October 2020 – Page 2 – 7th Level Music

FUZZ unleash new single, “Spit,” from upcoming album.

FUZZ, the raw power trio comprised of Los Angeles-based Ty Segall (drums, vocals), Charles Moothart (guitar, vocals), and Chad Ubovich (bass, vocals), will release their new album and first in five years, III, on October 23rd via In The Red. Today, FUZZ release a new single, “Spit,” and its mind-bending stop motion video. Following lead single “Returning,” an auditory meditation on the power of one and the different perspectives of one, “Spit” is fierce with buzzing guitar licks and pummeling percussion. Its video, made by Moothart, reflects this intensity, with nightmarish characters spun from wire and trippy collages.

“‘Spit’ was written early in the process of working on III. When Ty and I first started working on this song, we didn’t know if it was even going to be a FUZZ song or not,” says Moothart. “We wanted to make a song that felt straight forward, but had a subtle tweak that over time gets more obvious. The verse riff almost feels like you’re falling asleep at the wheel then the chorus opens up with a melodic, but sharp riff that adds to the punch-drunk feeling of the verse.”

Moothart elaborates on the video: “I started doing stop motion as a quarantine experiment. I wanted to make experimental animation that I could try to make sound design for, and I ended up just making a FUZZ video. It was an extremely fun project to take on in this time. It was especially fun to open up for feedback and ask for direction so that I had to challenge myself to complete something that felt cohesive. I was honored when it became more clear that I had actually created something that the band wanted to stand behind from an aesthetic standpoint.”

Watch FUZZ’s Video for “Spit”

The follow-up to 2015’s II, “an impressive double album made for headbanging and the cultivation of bad vibes” (NPR Music), III keeps the focus on the live sounds of the band. It was recorded and mixed at United Recording under the sonic lordship of Steve Albini, with minimal use of overdubs and studio tricks. Albini’s mastery in capturing sound gave FUZZ the ability to focus entirely on the playing while knowing the natural sounds would land. It takes the essential ingredients of “guitar based music” and “rock and roll power trio” and puts them right out on the chopping block. It was a much more honest approach for FUZZ — three humans getting primitive, staying primitive.

A pyramid of sonic destruction and psychic creation, all shades of color, truth and lies. III is the pillar of unity and singularity. Log out, drop thought, turn up.
Listen to “Returning”

Pre-order III

FUZZ Tour Dates:
Thu. Dec. 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Fri. Dec. 4 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Sat. Dec. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Fri. Jan. 22 – Sat. Jan. 23 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Mon. Jan. 25 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
Tue. Jan. 26 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
Wed. Jan. 27 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
Fri. Jan. 29 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
Sat. Jan. 30 – Felton, CA @ Felton Music Hall
Thu. Feb. 4 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Fri. Feb. 5 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
Sat. Feb. 6 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
Sun. Feb. 7 – Montreal, QC @ La Tulipe
Mon. Feb. 8 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
Wed. Feb. 10 – New York, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Thu. Feb. 11 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Fri. Feb. 12 – Baltimore, MD @ OttoBar
Sat. Feb. 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Sun. Feb. 14 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
Sat. March 13 – Istanbul, TR @ Zorlu Art Center
Tue. March 16 – Nimes, FR @ Paloma
Wed. March 17 – Barcelona, ES @ Upload
Thu. March 18 – Madrid, ES @ BUT
Sat. March 20 – Bilbao, ES @ Santana 27
Mon. March 22 – Biarritz, FR @ Atabal
Wed. March 24 – Paris, FR @ Trabendo
Thu. March 25 – Lille, FR @ Aeronef
Fri. March 26 – Köln, DE @ Gebaude 9
Sat. March 27 – Berlin, DE @ Columbian Theater
Tue. March 30 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
Wed. March 31 – London, UK @ Electric Ballroom

Keep your mind open.

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

[Thanks to Jim at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Jessie Kivel takes a trip to the “Northside” on his new single.

Jesse Kivel shares a new single, “Northside,” from the forthcoming album, Infinite Jess, out November 13th on his own New Feelings label. Following “woozy and widescreen” (Brooklyn Vegan) lead single “William,” “Northside” pulses with a beat that echoes My Bloody Valentine’s “Soon,” minus the gauze. It builds worlds of melody, injected with love, depth and spirit, so much so that you need to sing that chorus back as loud as you can. ‘The Northside’ Jesse refers to is the neighborhood in Santa Monica locals know as ‘North of Montana.’ It’s an enclave for rich screenwriters, directors, actors and business folks, where they can build mini Xanadus for their families and live out an impossible West Coast fantasy that probably died in 1969, but carries on in the capitalistic glory of their Teslas, manicured lawns and renovated three story minimalist box homes.

