll, I’m excited to be doing that.
This is the lead single off your fifth album, Werewolf . Why introduce this record with this song, and how does “Super Bowl Sunday” fit into the overall narrative of Werewolf ?
The Brook & The Bluff: We wanted to come out of the gates really hot, so we picked the most urgent feeling song of the bunch to lead the charge. The whole idea behind this record was to bring the same energy that we bring to our live shows to every song, that was really our only guiding light for the writing process and we almost wanted to frame the whole album as if it were one of our live sets. To that end, there really isn’t a more fitting way to introduce Werewolf than with “Super Bowl Sunday.” We made a hard turn from the way Bluebeard was made and the way we made it, and we felt like “Super Bowl Sunday” had that crazy first punch feel that’s maybe a little shocking. It’s a great fit narratively because it is mostly just self-reflection, I was trying to look at my role in my life falling apart honestly and honestly I was a piece of shit about a good bit of it.
To that end, what is Werewolf about – what can you tell us, sneak-peak wise, about the record?
The Brook & The Bluff: Werewolf is, more than anything, a rock and roll record. We went into the whole process with this idea that everything needs to have this charged, live energy that we feel like is our true strength. We have always been a live band, and we have always felt proud of that, it seemed like it was time to finally really capture that in the studio. For us, Werewolf, is about us finding ourselves again collectively, figuring out after three full length records and two EP’s what we really wanted to be moving forward, and the answer was a rock band. The lyrics and the story deal with a lot of things I have often written about – the self-reflection and sometimes self-denigration cycles that I spin in and out of, leaving a decade-plus long relationship and starting over, all of the heartbreak and grief that comes with that, and even some of the remembrance of what was great, or the hope of something new. It all translated into this electric and pulsing batch of songs that is, I think, our most alive feeling project yet.
Last but not least, w hat do you hope listeners take away from “ Super Bowl Sunday ,” and what have you taken away from creating it and now putting it out?
The Brook & The Bluff: I hope that they can take away the feeling that rock and roll is back. Or, if they never felt like it left, that this is a damn good addition to the catalog. For us, we have become so much closer as a group through making these songs – we have never felt more open with each other, more collaborative. If we take away anything, it’s the desire to keep chasing that closeness, and to keep turning up Alec’s amp as loud as it will go.
— —
:: stream/purchase Super Bowl Sunday here ::
:: connect with The Brook & The Bluff here ::
— —
“Super Bowl Sunday” – The Brook & The Bluff
— — — —
Super Bowl Sunday - The Brook & The Bluff
Connect to The Brook & The Bluff on Facebook, 𝕏, TikTok, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
© Luke Rogers
The Brook & The Bluff Chase Melancholic Joy on 'Bluebeard,' a Soulful, Swashbuckling Triumph
:: INTERVIEW ::
:: Today’s Song(s) ::
Atwood Magazine Today's Songs logo
follow our daily playlist on Spotify
:: StreamThe Brook & The Bluff ::