Mass Gothic’s official video for “Nice Night” - a standout track from their acclaimed self-titled album - premiered this morning via the fine folks at Stereogum. The stark new visual stars band members Noel Heroux and Jessica Zambri, and was shot in a single take over an evening in June by returning director Addison Post (“Every Night You’ve Got To Save Me”).
Stereogum had this to say, “The self-titled release is a delightfully genre-hopping collection of songs that range from Kraftwerk-esque synth meditations (“Territory”) to exuberantly bright indie-pop (“Every Night You’ve Got To Save Me“). Lead single “Nice Night,” however, always felt like the most fitting of Heroux’s stylistic costumes — a simultaneously sludgy-yet-shimmering reflection that finds him first singing, then later shouting about depression as an avalanche of distortion arrives to bury him. In the new Addison Post-directed video for “Nice Night”…Heroux sits in the center of a white backdrop dispassionately mouthing along to his song as Zambri accompanies him on the bass. Post also helmed the clip for “Every Night You’ve Got To Save Me,” which captured too the pair’s innate chemistry, one that’s immediately apparent here even as they rarely catch one another’s eye. It’s a simple visual, but it’s one that lets the power of Heroux’s words come across undistracted (see premiere July 11th).”
Mass Gothic’s summer tour schedule begins later this week, with a show at San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences on July 14th. The group will also hit the road with labelmate Kyle Craft for a short east coast tour, which begins August 9th in Montreal at La Vitrola and ends August 13th in Philadelphia at Boot & Saddle. (Complete tour dates below.)
Mass Gothic is available now, everywhere fine musical recordings are sold [buy link].
Tour Dates
Jul. 14 - San Francisco, CA - California Academy of Sciences
Pittsburgh punks The Gotobeds just shared new track “Bodies,” taken from their upcoming album Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic. The last song to be recorded from the album, “Bodies” was written after the band joked that it lacked a “hit”. Well… here that hit is! Now wrap yer ears around this infectious two and half minute anthem.
NME had these fine words to say of the track: “Playing the kind of educated punk that Dead Kennedys and The Dead Boys helped push overground, their forthcoming Sub Pop record ‘Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic’ is an enthralling, engaging listen. Singer/guitarist Eli Kasan’s delivery is half-spoken, half-sung, but always with a keen sense of ‘kiss this’ nihilism in his tight-chested proclamations. He may snarl, but he’s never cartoon punk.”
Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic also features previously streamed tracks ”Real Maths/Too Much“ and ”Brash Not Rash’” and will be available on CD/LP/DL/CASS worldwide on June 10th. The album is now up for pre-order at Sub Pop Mega Mart, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Bandcamp, and at independent retailers near you. LP pre-orders will receive the limited “Loser” edition on baby poop yellow.
The follow-up to their 12XU debut Poor People Are Revolting, Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic masterfully balances raucous energy with intelligence and integrity. Having previously shared stages with the likes of The Replacements, Total Control and Protomartyr, The Gotobeds will tour the US and Canada in support of the album release in June and July. See a current list of tour dates right over here.
[Photo Credit: Shawn Brackbill]
More on The Gotobeds by Protomartyr’s Joe Casey: Hey, what’s this? Well that, my friend, is the newest album from The Gotobeds, entitled Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic. It’s their second full-length LP and their first for Sub Pop. Whoa, whoa, please slow down. I’m already completely lost. What you just said sounded like a stream of complete gibberish. Okay, I’ll lay it out for you and if you have any questions could you yell them at me? SOUNDS GOOD. The Gotobeds formed vaguely around 2009 in Pittsburgh and play a mutant strain of rock music that is often filed under punk, indie rock, or 99-cent discount bin. WAIT, THE GOTOBEDS? I HEARD THEY WERE KNUCKLEHEADS! Only if the knuckle is the part of the human body that contains the brains. Much like their previous releases on underground stalwart labels like Mind Cure and 12XU, this new album artfully slips intelligence and experimentation into a dying art form. It’s a harder feat than you’d think [read at Sub Pop].
Pacific Northwest rippers So Pitted will support Hardly Art’s Chastity Belt on their forthcoming west coast tour, beginning August 10th in Portland, OR at Doug Fir and ending August 27th in Seattle, WA at Neumos. You’ll also find the band performing at Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival September 2nd-4th. (Tour dates below.)
So Pitted recently visited 90.3 KEXP for a live performance; see/hear them tear through neo highlights “cat scratch,” “pay attention to me,” “woe,” and a NEW track titled “no name #4.” [it’s right here].