“This song is a love letter to a time when music was brand new and limitless in my mind,” says Kivel. “As a kid, my brother and I would walk from our high school to Barnes and Noble and spend hours reading Q, NME, MOJO and all the other British music magazines. Our favorite group was Oasis, and we just wanted to be the Gallaghers. This song also nods to The Smashing Pumpkins, Primal Scream and Polaris who I also deeply connected with at the time.“

Stream “Northside”

Infinite Jess puts more of him — the real Jesse, as man, father, son, brother — into the open world than ever seen, or heard, before. The whole album reads like an autobiography. So evocative. So instantly transportive. The music and pitch perfect arrangements — moody, playful, atmospheric, and unpredictable — are the vehicle for time travel and producer Joey Genetti, along with an immensely talented cast of some of the most dynamic technicians and stylists in LA’s contemporary music scene — Sam Wilkes, Jeff Brodsky, and Michael David — help infuse a rich, deeply felt sense of purpose and shape to every moment.

Stream “Northside,” “William” & Pre-Order ‘Infinite Jess’

Keep your mind open.

[Take a trip to the subscription box while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Wolfmanhattan Project declare it will be “Summer Forever.”

An anti-supergroup like no other! Wolfmanhattan Project, featuring Mick Collins (The Gories, The Dirtbombs), Kid Congo Powers (Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) and Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Lydia Lunch) bring you a healthy dose of dark swampy voodoo with a uniqueness and immediacy that only a combination of this magnitude could deliver.

The new video for ‘Summer Forever’, taken from their forthcoming second album Summer Forever And Ever (coming in 2021) on In The Red Records was filmed in isolation and edited and directed by filmmaker Dylan Mars Greenberg, who, among her many films and music videos, won Best Animated Film at this year’s LA Punk Film Festival for the short film, ‘The Bathtub‘, (starring Bob Bert).

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you split.]

[Thanks to Jo Murray!]

Review: Tim Heidecker – Fear of Death

I’m not sure if Tim Heidecker is best known as a stand-up comic or a musician. I first heard of him when I heard his new record, Fear of Death. I then learned he’s also a stand-up comic, and I wasn’t surprised. The album’s themes of death, existential dread, ennui, and, yes, light found in darkness, are all prime subjects for comedians and Heidecker’s perceptive wit is on every track. Collaborating with members of Weyes Blood, The Lemon Twigs, and Spacebomb on the record doesn’t hurt either.

A classic country / Americana sound permeates the entire record. “Prelude to Feeling” opens the album with the instruction (or is it a warning) that “You’re about to feel.” It’s true. The record is one to make you think. “Come Away with Me” is a tale of Heidecker pleading to his lover (voiced by Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering, who provides dual and backing vocals throughout the record) to leave the hot and smelly city to live in the country with him. It’s a fun little rocker.

“Grass is gettin’ browner, trees are fallin’ in the heat…We’re movin’ backwards,” they sing on “Backwards” – a song about devolution and how we should be helping each other instead of leaving the planet a dried-out husk for those to come after us. Despite this grim outlook, the song is upbeat and full of great slide guitar.

The title track has the great line of “Fear of death is keeping me alive.” as garage-rock guitar bounces around in the background and Heidecker proclaims he’s done partying and growing. “I’m moving on, I’m getting out. I can’t take any more lies,” he sings on “Someone Who Can Handle You,” a heartbreaker in which Heidecker finally gives up on a relationship that has worn him down to the bone.

“Nothing” might be the most gothic song you hear this year as Heidecker and Mering sing about there being nothing but a black void after we shuffle off this mortal coil. Heidecker tries to juggle Hollywood bullcrap while thinking all the time that none of it matters in the end. “Say Yes” opens with a CCR-like groove and then melts into a psychedelic bit of great bedroom rock as Heidecker pleads with his lover to stay the night with him.

The big and bold, and funny, “Property” is a tale of how cemeteries will eventually be turned into rental properties, shopping malls, and golf courses, because the dead won’t mind and by then we, the living, won’t care about the dead anymore. “Little Lamb” is almost a lullaby over Heidecker claiming he’s moving on from a lover because he’s tired of being fawned over and needs the time alone.

