Shoegaze – 7th Level Music

Levitation Austin 2024 – Day One

It’s time to enjoy my favorite weekend of the year with another return to Levitation Austin. The weather on Day One was perfect for both the festival and Halloween. Downtown was packed to the gills with people in and out of costume, but the majority of the crowds were in the spooky spirit (For the record, my girlfriend and I were dressed as Shaggy and Velma.).

Up first was a stop at Stubb’s to catch Mdou Moctar and The Black Angels. We missed The Strange Lot‘s set, and caught part of Boogarins‘, but managed to get about halfway to the stage for Mr. Moctar and his band (who came out wearing wigs and fake beards).

The sound mix was a bit off during Moctar’s set at first, making his vocals a bit tough to hear, but they eventually smoothed out and the band had a great time. The crowd was roaring by the end of their set, and Moctar’s drummer was on fire.

The Black Angels are a new favorite band of my girlfriend, so we moved up closer to get her the best experience possible. They were performing the entire Phosphene Dream album as the first set, which is a favorite of mine since they were touring that album when I first saw them live in 2011.

They played a full second set, including many songs I’d never heard live until then (and I’ve seen them at least a dozen times by now). Lead guitarist Christian Bland did a lot of wild pedal effects during both sets, and their new bass player and keyboardist is sharp.

We snagged some mediocre falafel at a food truck after that and then heading over to Empire to see A Place to Bury Strangers. They were playing the inside stage, and it had been so long since I’d been at a show there that I’d forgotten how small the inside space is. “It’s going to be so loud in here,” I told my girlfriend, who was also seeing them for the first time.

After a great catch-up conversation with frontman / guitar and pedal whiz Oliver Ackermann, the band (all dressed as vampires) came out and, as predicted, flattened the place. Ackermann smashed one guitar and broke two strings on it by the second song (“We’ve Come So Far”). The stage was flooded with fake fog during “Ocean,” and Ackermann and Sandra and John Fedowitz emerged from it like, well, vampires, as their bulldozer of sound rolled over us.

A mosh pit broke out at one point, making my short girlfriend uneasy. I got her away from it while APTBS brought out their rolling synth-drum machine-cacophony maker into the crowd and Sandra and John Fedowitz played their respective drum and bass around it while Ackermann melted brains with weird sounds and weirder vocals. They returned to the stage where Ackermann decapitated a piñata with a guitar and they ended the night with enough feedback to make my girlfriend say, “I need a neck adjustment after that.”

It was a good start to the festival. Up next, several post-punk and rock bands at a place that has no parking and a late-night mini-rave.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Bonnie Trash – My Love Remains the Same EP

Bonnie Trash (Dana Bellamy – drums, Emmalia Bortolon-Vettor – guitar, Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor – vocals, and Emma Howarth-Withers – bass) are no strangers to heavy subjects. Their debut EP from 2017, Ezzelini’s Dead, told the story of a real-life cannibalistic tyrant. 2022’s Malocchio and 2023’s Hail, Hale! told horror tales often spoken to sisters Emmalia and Sarafina by their grandmother. Now, on their newest EP, My Love Remains the Same, they tackle themes of love and the loss of it.

Howarth-Withers solid bass groove locks in the opener, “Kisses Goodbye,” which has Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor walking away from a relationship she knows isn’t going to last but also is gut-wrenching to end. Her sister’s guitar fuzz reminds me of some Jesus and Mary Chain cuts with its deft flow between almost garage-pop and melt-your-face assault.

“What Have You Become” gets darker, thanks in large part to Bellamy’s heavier beats and lyrics like “Love is not enough to take the pain away.” and others that confront the agony and relentless questions your mind creates during deep grief.

The EP ends with a slick and menacing cover of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds‘ “Red Right Hand.” They up the metal growl in it and you can feel Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor practically casting a hex upon you as she sings it.