You can also watch the band’s recent (+very official) video for “feed me” here. This humorous visual, directed by Eleanor Petry, is loosely inspired by Jane Child’s late 80s pop classic (+ video) “Don’t Wanna Fall In Love.”
So Pitted’s neo is currently available on CD / LP / DL / CASS, and at fine independent purveyors of recorded music.
Tour Dates Aug. 10 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir* Aug. 12 - Reno, NV - Holland Project* Aug. 13 - Las Vegas, NV - Bunkhouse Saloon* Aug. 14 Phoenix, AZ - Rebel Lounge* Aug. 15 - Tucson, AZ - 191 Toole* Aug. 17 - San Diego, CA - Casbah* Aug. 18 - Pomona, CA - Acerogami* Aug. 20 - Oakland, CA - Starline Ballroom* Aug. 21 - San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop* Aug. 23 - Eugene, OR - Boreal* Aug. 27 - Seattle, WA - Neumos* Sep. 02 - 04 - Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot *w/ Chastity Belt
We’re thrilled to announce the signing of Nor’Eastern upstarts LVL UP to what has been best described as a seemingly endless and punishing recording contract. Welcome to the family, fellas!
Lead-off track ”Pain” is a lo-fi indie rock jammer from their forthcoming Sub Pop debut (LVL UP’s third album), Return To Love. The Mike Ditrio-produced record showcases LVL UP’s ability to write incredibly understated indie-pop classics. Pitchfork says of LVL UP: “Homespun, 1990s-indebted indie pop… A uniquely vulnerable songwriting voice makes LVL UP distinct.”
The band is based out of New York, and members’ roots run deep into the DIY scene. (Their Evie Nagy-penned bio is below for your perusal.)
Return To Love is available for pre-ordernow, and LP pre-orders through Sub Pop Mega Mart and independent retailers near you will receive the limited Loser Edition on orange creamsicle swirl vinyl (while supplies last).
LVL UP have also announced a Fall tour, that includes dates with Bear vs Shark, Alex G and Eskimeaux. Details below.
“Hidden Driver,” the opening track of LVL UP’s third album and Sub Pop debut Return to Love, never stops moving. What starts with unassuming guitars and vocals adds new lines, depths, and intensity, until its unrestrained, triumphant finish. “God is peeking, softly speaking,” repeats the chorus, working through the relationship between spirituality and creative inspiration, and introducing a band that is always pushing further.
LVL UP – guitarists Mike Caridi and Dave Benton, bassist Nick Corbo, and drummer Greg Rutkin – is a true collaboration, a band that takes the stylistically distinct ideas of four members and brings them together into something new. Caridi, Benton, and Corbo write and sing equally, bringing their work to the group to be fully realized, resulting in an album built on different perspectives but a common drive.
“We have very different inspirations across the board,” says Benton, noting his own admiration for the writer and documentarian Astra Taylor, Corbo’s interest in the mystical and the occult, and Caridi’s attention to personal storytelling. The music itself grows from a shared melodic and experimental sensibility, as well as a nod to iconic influences like Neutral Milk Hotel and Mount Eerie. But each songwriter has a different vision every step of the way, and there isn’t always alignment–it shouldn’t make sense, but in the end it does.
LVL UP was formed in 2011 at SUNY Purchase as a recording project between Caridi, Benton, and their friend Ben Smith, with the original intention of releasing a split cassette with Corbo’s then-solo material. They instead released that album, Space Brothers, as one band, and Rutkin joined shortly afterwards for the group’s first show. Smith left the band for personal reasons just before the release of second album Hoodwink’d, a joint release on Caridi and Benton’s label Double Double Whammy and Exploding in Sound. DDW also put out records from other artists in the tight-knit community that launched the band.
“There’s not really a town associated with the school, so there’s no bar or club that you could go play in easily,” says Corbo. “But there was a student center on campus that was all student run. That was a great place to play, and also take care of a lot of practical issues like a place to put your stuff and a place to practice weekly. It was almost like an incubator situation for us and a lot of other bands – it gave us a little bit of experience and confidence, so it wasn’t as scary when we decided to go on tour for the first time.”
Also part of that university community was Return to Love’s producer Mike Ditrio, who mixed LVL UP’s previous records and “was basically a fifth member of the band,” says Corbo. “He played a huge role in developing the sound, without butting in too much. He also navigated our personal dynamic really nicely.”
