Injury Reserve will release their new album By the Time I Get to Phoenix September 15th. Today they share the first single from the album “Knees”. The song is a drawn out 5 minute cut, that features start and stop production under pained vocals that escalate as the track progresses.

Injury Reserve was originally a trio, consisting of rappers Ritchie With a T and Stepa J. Groggs and producer Parker Corey. Their mix tapes Live From the Dentist (released in 2015) and Floss (2016) earned them underground buzz, and they capitalized on the attention with their debut album in 2019, the eponymous Injury Reserve.

The group’s momentum was put on hold when in June of 2020 Groggs tragically passed away. By the Time I Get to Phoenix was largely completed ahead of Groggs’ passing with his contributions, and will be the first Injury Reserve music to be released since their eponymous debut album.

Injury Reserve provided the below statement as further context for By the Time I Get to Phoenix:

“While touring Europe in 2019, we had a show in Stockholm that had been booked in the back of an Italian restaurant instead of a typical venue. To match a certain lack of production we pivoted the show into our own improvisatory take on a DJ set and ended up performing a song none of us had heard before, the board recording of which became the grounding for a new album. Over the next few months, we locked in and put together the 11 songs that that album would eventually become. Those early months of 2020 had about as much turmoil for us as one could expect last year, and between the general social upheaval, loss of livelihoods and family tragedy, the record we made carried these weights. Once the track list came together and we started to make sense of it, one of the last phone conversations we had with Groggs was over his love for the repurposing of Isaac Haye’s By the Time I Get to Phoenix to title the album. Shortly thereafter we were struck with his loss and of course everything was put on hold, but eventually, we regathered and felt most comfortable finishing this album we had made as it still resonated fully (in some respects even taking on what felt like haunting pre-echoes) and above all else stayed true to his constant insistence while recording to simply ‘make some weird shit.’ All this said obviously this album is dedicated to Jordan Alexander Groggs, aka Stepa J. Groggs with one p better get it right. Typing here feels small in the space of your real physical absence but you, your voice and your words continue to echo around us all thru these recordings and so many others and everything else. Thank you for your time, we love and miss you, of course.”

By the Time I Get to Phoenix track list:
1. Outside
2. Superman That
3. SS San Francisco (feat. Zelooperz)
4. Footwork in a Forest Fire
5. Ground Zero
6. Smoke Don’t Clear
7. Top Picks For You
8. Wild Wild West
9. Postpostpartum
10. Knees
11. Bye Storm

Pre-order By the Time I Get to Phoenix HERE