We’re entering the final week of presales for “Devil’s Rope,” so we’re offering up the record’s lead-off track for the final Friday Freeload. For those of you who’ve helped us reach our presale goal, and then some, we thank you... we are eternally grateful.

For those of you still on the fence … go ahead pre-order. The extras, which include the “Live from the Pilot Light” CD, the Quake Orphans EP, and five various outtakes/alternate versions for download, won’t be available so cheap after February 8, if at all.

Just saying …

As for "Signal," this song was born out of mine and Susan’s first (and only so far) song-writing date night. She had bunch of ideas started in a notebook (“word salad,” she called it), and we sorted through a bunch of those and came up with some cool pieces.

A few weeks later, we were in Austin, working on tracks for “Devil’s Rope” at Top Hat Recording with our pals, John Harvey and Mary Podio. I was trying out a guitar, just playing a three-chord progression when Susan said, “Keep playing that.” She pulled out her Ipad, found the words she’d been working on, and started singing along. We kept working on it anytime we weren’t busy recording.

Somewhere, there’s a photo of us sitting around the living room at Top Hat, working that song out. The song was not finished in time to record “Signal” during in Austin, so we tracked it a couple months later at Wavelab Studios in Tucson, Arizona, with Craig Shumacher and Chris Schultz. Once it started coming to life, we knew it had to be the lead-off song for the album.

So here’s your preview. Get off the fence.

igg.me/p/285890/x/1825679

— TL