Bonnie Trash is working on a new full-length album due in 2025. Keep your eyes open for it. It might sneak up on you in the shadows.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity!]

A Place to Bury Strangers have a “Bad Idea” for their new single.

New-York based band A Place To Bury Strangers release their new single/video, “Bad Idea,” from their forthcoming album, Synthesizer, to be released digitally October 4th and on vinyl October 25th via Dedstrange. Following lead single “Disgust,” described as “one hell of a feedback-ridden ride” (Consequence), and the “addictive” (New Noise) single “You Got Me,” “Bad Idea” showcases the raw creativity of bassist John Fedowitz. “He came to the studio with a simple looping drum beat, thinking he didn’t have any good ideas—thus, the song was his ‘bad idea,’” says frontman Oliver Ackermann. “We each penned some lines on paper, and he sang the ones that resonated. After a few instrumental passes, the recording was complete. The result is an innovative track born from spontaneous collaboration and a touch of self-doubt, turned into something uniquely captivating.”

The video director for “Bad Idea,” Nick Kulp says, “While touring with the band doing visuals and lighting since 2022, I’ve been lucky enough to experience the band perform new songs and see the development of Synthesizer. In 2023, they started performing ‘Bad Idea’ and I was immediately hooked. It’s one of those live songs that really just takes you along for the ride and is really fun to do visuals and lights for. As the year went on we started talking about videos and elements for the new album and I was approached to do a video for this song and was immediately happy and grateful. I’ve been filming the band on tour and in their practice studio since December of 2023 and have been taking my Hi8 camera on the road and filming the shows. I tried my best to capture as much of the chaos of seeing the band live that I could — it’s an intense journey!”

Watch the Video for “Bad Idea”

Synthesizer is the title of A Place to Bury Strangers’ seventh album. It is also a physical entity, a synthesizer made specifically for you to own, too, if you buy the record on vinyl. You can watch Ackermann demonstrate how to play the circuit board and functional synth album cover here. In an era of making music where so little is DIY and so much is left up to AI, to never setting foot in a practice room or a home studio, making something that feels deliberately chaotic, messy, and human, is entirely the point.

The writing sessions for Synthesizer started in 2022 in the band’s Queens studio, shortly after the release of See Through You. A Place to Bury Strangers re-formed with a new lineup, Oliver Ackermann still at the helm, now featuring friends John and Sandra Fedowitz. Synthesizer very much feels like a record of reinvention. And of course, to ever so slightly reinvent one’s sound, one must also build a new instrument, thus again the synth in question.

The resulting record is one that is romantic, colorful, loud as hell. This is a band that is meant to be witnessed in a live setting, where the songs take on a new energy in the presence of a crowd. Ackermann founded the storied DIY space (and now effects pedal factory) Death By Audio. DBA, as a venue, had a collaborative, creative spirit of chaos and collectivity. That essence appears all over the band’s work, and Synthesizer is a raw collection of songs, wild and loud and fucked up just like the instrument itself.

Pre-order Synthesizer

Watch the “Disgust” Video

Watch the Video For “You Got Me”

