Names Without Numbers Decries Life’s Frenetic Pace on “Ping Pong Ball in a Concrete Room”
We all know that feeling of constantly chasing behind the cart, like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done that we need to. Luckily, Names Without Numbers know the feeling too. In fact, as we hear on the Omaha, Nebraska quartet’s new single “Ping Pong Ball in a Concrete Room,” they know the feeling all too well.
I’m everywhere at once these days, sings vocalist/guitarist Ryan Cruickshark, tied to the conveyor belt of life.
“This song,” Cruickshark explains, “is about the frenetic pace of life. Sometimes it feels like things are moving way too fast to stay on top of all your responsibilities. The only thing you can do is keep moving forward.” To be fair, that’s not the only thing you can do — you can also take a pause to listen to this song and remind yourself that you’re not alone. As “Ping Pong Ball in a Concrete Room” builds to its gloriously catchy chorus, it’s impossible not to sing along with the words short on time / steady grind / here then gone / just hold on.
In the context of the song, the stress of not keeping up never felt so good. Produced, recorded and mixed by Joshua Barber (Norma Jean, The Devil Wears Prada, Hit The Lights), “Ping Pong Ball in a Crowded Room” combines the urgency of emo/pop-punk luminaries like Jimmy Eat World and Anberlin with the seasoned songwriting sensibilities of rock giants like Springsteen and Petty.
“Ping Pong Ball in a Concrete Room” is the second single off the band’s upcoming EP We Create Reality, out September 27th.
“We Create Reality is our first release fully written and recorded in the post-COVID world,” says the band in a joint statement. “In most ways, life has gone back to the way it was prior to the pandemic, but many of us now have a different worldview — a lingering, shared PTSD that we all incurred from such a disruptive societal event. It’s given some of us a yearning to go back into quarantine, where things were more focused and peaceful; to identify our daily grind as the never-ending rat-race it has become. That experience gave a lot of us the confidence and the motivation to rediscover who we are and buck against the constraints we were under, while simultaneously deepening our appreciation for what we now look back on as “the good old days.” This collection of songs reflects all of those conflicting feelings.”
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