“[Bethlehem Steel] pair hooky choruses with an illegal-basement-show energy.” Rolling Stone
“A fantastic guitar rock trio…Party Naked Forever is a much deeper and thoughtful record than that title might imply…I love this whole record.” Robin Hilton, NPR’s All Songs Considered
“[Becca Ryskalczyk] captures a sort of Rust Belt malaise in her music that makes everything feel rundown and past its prime…the album, largely operates in a full-speed-ahead stumble, towering songs that rush to keep apace with Ryskalczyk’s cavernous voice.” Stereogum
“Becca Ryskalczyk’s truly soaring voice makes Bethlehem Steel truly stand out.” BrooklynVegan
“[Bethlehem Steel] fucking rule.” The FADER
WATCH: Bethlehem Steel’s “Bad Girl” video on Stereogum // YouTube
Bethlehem Steel have announced their sophomore album with the premiere of its lead single “Bad Girl.” The self-titled album is the follow up to the band’s 2017 debut, Party Naked Forever, itself a heavily anticipated release owing to the band’s sterling reputation built sharing stages in Brooklyn DIY scene with bands like Spirit of The Beehive, Pile, Big Ups, Guerrilla Toss, Strange Ranger and Stove, that earned acclaim from Rolling Stone, NPR, Billboard, FADER and Stereogum, among others.
This album is the band’s first since they evolved from a trio to a four piece with the addition of guitarist Christina Puerto, who has also become a major part of the band’s songwriting process, and contributes lead vocals to several songs on the record. Her close relationship with guitarist/vocalist Becca Ryskalcyzk was central to the album’s development, a relationship dramatized in the video for the album’s lead single, a slightly tongue in cheek track penned by Ryskalcyzk that foregrounds the pairs’ rhythmic guitar interplay, building towards a nearly two-minute instrumental outro, as drums, bass and guitar add layer upon layer before the song reaches its apex with a sharp guitar and saxophone duel.
Ryskalcyzk expands on the songs background in conversation with Stereogum: “‘Bad Girl’ is about all the nights that my brain keeps me awake. Irrationally telling me I’m a terrible person. Going over and over and over all of the things I might have done to upset or inconvenience another human. Singing the line ‘Am I a bad girl?’ to my bandmates or even just out loud to myself was definitely embarrassing. I wasn’t sure if I should even keep it as a lyric until I decided to just lean into it. I send my mom everything I’m working on and when I sent her the demos with place holder titles she was like ‘Bad Girl? Now THATS how you name a song!’ so naturally it had to stay.” In support of the release the band are announcing an extensive US tour that includes dates with their Exploding In Sound label mates Kal Marks. Full details can be found below.
The album was written and recorded over a two year period by Ryskalczyk while splitting time between her brother’s house in Florida and Vermont, before fleshing out the arrangements with her bandmates back in Brooklyn. The songs were often intensely personal, and the solitary exercise of writing them left Ryskalczyk seeking a more collaborative writing process, one she found with the addition of a new member to the band, guitarist Christina Puerto, who joined Bethlehem Steel while they were touring in support of their debut. A close bond quickly formed between the pair, and that relationship has brought forth a new chapter for the band, with Ryskalczyk and Puerto’s collaborative energy providing the animating force behind their self-titled sophomore album (out September 13th via Exploding In Sound) – a release that serves as guide, of sorts, for those reaching towards self-empowerment, and an illustration of the transformative power of female friendship as a force in overcoming trauma.
“A lot of the lyrical content on this album is uncomfortable,” Ryskalczyk says. “It’s about men, and being taken advantage of, or abandoned or fucked over. I’ve been playing with the boys in the band for many years and they have always been sympathetic to my experiences, but there are certain things about what women experience that they will never understand, and having another woman as part of the band brought a different comfort and a sense of solidarity. Based on what’s happening in my life, I would still probably have sung about these things, but I don’t know what it would have been like without Christina. It wouldn’t have felt as powerful.”
The bulk of Bethlehem Steel is a stark look at toxic relationships and their effect on mental health, and its songs derive power from their unflinching approach to difficult topics. The pulsing, string-abetted “Couches,” which simmers for over half its runtime before exploding into a tangle of lead guitar parts, is a cutting appraisal of the worst parts of a suddenly absent family member, while the almost entirely spoken word track “Not Lotion” is a cathartic and rawly emotive expression of anger in the face of restrictive societal expectations. The single “Gov’t Cheese,” which is centered around Ryskalczk’s repetition of the mantra “I must take care of myself,” confronts a history of complicated friendships with men, with Ryskalczk and Puerto’s surprisingly sweet vocal harmonies belying the song’s frank reckoning with the vulnerabilities that are preyed upon in many of these negative relationships.
“When I wrote this I was looking back on a lot of toxic and abusive male relationships that I’ve had,” Ryskalczyk says. “A lot of them made me smaller and were holding me back from becoming a stronger woman. Sometimes you can still feel like you’re emotionally held hostage by them while trying to find a way to be there but at a distance.”
While the album’s lyrical depth and immediacy are readily apparent over Bethlehem Steel’s 10 tracks, the overall song construction and instrumentation is where Puerto and Ryskalcyzk’s rare chemistry is most apparent, and perhaps where the album’s greatest strength lies. Similarly, “Empty Room,” one of three songs on the album (along with “Read The Room” and “Sheryl”) which debuts Puerto as a second writer in the band, presents a sense of cognitive distortion, with unpredictable percussion patterns, guitar licks and melodies that mirror the chaos that can ensue from mental health issues debilitating your regularly scheduled programming.
It’s an exhilarating listen, and with the transition from a trio to a four piece, the sound of a band finding another gear as they change shape and mature as songwriters and musicians. Taking stock of your experiences and your emotional health in solitude, can be an empowering task, but enlisting the assistance of allies certainly never hurts, and Bethlehem Steel’s sophomore album is a testament to value of togetherness in difficult times.
“It’s important that this record is something that we did together and that we grew within, and I think the album artwork by Nicole Rifkin shows that” says Ryskalcyzk. “Christina and I met at a time when we were both processing painful things in our personal lives, and through writing together we were able to provide each other with strength and support, while also turning those feelings into something more cathartic. Hopefully in sharing the record we can connect with people, and they can connect with that strength.”
Bethlehem Steel will be released via Exploding In Sound on September 13th. It is available for purchase here.
Tour dates: 9/13 NYC release show @ Trans Pecos w/ Cat Cohen and Shark Muffin 9/14 Buffalo, NY release show @ Mohawk Place 9/15 Albany, NY @ Buddie’s Basement 9/16 Rollinsford, NH @ Sue’s 9/25 Boston, MA @ O’Briens * 9/26 Northampton, MA @ Red Cross * 9/27 Rochester, NY @ The Bug Jar * 9/28 Toronto @ Duffy’s * 9/29 Kalamazoo, MI @ Candy Cane Lane * 9/30 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean downstairs * 10/1 St Louis, MO @ Nu Craig * 10/2 Fayetteville, AR @ Backspace * 10/3 Denton, TX @ J&Js * 10/4 Austin, TX @ Mohawk * 10/5 New Orleans, LA @ Bank St Bar * 10/6 Nashville, TN @ Drrkmttr * 10/8 Asheville, NC @ Static Age * 10/9 Raleigh, NC @ TBA * 10/10 DC @ Rhizome * 10/11 Philadelphia, PA @ Dumpster Out Back * 10/12 NYC @ Chili’s * *= w/ Kal Marks
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