A Place To Bury Strangers Tour Dates:
Sat. Sep. 21 – Groningen, NL @ Vicefest
Mon. Sep. 23 – London, UK @ The Shacklewell Arms
Tue. Sep. 24 – Wed. Sep. 25 – London, UK @ No90 Live Hackney Wick
Thu. Sep. 26 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute %
Fri. Sep. 27 – Dublin, IE @ The Grand Social %
Sat. Sep. 28 – Belfast, IE @ Oh Yeah %
Sun. Sep. 29 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo %
Mon. Sep. 30 – Bedford UK @ Esquire %
Thu. Oct. 3 – Berlin, DE @ Berlin Metropol [Record Release Show] %
Fri. Oct. 4 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen %
Sat. Oct. 5 – Oslo, NO @ Goldie %
Sun. Oct. 6 – Gothenburg, SE @ Fangelset %
Mon. Oct. 7 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan %
Wed. Oct 9 – Wroclaw, PL @ Lacznik %
Thu. Oct. 10 – Warsaw, PL @ Hybrydy %
Fri. Oct. 11 – Poznan, PL @ 2progi %
Sat. Oct. 12 – Bmo, CZ @ Kabinet Muz %
Sun. Oct 13 – Jena, DE KuBa Jena %
Fri. Oct. 25 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat &
Sat. Oct. 26 – Raleigh, NC @ Kings &
Sun. Oct. 27 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle &
Mon. Oct. 28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl &
Wed. Oct. 30 – Houston, TX @ White Oak &
Thu. Oct. 31 – Austin, TX @ Levitation &
Sat. Nov. 2 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar #
Sun. Nov. 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom #
Mon. Nov. 4 – San Francisco, CA @ GAMH Psyched Fest #
Thu. Nov. 7 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
Fr. Nov. 8 – Seattle, WA @ Freakout Festival ^
Sat. Nov. 9 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl

% w/ Stella Rose
& w/ YHWH Nailgun
# w/ Pop Music Fever Dream
^ w/ The Black Angels, Martin Rev, The Black Lips & Shabazz Palaces

Keep your mind open.

[It’s a good idea to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Dummy – Free Energy

Free Energy is a good name for Dummy‘s new album, because it provides plenty of it – usually in the form of reverb and fuzz. The band also seems to have had plenty of it while making their sophomore album, as each of the band members is all over the place and playing multiple instruments throughout it.

“Intro-UB” alone features plenty of bubbling, poppy synth beats and bass, and all four members of the band (Alex Ewell, Emma Maatman, Nathan O’Dell, and Joe Trainor) are all listed on the album’s liner notes as playing synths. O’Dell and Trainor’s guitars crash into the room on “Soonish” that almost overwhelm Maatman and O’Dell’s vocals. The Jesus and Mary Chain-like roar they produce is great. “Unshaped Road” weaves and curves, carrying you along on a psych-shoegaze journey to the cosmic “Opaline Bubbletear” with dreamy saxophone by Cole Pulice.

It drifts into the 1990s synthpop-tinged “Blue Dada” and Maatman singing happy, echoing vocals over soft synths and sped-up hip hop beats. “Nullspace” takes early 2000s Garbage and mixes it with industrial guitar riffs and dub synths. Speaking of industrial guitar riffs, the ones in “Minus World” sound like they could’ve been recorded in a metal fabrication plant…and yet the vocals are so upbeat that you figure the workers there must have a great union.

The way Dummy effortlessly goes from the grinding rock of “Minus World” to the trippy psychedelia of “Dip in the Lake” is stunning. The jump back to the heavier, faster “Sudden Flutes” isn’t jarring. It feels right. “Psychic Battery” might just levitate you out of your seat. Nine Clean Nails reminds me a bit of Public Practice with its background ghost-like vocals that somehow brighten up a room. The closer, “Godspin,” feels like waking up in your car at a sea side highway rest stop after a long night of driving and seeing the ocean in the emerging daylight.

Dummy said they wanted to go in a more psychedelic direction with Free Energy, and they succeeded. The shoegaze elements are still there, so don’t worry if that’s what you’re seeking, but this new sound is lovely.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR!]

Review: Meatbodies – Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom

Does the cover of Meatbodies‘ new album, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom, feature a ghost tiger? A tiger made of flora? A tiger that lives in the ocean? Or in outer space? I don’t know. I do know, however, that the album is great shoegaze / psych record that made me want to see them live (coming up at Levitation 2024!) as soon as possible.