That sound is marked by reverb, harmony and tape distortion, with a keen balance of pop and experimentation. From the fast yet flowing lines of “Blur” to the all-consuming wall of guitar in “The Closing Door,” each song pushes and pulls in compelling, unexpected ways. There’s deliberation as well as spontaneity – the latter developed with the help of a song-a-day project, which pushed Caridi and Corbo to write and record full songs in a single day. Some of that material, including “Naked in the River with the Creator,” made it onto the album.
“I ultimately made this half-drone, half-really loud guitar song, because it was an idea I had floating around in my head but never got around to doing until I had to write a song in a day,” says Corbo. “The thing that pulled me through was grasping onto words and images, but instead of pulling from an infinite sea of all the images that you could pull from, it’s easier to constrict yourself a little bit.”
Tour Dates:
9/9 - Richmond, VA @ Gallery 5
9/10 - Raleigh, NC @Hopscotch Festival
9/11 - Washington, DC @ DC9
9/20 - Boston, MA @ Great Scott
9/21 - Montreal, QC @ Pop Montreal (Bar Le “Ritz” PDB) ~
Kyle Craft’s acclaimed debut album Dolls of Highland is only three-ish weeks old and yet he already has his first music video in the can. And I’ll tell you what, this can in particular is worth the watch. As with the album, the video leaves no room for disappointment.
The saucy new visual was co-directed by Craft and Tyler Bertram, and Craft had this to say of the process: “The video just fell into my lap in a lot of ways. I wanted something quick with a candid feel to it. One of my roommates was having his annual drag birthday get together and it seemed like the story would sort of write itself if we just started shooting. I feel like we approached this in the same way I approached the album… Hit record, see what happens.”
Kyle Craft’s late spring U.S. tour in support of Dolls of Highland resumes tonight, May 19th in San Francisco at the Independent and currently ends May 30th in Salt Lake City, UT at Kilby Court. Along the way, he’ll support Fruit Bats (May19th-25th) and share the stage with label mates Arbor Labor Union (May 29th). Additional live dates will be announced shortly. (complete dates below.)
Dolls of Highland is currently available on CD / LP / DL / CASS from Sub Pop Mega Mart, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and Bandcamp. The limited “Loser” edition on pink with black-swirled vinyl while sold out via the Megamart, is still available at shows on tour and at independent retailers near you (while supplies last).
After starting the year as an early-rising store opener, I’ve begun working closing shifts this month. One feature of closing that I’d forgotten about is the fugue state of the airport late at night. In the morning, people are hopped up on caffeine (or rushing towards its nearest source), moving at a brusque pace, hurtling towards their destinations, and reckoning with the reality of a 6AM flight.
At night, people walk slower. Flights have been delayed, and some folks have a long night ahead of them. Most people are trying to stay awake just long enough to board their plane. When you ask these wanderers “Hi, how are you?” the most common response you’ll hear is “I’m just killing time.” Eyeballs gaze over every single item for sale, as if in an effort to consume the most time as possible. But after one lap around the store, most of them exit to explore the next corner of the airport, with the deliberate restlessness of a tumbleweed.
For the rare travelers that decide to hang out in the store, more often than not, they park themselves at our listening station bench. From here, they can sample different Sub Pop albums for sale, and also flip-through/write in our guestbooks. And after reading through our guestbooks for the first time in months, I found some entries that were too good to not share with the whole Sub Pop Interweb audience, who aren’t lucky enough to make it to the airport frequently.
So please enjoy these assorted pages from our 2-year-old guestbooks, and make sure to write your own entry next time you visit us!
(Before Sleater-Kinney reunited and played for the first time in Spokane, WA, we had our fair share of far-flung fans stop by the airport store en route to the show. I think these S-K fans from Great Britain made the longest trip.)
(“Making layovers somewhat passible since 1988” and a heartfelt message from Garrett.)
(Not to be out-done, thanks, Nora!)
(Naturally, rock star portraits abound in the guestbooks.)
(Once we got real celebrities to sign our guestbook. I don’t know why someone crossed out your name in this entry, but thanks, TacocaT!)
(Sometimes state rivalries play out amongst the pages, with the eloquence of a bathroom stall. Here are Alaska and Texas duking it out.)
(Followed by Portland getting roasted.)
(Bottom left corner: “Y’all are super hipster. Nice!”)
(This is my favorite one. All of us at Sub Pop are very honored to be your favorite band from Portland.)
