Though Mardi Gras officially begins next week, NOLA-made sludge supergroup Down are getting the celebrations started early by launching their latest single, a cover of Dr. John’s “Right Place, Wrong Time”.
We’d known new Down was on the way for quite some time, but our excitement level ramped up last month when the group — currently comprising Philip Anselmo (Pantera), Pepper Keenan (Corrosion of Conformity), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar), Jimmy Bower (Eyehategod) and Pat Bruders — posted a studio update that “the new Down record is done”. This is not that, however, but rather a festively goofball salute to the good Dr.’s funky lil hit off 1973’s In the Right Place.
Earlier this week, the band plugged the arrival of the cover via a quick teaser vid that found a Wolman Jack stand-in (who looks suspiciously like Windstein) howling about a new Down single that’ll “blow you away”. A video directed by Mike Holderbeat has now been delivered in full. It features a retro aesthetic modeled after the old The Midnight Special music program, and finds as Down, dressed in varying layers of Seventies-specific clothing and ceremonial garb, pounding through the tune on a heavily lit-up soundstage. Anselmo sings of an impending “brain salad surgery” as he shakes a scepter.
“Dr. John’s ‘Right Place, Wrong Time’ is probably one of the first songs I ever learned or knew of as a kid,” Anselmo adds in a statement. “We grew up in the French Quarter and Dr. John’s music was everywhere. Recording this song was something that I always wanted to do and I’m happy that I did it with Down. The video was an absolute blast to make. Even my mom is in it! Because of her, I know Dr. John’s music very well.”
You can sample Down’s “refried confusion” up above.
No further details have been dished out just yet on Down’s next LP, but it will be the act’s first full-length release since 2007’s Down III: Over the Under. Despite that 19-year-gap, the group did offer up their two-instalment Down IV EPs in 2012 and 2014, respectively.
It’s been a big week for Down guitarist Keenan, in particular. Earlier this week, the Southern metal icon also announced Corrosion of Conformity’s double-sized and “pissed” Good God / Baad Man album will be released by Nuclear Blast on April 3rd.
Down tour dates 2026:
6/3 Norje, SE – Sweden Rock Festival
6/5 Gdańsk, PL – Mystic Fest Poland
6/21 Clisson, FR – Hellfest
10/3 Sacramento, CA – Aftershock
10/24 Fort Worth, TX – Sick New World Texas