This album gives the songs time to stretch, but not to the point where you grow weary of them. The opener, “The Assignment,” is a great example. It’s a little over six minutes and is a perfect simmering pot of psychedelic tea that brews, drinks, and infuses into you for the perfect time. Groovy, solid bass builds to a burst of fuzzy tiger fur guitars. “Hole” is another six minutes-plus, and it also doesn’t waste a second of it as Meatbodies advises us to fill the holes in our hearts by letting go of what we wrongly think will fill them. The power of the guitars in it sounds like you could blast holes in concrete with it. And the synths that hit you around the 4:30 mark? Come on! It’s almost not fair.

You can imagine the meaning of “Silly Cybin,” which starts with simple acoustic guitar strumming before it hits you with crushing drums and crashing guitars. The rhythms of “Billow” will help you set sail on whatever, ahem, trip you’re taking (and the guitar solo in it is wild). “They Came Down” hits as heavy as any Ty Segall or Fuzz track.

“Move” is a great rocker that seems to have front man Chad Ubovich thinking about how his lover is moving away from him, but he’s unsure as to how to fix it (“I can count the reasons we don’t talk.”). “Criminal Minds” showcases the band’s love of early tracks from The Cure in its bassline. The growling fuzz of “ICNNVR2” is great, and instantly makes you feel like a bad ass, and the saxophone on it is a great touch that Iggy and The Stooges would love. The squall of guitars on “Psychic Garden” is a neat contract to “(Return of) Ecstasy,” which is almost a Middle Eastern-tinged trippy instrumental. The album ends with “Gate,” opening your mind to something beyond what you’re stuck in at the moment, encouraging you to escape the grind and embrace the ethereal (“Do it now. Take that spin.”).

Again, I don’t know if that’s just a green tiger or a tiger made of seaweed on the cover, but that’s kind of the point. Just flow with it. Get weird with it. Stop worrying and start experiencing.

Keep your mind open.

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Data Animal is “Dancing with the Devil” on their new single.

LISTEN TO “DANCING WITH THE DEVIL” HERE

BUY “DANCING WITH THE DEVIL” HERE

BUY THE “CHEMICAL COWBOY / DANCING WITH THE DEVIL” SINGLE HERE

Get ready to unleash the chaos with Data Animal‘s explosive new electro punk single, “Dancing with the Devil ”! With a relentless blend of searing synths, thrashing guitars, and raw, unapologetic vocals, this track is a sonic rebellion against the mundane. “Dancing with the Devil” captures the ferocity and spirit of the underground scene, delivering a blistering anthem that’s destined to ignite mosh pits and set the night ablaze. Out August 27th – only on Dedstrange.

Data Animal is bursting out of Berlin’s underground music scene mixing the sounds of NYC’s No Wave legends Suicide, psychedelic godfathers Spacemen 3 and the drum machine, noise driven racket of early The Jesus and Mary Chain and making it completely their own. Founded between Berlin and New Zealand and signed to Oliver Ackermann’s (Death by Audio / A Place To Bury Strangers) label Dedstrange in the midst of a global pandemic, the group is headed up by Mitchell James O’Sullivan and joined by a rotating cast of Berlin’s music scene luminaries. The band has grown in notoriety for their blistering live set including shows with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, A Place To Bury Strangers, GIFT, and YHWH Nailgun following their highly regarded debut album Future Primitive.

Keep your mind open.

[Dance over to the subscription box while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Steven at Dedstrange!]

Review: New Age Healers – The Spin Out

Shoegaze and psychedelic music have always been siblings, and this is readily apparent on The Spin Out by Seattle’s New Age Healers.

Opening with psych-keys, fuzzy bass, and orbital guitars on “Dying Moon,” the album is off to a great start and instant head-turning for anyone hearing it for the first time. Farkhad Saidmuratov‘s keys on the title track creating a neat effect the builds into bright rays breaking through dark clouds. The whole song builds to a stunning end.

“Spark Up” has a dangerous edge to it thanks to Jeramy Koepping and frontman Owen Murphy‘s guitar work and Adam LeVasseur‘s snap, crackle, pop, and crash drumming. “Operatic” reminds me of some of A Place to Bury Strangers‘ early tracks during the verses.