His cover of “Let It Be” is an alt-country delight and a moment of calm introspection for Heidecker as he muses on his mortality. “Don’t want money, don’t want fame, don’t want to be a household name,” Heidecker claims, but quickly makes the disclaimer that he truly doesn’t want those things without love in a Jackson Browne-like toe-tapping rocker. Mering takes lead vocals on “Oh How We Drift Away,” a haunting. lush song about how even good friends can drift apart over time.

It’s a lovely record that shows how accomplished a performer Heidecker is and embraces not only mortality, but also the mortality of institutions. It’s an album about impermanence, which everyone needs to embrace sooner or later. Why not do it sooner and enjoy life in the present? Heidecker’s on board.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t be afraid to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Martin Thulin – Into the Light

Martin Thulin is part of the psychedelic / shoegaze band Exploded View, and his new solo album, Into the Light, is full of psychedelic and dreamy ruminations on death, life, impermanence, and presence.

Opening track “Not Afraid to Die” blends Velvet Underground guitars with 1980s synth wave keys to send you floating into whatever version of the afterlife you prefer – or at least out of your current troubled reality. “Here in My Room” adds some disco horns to create a cool lounge-rock track. The bass on “Amazonian Smoke” is post-punk, the synths are goth, and the drums are industrial. It all works. “Thin White Duchess” is, of course, a play on David Bowie‘s “Thin White Duke,” and Bowie touches are sprinkled throughout the track. I like the way Thulin filters his vocals to the low end when you think they’re going to come in at full volume and then slowly brings them back into the front.

The thick keys on “New Dawn Coming” start off side two of the record, and soft electro-beats slide into the room like a sultry lover. The smoky bass of “Day Out Day In” and Thulin’s echoing vocals bring Peter Murphy to mind, and I love the simple, clear piano compliments throughout it. They’re almost like drops of ice water falling onto you during a humid day.

The guitars on “Upstairs Room” sound like they have strings of taffy as Thulin sings about listening to the radio on a quiet, lonely night – even though he’s with his lover (who is mourning their mother’s death) in the same place. Church organ-like keys usher in “Silence You Forever” while Thulin’s vocals take on a raspy spoken word quality. “Your anger makes you so blind, you can’t see you’re being fooled. And when they finally take it over, you’ll have no voice at all,” he sings / chants. Good heavens, those are some prescient lyrics in 2020, aren’t they? The closer, “Amalgam,” sounds like a film noir score and brings to mind images of rain-coated alleys, shady business deals, femme fatales, and suitcases of money that needs laundered as soon as possible.

It’s a haunting record, a cool record, a smooth record, and an uplifting record. That’s a rare combination in any year.

Keep your mind open.

[Step into the subscription box while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Mr. Thulin!]

Review: Oh Sees – Levitation Sessions

Recorded live in the parking lot of the famous Pappy and Harriet’s music venue in Pioneertown, California, Levitation Sessions by OSees is another great live set put together by the Reverb Appreciation Society and the folks behind the Levitation Music Festival. It’s also another great live album from Osees / Oh Sees / Thee Oh Sees / OCS (By the way, John Dwyer, if you’re reading this – I recommend “Eau Seas” for the next spelling, possibly calling the album under that moniker Water Weird.) that brings out some old tracks the band hadn’t played in years.

The album / show starts with the crowd favorite “Carrion Crawler,” getting things off to a deceptively quiet opening before unleashing rock fury. Mr. Dwyer (lead singer / guitarist) and his crew (Tim Hellman – bass, David Rincon – drums, Paul Quattrone – drums, Tomas Dolas – keyboards) give you a four-count to catch your breath before launching “I Come from the Mountain” at you like a rocket. “Static God” is the re-entry burn of that same rocket, and by now you’re holding on for dear life. Hellman’s bass is the harness keeping you in the rocket’s seat while Rincon and Quattrone are the sounds of the heat shield nearing critical failure. Dolas’ keys rise as Dwyer screams, “It doesn’t matter at all – your fucking institutions!” Impermanence is the only real thing.

