“Algebra for Broken Hearts” represents a rebirth for The Honeydogs. It has the immediacy and lean rock vibes of the band’s earliest recordings along with the back-to-the-roots spirit reuniting the four original members Adam Levy, Noah Levy, Trent Norton, and Tommy Borscheid. Recorded over five days with longtime friend and collaborator John Fields in June of 2024, it represents more than a simple rehash of what made the band popular when they began in 1995. It’s a synthesis of the scrappy early Honeydogs with the more sophisticated songwriting and stylistic explorations of more recent Honeydog offerings. It’s a fresh start with the best of old and new. Brothers Noah (drums) and Adam Levy (singer-songwriter/ guitar) started the band in the early 90’s, and enlisted the sturdy and inventive playing of Trent Norton on bass and the razor wire -meets-chicken picking of Tommy Borscheid on guitar. The sound of the early band was shaped as much by classic country, soul and British rock as it was by their hometown music scene heroes Prince and The Replacements. The band released their first eponymously titled record in 1995 and put in about four hundred club dates across North America creating music that folks were labeling “Alt Country” at the time. The Stones’ “Exile on Mainstreet,” The Kinks “Village Green Preservation Society,” The Flying Burrito Brothers “Gilded Palace of Sin” certainly inform those early records, along with The Faces, Bowie, Lucinda Williams, Dylan, Los Lobos, and lots of bands mixing acoustic roots musics with riff based rock and roll. “We were going to see bands every night in Minneapolis,” Noah recalled, and that fertile mix of upper Mississippi rock was seeping into the sauce. Band members were constantly sharing new music on the road. All of the gigs and bonding created a well-oiled road machine–as Tommy said, “we imprinted on each other,” musically, humor-wise and even style. At the same time Noah recorded and toured with Golden Smog, a local supergroup with their peers in Wilco, The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, and Run Westy Run. It started to feel like the band had arrived. They recorded “Everything, I Bet You” during all of that touring in 1996 and that album landed the band great critical reviews and a major label deal with Mercury, “Seen a Ghost” (1997). It was the band’s big break…that never really delivered “success” in record sales, though lots of tour buses were chased and the party never ended. Dates with INXS, and Jon Bon Jovi got the band in front of some big audiences. Throughout the 2000s the band lineup changed a few times and they scaled back touring. The Honeydogs recorded a bunch of adventurous, well-received records like “Here’s Luck” (2001),”10,000 Years” (2003) on Aimee Mann’s United Musicians label, and “Amygdala” (2006). Trent, Noah and Adam started a ‘bowling night’ project with multiple vocalists and horns called “Hookers and Blow,” playing their favorite songs with some of the best musicians in the Twin Cities, partly to break out of the heartache of making records with diminishing returns. Tragedy struck in 2012 and Adam lost his son. Life was forever altered. A few more records were released on different indie labels: “What Comes After” (2012), a solo Adam record called “Naubinway” (2014) mostly around grief and the last Honeydogs record before the newest one, “Love and Cannibalism” (2016). From about 2018-2023 The Honeydogs pressed the pause button. Some members had moved to different parts of the country. Trent went to Nashville seeking some new musical opportunities. Noah opened Chubby Mammal recording studio—and he is one of the best drummers on either side of the Mississippi which has kept him in high demand. Adam started teaching high school social studies–history and social justice always informed his music but he wanted to go full bore, also teaching songwriting in prisons, Levy muses, “It’s always in my lyrics—historical characters, events, movements—history is how we try to understand the past, make sense of the present and anticipate the future. I feel joy surrounded by kids in the classroom talking about this stuff since I lost one child. It’s really been a gift” Then in 2023 a label re-licensed the band’s sophomore, fan favorite “Everything, I Bet You” on vinyl. As the band was writing liner notes and reminiscing long distance, Tommy, who had been working in music distribution, playing with The Old 97s’ Rhett Miller and living in Houston, suggested doing at least one show to celebrate this record’s twenty five plus year re-release. Onstage the audience enthusiasm and band chemistry on that iconic First Ave stage got the band thinking about making a new record. The twin guitar attack felt really great, according to Adam, “It was good to have Tommy back—he’s got fire in his belly and we missed it…he’s always searching for the ‘Holy Grail’ of tone. He’s the salt to my pepper.” All band members were invited to contribute to the sourcing of material. The band selected a batch including two songs from Tommy, “Captain” and “Bend or Break.” This adds another cool dimension to the record since all previous Honeydogs records only featured songs by Adam. About recording in June 2024, Trent remembers “the band tracked fast, it was oddly comfortable, like the band had never stopped.” Adam added, “and lacking any of the combative drama” that was a feature of brotherly friction in the early Honeydogs days. The record opens with the Zeppelin riff bombast of “Attic Brain,” a pun on “addict brain” and is bookended with Tommy’s “Bend or Break,” a song which would have felt at home on The Beatles’ “White Album” or “Let it Be.” John Fields is a great musician as well as producer and he sprinkled some slinky keyboard parts over the mixes. Adam’s bandmates Barb Brynstad and Savannah Smith from his other band Turn Turn Turn added some sweet , soulful backing vocals on a few tunes like the swampy “Righteous Came the Stranger” and the stellar “I Don’t Wanna Fight.” “Irish Goodbye” is like Cheap Trick meets Motown reminding us like a dysfunctional relationship of the wages of drugs and booze. Tommy’s “Captain” feels like a Ziggy Stardust or T-Rex glam rocker about leaders losing their bearings. The title track, “Algebra for Broken Hearts,” is a surreal fever dream about the passage of time and the messy, unexpected paths upon which we find ourselves. That vibe and song title captured a moment for the band. There are no neat formulas or easy solutions in this strange, beautiful world. Can you feel the tide come in? Can you feel it pull your skin? I’m sending all my best regards Algebra for broken hearts This new album isn’t about launching a career or trying to sell a huge amount of records. It’s about deep friendships and making meaningful music. “I hope people like it,” Noah muses, “it feels as good as anything we’ve ever done.”