Allen Murray‘s bass on “Chemical Control” is like a lit fuse racing toward a cache of explosives that will blow open a dam holding back sound that will flatten everything in front of it. “Let’s take a trip,” Murphy sings at the beginning of “Radiate,” and the band certainly obliges that suggestion as they all click with psych-rock guitars, 60s garage beats, mod synths, and lyrics about connecting on multiple levels with someone. The album ends with “All Wrapped Up,” bringing you back down to Earth, but you immediately want to levitate off it again by putting this album on repeat.

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll feel healed if you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Owen of New Age Healers!]

A Place to Bury Strangers unleash “Disgust” from their upcoming album, “Synthesizer,” due October 04, 2024.

New-York based band A Place To Bury Strangers release the new single/video, “You Got Me,” from their forthcoming seventh album, Synthesizer, out October 4th via Dedstrange. Following lead single “Disgust,” which “sounds as pleasurable and danceable as it does revolting and mangled,” (Paste), “You Got Me” continues to follow suit. The earworm is representative of a photograph from a perfect summer of love, lust, breaking out from the pack, and getting lost in the night. In the middle of the track, a field recording from one of those kinds of days on the beach can be heard as a 747 barrels through the sky overhead. Play it loud, and play it now.

Watch the Video For “You Got Me”

Synthesizer is the title of the album, but it is also a physical entity, a synthesizer made specifically for A Place to Bury Strangers’ seventh album (a synthesizer that you too, can own (in part), if you buy the record on vinyl). In an era of making music where so little is DIY and so much is left up to AI, never setting foot in a practice room or a home studio, making something that feels deliberately chaotic, messy, and human, is entirely the point. Synthesizer is a record that celebrates sounds that are spontaneous and natural, the kind of music that can only come from collaboration and community.

The writing sessions for Synthesizer started in the band’s Queens studio, shortly after the release of 2022’s See Through You. The band re-formed with a new lineup, Ackermann still at the helm, now featuring friends John and Sandra Fedowitz. This new iteration of the band was inspiring for Ackermann, “It felt like a fresh new thing,” he says, “I wanted to write songs everyone was excited about playing.” Indeed, the sense of connectivity is everywhere on the record. Synthesizer very much feels like a record of reinvention, of taking a carefully honed aesthetic and sound and cracking it wide open, gutting it, reimagining it. And of course, to ever so slightly reinvent one’s sound, one must also build a new instrument, thus again the synth in question. The resulting record is one that is romantic, colorful, loud as hell, and one of A Place to Bury Strangers’ most live sounding records to date.

Pre-order Synthesizer

Watch the “Disgust” Video

A Place To Bury Strangers Tour Dates:
Sat. Sep. 7 – Xi’an, CN @ Loop Festival
Sat. Sep. 21 – Groningen, NL @ – Vicefest
Mon. Sep. 23 – London, UK @ The Shacklewell Arms
Tue. Sep. 24 – Wed. Sep. 25 – London, UK @ No90 Live Hackney Wick
Thu. Sep. 26 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute %
Fri. Sep. 27 – Dublin, IE @ The Grand Social %
Sat. Sep. 28 – Belfast, IE @ Oh Yeah %
Sun. Sep. 29 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo %
Mon. Sep. 30 – Bedford UK @ Esquire %
Thu. Oct. 3 – Berlin, DE @ Berlin Metropol [Record Release Show] %
Fri. Oct. 4 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen %
Sat. Oct. 5 – Oslo, NO @ Goldie %
Sun. Oct. 6 – Gothenburg, SE @ Fangelset %
Mon. Oct. 7 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan %
Wed. Oct 9 – Wroclaw, PL @ Lacznik %
Thu. Oct. 10 – Warsaw, PL @ Hybrydy %
Fri. Oct. 11 – Poznan, PL @ 2progi %
Sat. Oct. 12 – Bmo, CZ @ Kabinet Muz %
Sun. Oct 13 – Jena, DE KuBa Jena %
Fri. Oct. 25 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat &
Sat. Oct. 26 – Raleigh, NC @ Kings &
Sun. Oct. 27 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle &
Mon. Oct. 28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl &
Wed. Oct. 30 – Houston, TX @ White Oak &
Thu. Oct. 31 – Austin, TX @ Levitation &
Sat. Nov. 2 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar #
Sun. Nov. 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom #
Mon. Nov. 4 – San Francisco, CA @ GAMH Psyched Fest #
Thu. Nov. 7 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
Fr. Nov. 8 – Seattle, WA @ Freakout Festival ^
Sat. Nov. 9 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl

% w/ Stella Rose
& w/ YHWH Nailgun
# w/ Pop Music Fever Dream
^ w/ The Black Angels, Martin Rev, The Black Lips & Shabazz Palaces

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t be a stranger. Subscribe!]

[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

GLARE release new single – “Mourning Haze.”

GLARE is an alternative rock/shoegaze five-piece from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Since their inception in 2017, the band has wasted no time making a name for themselves with the release of heaps of singles and an abundance of touring and high-profile festival appearances.

Now, GLARE have teamed up with Deathwish Inc. + Sunday Drive to release a new song, “Mourning Haze.” Guitarist Toni Ordaz comments, “‘Mourning Haze’ had been with us for awhile, written around the time we were doing ‘Void in Blue’ and developing what would later become ‘Heavenly’. Immediately, we knew it sounded way different from what we did before and decided early on that it was going to be a part of what would become the album. The lyrics didn’t come much later until the recording sessions, but I think they are very much a reflection of what we were all going through at the time.” Toni continues, “‘Mourning Haze’ is about grief, and how dreams play a role in processing it.”

Listen / share / playlist “Mourning Haze” on DSP’s.

Listen / share “Mourning Haze” on YouTube.

GLARE will release their new LP sometime in spring 2025 via Deathwish Inc. / Sunday Drive. In the meantime, catch the band on tour this fall with Turnover, Panchiko, and more on select dates. Also see GLARE at Desert Daze and Levitation Fests:

GLARE, live:

Sep 5 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger # [7inch release show]
Sep 6 McAllen, TX – El Cine # [7inch release show]
Sep 27 Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar ^
Sep 29 Salt Lake City, UT – Church & State ^
Sep 30 Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall $
Oct 02 Ft. Collins, CO – The Coast $
Oct 03 Colorado Springs, CO – Black Sheep $
Oct 04 Omaha, NE – Slowdown $
Oct 05 Columbia, MO – Blue Note $
Oct 06 Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue $
Oct 07 Huntington, WV – The Loud $
Oct 08 Louisville, KY – Mag Bar ^
Oct 09 Little Rock, AR – Stickyz ^
Oct 10 Oklahoma City, OK – Resonant Head ^
Oct 10-13 Lake Perris, CA – Desert Daze
Oct 14 San Diego, CA – Voodoo Room ^
Oct 15 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress ^
Nov 03 Austin, TX – Levitation, Far Out Lounge %
Nov 15 Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Live! ~
Nov 17 Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel ~
Nov 19 St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live ~
Nov 20 Orlando, FL @ The Beacham ~
Nov 21 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade, Heaven ~
Nov 23 Houston, TX – House of Blues ~
Nov 24 Dallas, TX – The Factory in Deep Ellum ~

# w/ Trauma Ray, Maldosa
^ w/ Glixen
$ w/ Turnover, Glixen
% w/ Slowdive, Drop Nineteens
~ w/ Panchiko

Keep your mind open.

[The subscription box is glaring at you…wondering why you haven’t subscribed.]

[Thanks to Stephanie at Another Side!]

Chastity announce self-titled album due September 13, 2024 and new single – “Jaw Locked.”