The post / garage punk of “Sewer Fire” is outstanding and might cause you to pogo in your living room or office. Just try not to do it in your car while driving. “Chem Farmer / Nite Expo” blends keyboard-heavy prog-jazz with mammoth-heavy riffs and cymbal crashes. It ends with Dwyer yelling, “We have fun!” “Dreary Nonsense” is both fiery and goofy, which means it’s great. “The Fizz” is one of those older tracks they haven’t played in a while, and it has a great call-and-response chorus and fun keyboard dexterity from Dolas.

“Corrupt Coffin” and “Together Tomorrow,” both each under two minutes, blend together like a punk cocktail made out of Red Bull, sweat, vodka, and highly caffeinated Earl Grey tea. “Night Crawler” is pure psychedelic fuzz to lull you into a smoky headspace. You take a breath, and then “Terminal Jape” comes around the corner to mug you and then shove you into oncoming traffic. “The system has been broken down!” Dwyer grunts as the whole band turns into a tsunami. “Rainbow” slows things down a bit, but it’s almost a feint because “Heart Worm” is a straight-up punk boot to the head. “The world’s so fucked up!” Dwyer sings. It’s hard to argue with him if you watch the news.

The band pauses a moment before “Transparent World Jam” melts your mind and perhaps your body into lava lamp ooze. As Oh Sees like to do, they end with a mostly instrumental jam. This one is the nearly twelve-minute-long “Block of Ice” – a track that reminds you of Zappa, Allman Brothers, 13th Floor Elevators, and My Bloody Valentine all at once.

Few things can top the energy of a live Oh Sees show, and capturing that energy in a recording is a colossal feat. Levitation Sessions sounds great and the record’s mastering by J.J. Golden cannot be understated. This is a nice appetizer for, hopefully, many more live shows to come.

Keep your mind open.

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

Review: Holy Motors – Horse

At first blush, you’d never guess that Holy Motors is from Estonia. Their music sounds like shoegaze made by a band that grew up in the American southwest and spent their teen years making out with their respective lovers atop red rock mesas during sunsets and then spent the night drinking spiked yerba mate and counting stars.

Yet, they are from another continent. Their love of Americana and psychedelia is evident from the first track of their new album, Horse. On “Country Church,” lead singer Eliann Tulve tells a tale of a cowboy facing a moral crisis and looking for guidance, but the “country church is only open on Sundays, but the night comes down on me every day.” The guitars shimmer but have a dusty edge to their riffs throughout the track.

“Endless Night” would fit right into a David Lynch film with Tulve’s reverbed vocals, the hazy guitar chords, and the distant drum beats in the tale of lust and theft in a seedy roadside motel. The sad country blues guitar of “Midnight Cowboy” adds a classic touch to Tulve’s tale of unrequited love (“You’re the stream I never swam in…”). “Road Stars” has two tired people realizing they could be tired together if they could get past their vices and egos.

“Matador” is another spooky road story as Tulve sings of being on the run from creepy men in her hotel room and spending every cent she can get on gas so she can keep moving. The guitars on the track go deep into psychedelic visions during the chorus and the simple drum beat is almost a tribal chant. The guitars turn into mesquite smoke on “Come On, Slowly.”

The guitars on “Trouble” bring spaghetti western scores to mind with their mix of bold chords and echoed soft touches. The stunning instrumental closer, “Life Valley (So Many Miles Away),” is like a long lost Velvet Underground or Traffic cut that sinks deep into your veins and carries you away from whatever you’re dealing with at the moment.

Horse is one of those records that lures in the back of your head once you hear it and emerges in serene moments. It’s a record that, if you hear part of it in passing, will stick with you and make you seek it.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]

Partner open up their “Big Gay Hands” with new single.

Partner have shared the video for one of their most anticipated songs and a natural queer anthem “Big Gay Hands.” A live favourite from the past 3 years, Big Gay Hands is the third single, from Partner’s Never Give Up (November 20th on You’ve Changed Records) the follow up to their break-out debut album, In Search of Lost Time.

BIG GAY HANDS

“This song is about a wild night on the town filled with queer desire. It is an important song to us because it expresses a feeling we know is shared by many. There are a lot of songs out there about women’s bodies but this is the only song we know about big gay hands. This song is dedicated to the hotties and to those who love them.”
– Partner

Never Give Up is Partner’s second full-length album, following 2017’s In Search of Lost Time. In the years since their first release, the band has developed their “post classic rock” sound, leaving behind 90s rock comparisons. The new album retains elements that will be familiar to Partner fans, such as guitar solos and humorous subject matter, but with more structurally adventurous songs and abstract lyrics. They have spent the last several years on tour with drummer Simone TB, and this is evident in the looser and more confident performances captured on the album. Never Give Up was recorded by Steve Chaley at Palace Sound in the summer of 2019.

