Middle Class Rut's singer/guitarist Zack Lopez and vocalist Sean Stackham have been playing together since they were 13 years old and living in Sacramento, Calif., so it's safe to say they're musical soul mates. It didn't come easy, though. Their musical kinship was born of tragedy and necessity, it would appear.

"Sean is my half-brother, and I'm 6 years older than him," Lopez told Noisecreep. "I became his legal guardian when he turned 13, after our parents died at the Soup Plantation in North Highlands. We couldn't be more different as people, so growing together musically has been out of family obligation more then any sort of natural chemistry."

Middle Class Rut's raucous melodic rock new album, 'No Name, No Color,' is out Oct. 5 via Bright Antenna Records. The band spent the last four years working on the album, helping the songs grow and evolve. The pair records every song they write together almost immediately in their rehearsal space, which helps capture the spontaneity of a track while still in the moment. Lopez and Stockham elected to use tracks they had amassed rather than attempting to recreate the spark of the original tracks later in a studio.

Of the release, Lopez said, "Our record looks better in your hands than it does as a thumbnail on your computer. Sometimes it's not the arrow, it's the Indian."

'No Name, No Color' track list

1. 'Busy Bein' Born'

2. 'U.S.A.'

3. 'New Low'

4. 'Lifelong Dayshift'

5. 'One Debt Away'

6. 'Are You on Your Way'

7. 'Alive or Dead'

8. 'I Guess You Could Say'

9. 'Sad to Know'

10. 'Dead End'

11. 'Thought I Was'

12. 'Cornbread'

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