Chastity is for the skids, the headbangers, the freaks. Chastity is for everyone who has suffered and survived the lethal combination of suburban overculture and mental distress. Chastity is especially for everyone who didn’t survive—the ones who didn’t get out. Brandon Williams did, luckily, and his work with Chastity has been to collect people like him, who got out by the skin of their teeth.

Chastity’s first three full-length records—2018’s Death Lust, 2019’s Home Made Satan, and 2022’s Suffer Summer—formed a trilogy that defined a 4 year arc of the band’s contribution to outsider music. Each record was informed by Williams’ life, but each was also conceptual and interpretive, refracting his experiences through a level of remove. On Chastity’s upcoming, self-titled fourth record, there is no such distance: Williams decided to write a fully non-fiction work. Incoming September 13, 2024 on Deathwish Inc. (US), Dine Alone (Canada), and Big Scary Monsters (UK/E) Chastity is a 13-track record about the things that have always run through the band’s records—struggle, death, despair, redemption, darkness, and light—but this time, the songs ascend to new depths of intensity and desperation, new heights of resolution and power. “It’s really about the first nosedive that I did as a young person,” says Williams. “It’s a record about struggle, about the missing years. It’s also a thank you to some people in my life.”

Today, Chastity album opener “Jaw Locked” premieres. Williams continues, “For a few years we’ve closed our live show with the same song, but we’ve never really had a song that opens our live show totally right. I am so excited that we’ve found that in this song ‘Jaw Locked’, and that we can open the self-titled album with this song as well.”

Listen / share / playlist “Jaw Locked” on DSP’s.

Listen / share “Jaw Locked” on YouTube.

Chastity hurtles through melodic hardcore, shoegaze, and emo, all magnificently and enormously rendered thanks to slick work from John Paul Peters (Propagandhi, Comeback Kid), who engineered and mixed the record. Recorded at Peters’ Private Ear Recording in Winnipeg in March 2024, Chastity’s guitars have never sounded so immediate and towering, sometimes exploding into a sputtering, ripped-speaker chaos. And there are perhaps the most ferocious bass and drums sounds of the year on Chastity, splitting the difference between gnarly-as-fuck generator-show tones and vividly textured, hi-fi chest-beaters.

The new record arrives on the heels of a whirlwind six years for Chastity. Williams founded the project in Whitby Ontario and from the start, it’s been a project of absolution via community connection. There weren’t any venues for independent punk music in the suburban town, so Williams and his friends started throwing punk shows in a barn on Whitby’s rural outskirts. People took notice: Before long, Ontario punk stalwarts like PUP and Metz were making the pilgrimage to the barn to headline gigs, and profits from the shows went to a regional youth mental health services. Chastity spent the next years touring North America including shows with Sunny Day Real Estate, Alexisonfire, and Deafheaven, culminating in their spring 2024 headline run, with a set that synced to an original feature film projected behind the stage.

Now, Chastity will tour alongside Fucked Up in support of Chastity and will close out the year with a highly anticipated set at The Fest in Gainesville, FL. Pre-order / pre-save Chastity here ahead of its September 13 release date and look for more news soon.

Chastity, on tour:
September 12 Oshawa, ON @ The Biltmore Theatre ^
September 13 Montreal, QC @ Foufounes Electriques ^
September 14 Ottawa, ON @ The 27 Club ^
September 17 Winnipeg, MB @ The Park Theatre ^
September 18 Saskatoon, SK @ Capitol Music Club ^
September 19 Edmonton, AB @ The Buckingham ^
September 20 Calgary, AB @ Modern Love ^
September 21 Kelowna, BC @ Reverly ^
September 23 Victoria, BC @ Capital Ballroom ^
September 24 Nanaimo, BC @ The Queen’s ^
September 25 Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl ^
October 25 Gainesville, FL @ The Fest [Heartwood Soundstage]

^ w/ Fucked Up

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Stephanie at Another Side!]