The band described the process of making the album. “In October of 2018 we found ourselves in a dark and quiet rehearsal space. We were practicing for a two person show, the first one we had played in many years. We were at a crossroads as a band, and we had no idea what the future held. All we knew was that we were going to be making music together. We weren’t sure what this music would sound like or who would be playing it with us. And then the songs started to arrive. Some of them fully formed, like the first songs we wrote. It was as much a surprise to us as anyone else when we realized we had the beginnings of our second album.”

Not all the songs came so easily. Some took over a year to complete. Some taunted the band with their elusivity. Some forced Partner to rip them apart and build them back together more than once. Never Give Up was written in rehearsal spaces, in the band’s bedrooms, in a condo, in friends’ and strangers’ houses, Air BnBs, in a cafe and on Josee’s couch and in the studio, and in the booth. “We talked. We were honest with each other and honest with ourselves. Sometimes it was a lot. And when it got to be almost too much we would repeat to each other, first as a joke and then not as a joke at all, ‘never give up’.”

Partner Links
Big Gay Hands – https://smarturl.it/p8u9de
Website: http://www.partnerband.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/partner.music.band/
Bandcamp: https://partnerband.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/partner_band/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/partner_band
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/partnerband

Keep your mind open.

[Use those hands of yours to subscribe while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Mar at Mar on Music.]

Review: Teenager – Good Time

It’s not hyperbole to say that Toronto post-punks Teenager almost died while making their new album, Good Time. As the story goes, the band created it in a new space they rented for two years underneath a restaurant. Among the many things they had to deal with while working on Good Time were rats, power outages, flooding, mold, and a carbon dioxide leak that threatened everyone in the building. To then call the record that came out of this chaos “Good Time” is, I imagine, a delightful inside joke. It’s also a delightful record, so it all equals out fine.

Opening track “Beige” immediately brings early B-52’s cuts to mind with its snappy bass, swelling synths, and lyrics about everything being the same day in and day out. Teenager couldn’t have predicted two years ago how relevant this song would be in 2020. “I’m stuck in a strange wave. Everything starts to feel beige,” they sing. Everything is bland and every city neighborhood looks the same. Now, our daily routines and homes fall into this category.

The jagged angle guitars of “Trillium Song” are like a breath of fresh post-punk air in a world clogged by bro-rock smog. “Pleasure” has a bit of a Japanese punk rock vibe to it with its fun, echoing guitars and Devo-like synths as they sing, “Too much pressure for pleasure, and pleasure takes pressure.” That might be the most Zen thing I’ve read so far this month.

“Romance for Rent” is a standout. It’s a tale of a man seeking romance online since he’s incapable, or just unwilling, to find it in real life. Again, the Teenager of 2018 could not have predicted how perfect this song would be in 2020, as many of us, for the sake of our health, have to find connections online. The percussion on this track is great, mixing a full kit with conga and other hand percussion. The whole track clicks perfectly and is one of my favorite singles of the year.

“Straight to Computer” is a dire warning about the online stuff they mention in the previous track. Teenager encourage us to get outside and away from these things that are designed to keep us indoors and barraged with advertising. “Can’t remember yesterday, can’t remember what I did today,” they sing in the opening of the title track – a song about how everyone’s in the same boat and often putting on the same mask to hide that they’re miserable. It’s hard to tell where the guitars end and the synths begin in this track, which is to say that it sounds pretty neat.

The guitars on “Touching Glass” move back and forth between heavy rock riffs and bouncy post-punk grooves. The closing track, “The Drain,” could refer to cleaning out their flooded basement studio, the general feel of malaise in this day and age, or both. It’s full of bold guitars that build to a fun, hopeful energy despite its lyrics about acid rain, depression, and being in a funk. By the end you’re thinking the song isn’t about falling into a dark hole. It’s about letting negativity wash off you down the drain and away from you forever.

To put out a record this good despite all the challenges Teenager went through to complete it is damn impressive and inspirational. We all need to get off our collective keisters and do something with this bonus time we’ve been given (if, granted, we are healthy and secure enough to do so). Teenager show that we can all have a good time, a great time, if we choose to grow.

Keep your mind open.

[It would be a good time if you subscribed.]

[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]

Adulkt Life releases two more fiery singles from upcoming record.

Adulkt Life, made of Huggy Bear’s Chris Rowley, Male Bonding’s John Arthur Webb and Kevin Hendrick, and drummer Sonny Barrett, announce their debut album, Book Of Curses, out November 6th on What’s Your Rupture? Today, they offer two new singles, “Stevie K” and “Taking Hits,” which follows the previously-released song “County Pride.”

Huggy Bear led the UK’s answer to riot grrrl, inspired by the “seismic shock” of witnessing a Nation of Ulysses performance together and galvanized by Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail’s germinal riot grrrl zine “Jigsaw.” In the 25 years since Chris Rowley played with iconic Huggy Bear, starting a new band hasn’t felt right. But after John Arthur Webb (Male Bonding), who Rowley met while picking up records at a Rough Trade shop, asked if he wanted to play music together it “suddenly it felt super exciting.” Within a year, Webb and Rowley befriended drummer Sonny Barrett, who worked at a different Rough Trade location and later offered to drum in Adulkt life. The Adulkt Life lineup was finalized when Webb enlisted his best friend and longtime collaborator, Kevin Hendrick (Middex) on bass.

For Rowley, Adulkt Life “felt like it could carry the weight of all the things I would want to culturally load into a band without having to compromise any of it.” That meant these songs—ecstatic buzzsaw guitars, blown-out poetry, the improvisatory energy of torrential art-punk drumming that reveals Sonny’s free-jazz interest—should reflect the conditions of his life as an older person. In 2020, Rowley is a 55-year-old father and longtime employee of a children’s charity. “You have to create a question and interrogate yourself,” he says, and so he poses inexhaustible ones: What is it to parent in a crumbling world? What does it mean to stay political as Earth burns, to keep loving music? How best to communicate the excitement and charge of possibility from “a whole different set of paradigms?” Adulkt Life inquires but offers no easy answers, instead instigating punk’s eternal invitation to see: “Wow, I should do something—make something, start a political party, just do something rather than not do something.”

The cut-and-paste word collages Rowley once shouted in Huggy Bear are as cool and thrilling as ever on Book Of Curses—with chiseled noise hooks expertly mixed by Webb and mastered by Total Control’s Mikey Young, fitting the “cold war bubblegum” aesthetic called out in the lyrics—but charged by the high-stakes of adulthood. “Taking Hits” is a rallying cry for those unable to cry. The explosive “Stevie K” is a “mythic hero/ine song” inspired by Nation of Ulysses guitarist Steve Kroner. In the 1990s, after Rowley and the other members of Huggy Bear saw Nation of Ulysses, “You couldn’t be a band and want to be anything less than the impact that had on us […] We wanted to shake everybody up.” Adulkt Life honors these impulses. Rowley expands on “Taking Hits” and “Stevie K”:

“‘Taking Hits’…I wanted to forge a battle hymn that would corral our beat down and
punch drunk living situations into something transcendent, stronger of knees and
able to stare out the haters.

It’s a synesthesia yarn synthesizing smelling salts, rubbing oils, cheerleading disgust, sugar and vitriol, like if the grifters got up early and went track training in the rain/confused east coast hard-core with all the floodlights on/jaws clamped like Dan Fante.

‘Stevie K’ was recorded in starvation conditions / prison yard style under the working title ‘Nation of Ulysses ruined my life’ as in ‘where do you take that logic to a limit?’ It’s a mod / art ballad for a catcher in the rye / no friends shake up steve k mythically emerging from field recordings, in love with the ruts staring at the rude boys a scream for hope / deliverance.”

LISTEN TO “STEVIE K” AND “TAKING HITS”
Other songs, ablaze, explore lawlessness, authenticity, love, redemption, like fables of radicals across time and space: us versus them, defeat and resurrection, sax squall, noise blasts, visceral empathy for the vulnerable and disenfranchised. Rowley’s apocalyptic visions just happen to appear alongside bedtime stories. On Book Of Curses, punk means never surrendering your creativity or your curiosity.
LISTEN TO “COUNTY PRIDE”

PRE-ORDER BOOK OF CURSES

BOOK OF CURSES TRACKLIST
1.County Pride
2. JNR Showtime
3. Whistle Country
4. Taking Hits
5. Flipper
6. Stevie K
7. Room Context
8. Move
9. Clean (But Itchy)
10. New Curfew

Keep your mind open.

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]