On November 19th Hot Snakes released a new single entitled “Checkmate,” which you can listen to now through all digital service providers. The band will have a very limited number of “Checkmate” 7” singles available at their upcoming UK & Ireland shows that kick off tonight, December 3rd in Nottingham. This 7” will also include the exclusive b-side “Not in Time.”
To celebrate their new single and impending tour, the band has shared a new video for “Checkmate,” which was directed by Hot Snakes’ own John Reis, and longtime friend of the band Craig Oliver. Watch as digital representations of the band invade and infest a house by clicking play on the video above, and/or also by clicking here.
“…Hot Snakes has historically been one of the world’s most reliable purveyors of angry, pulverizing rock ‘n’ roll. That pattern recurs today.” - Stereogum (Nov. 19, 2019).
Full list of dates is here:
Dec. 03 - Nottingham, UK - Bodega Dec. 04- Manchester, UK - Deaf Institute Dec. 05 - Newcastle, UK - Cluny Dec. 06 - Glasgow, UK - Broadcast Dec. 07 - Belfast, UK - Black Box Dec. 08 - Dublin, IE - Grand Social Dec. 10 - Birmingham, UK - Hare & Hound Dec. 11 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Dec. 12 - London, UK - Garage Dec. 13 - Bristol, UK - Thekla Social Dec.14 - Brighton, UK - Patterns Dec. 15 - Cambridge, UK - Portland Arms
The most recent Hot Snakes album, 2018’s Jericho Sirens is available everywhere from Sub Pop here and through all DSPs. And the band’s reissued catalog - Automatic Midnight, Suicide Invoice and Audit in Progress - is also available from Sub Pop.
Follow sea creatures on a journey through the circle of life in The Homesick’s psychedelic new visual for “Kaïn,” directed by Melissa Tvetan & Carver Maneese of production house CPJMLT LTD. The song is from The Big Exercise, the group’s label debut, available worldwide February 7th, 2020.
The Big Exercise features the singles “I Celebrate My Fantasy,” the aforementioned “Kaïn,” “Male Bonding,” and the title track, and was produced by The Homesick at Schenk Studio in Amsterdam, mixed by Casper van der Lans, and mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring).
The Big Exercise is available for preorder on CD/LP/DL from Sub Pop. Preorders of the album through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on bright yellow vinyl (while supplies last). Meanwhile, preorders in the UK and Europe from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on opaque yellow vinyl (while supplies last).
The Homesick’s current international tour schedule for 2019 continues tonight, December 4th with a show at Villa Wuller in Trier, Germany. The band will resume touring in 2020 with a headlining club trek of the Netherlands which spans February 21st at Groningen at Vera and ends March 7th in Utecht at Ekko.
December 2019 Dec. 04 - Trier, DE - VillaWuller
February-March 2020 Feb. 21 - Groningen, NL - Vera Feb. 28 - Nijmegen, NL - Merleyn Mar. 05 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Mar. 06 - Rotterdam, NL - WORM Mar. 07 - Utrecht, NL - EKKO
[Photo Credit: Sarah Cass]
About The Homesick’s The Big Exercise: If their debut Youth Hunt marked The Homesick’s tryst with faith and pastoral life, the band’s upcoming second album The Big Exercise brings them to more grounded, tangible pastures. With its title ripped from a passage in the Scott Walker-biography Deep Shade Of Blue, the record is a concentrated effort by Jaap van der Velde, Erik Woudwijk and Elias Elgersma to explore the physicality of their music in fresh ways (read more at Sub Pop).
The
official music video for Orville Peck’s “Nothing Fades Like The Light” Premiered today via The Boot. Directed by Deni
Cheng,
the video consists
of behind-the-scenes footage captured throughout Peck’s 2019 worldwide tour.
“Nothing Fades Like The Light” comes from Peck’s
critically acclaimed debut album Pony and was recently featured on
HBO’s hit show “Watchmen.”
After selling out every North American performance in 2019, Peck will continue to
tour throughout 2020, making stops at the Stagecoachand Shaky Kneesfestivals in
addition to an Australian tour and newly confirmed stops in Santa Fe, Oklahoma City, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston with additional dates to come.
You can now listen to The Shins and Shannon Lay’s contributions to the Sub Pop Singles Club, which are available now for the first time at all DSPs.
The Shins release features remastered versions of three early recordings: “When I Goose-Step,” “The Gloating Sun” and the original version of “New Slang,” which was previously titled “When You Notice the Stripes.” All 3 songs were first available on a tour-only CD EP in 1999. Omnibus Records released “When I Goose-Step” b/w “The Gloating Sun” on a long out-of-print 7”, also in 1999. Listen here.
Meanwhile, “New Slang (When You Notice the Stripes)” was released by Sub Pop in February 2001 on a now out-of-print 7” single before the release of Oh, Inverted World, The Shins acclaimed label debut album, which recently just surpassed 1 million copies sold.
Shannon Lay’s “Blue” and “We Mend” were recorded during the sessions for August, her Sub Pop debut released earlier this year. Listen here.
“We Mend” is a song for healing. In those moments where everything seems broken, it can be hard to have perspective, but whether we know it or not everything will be ok. “Blue” is about the struggle of loving someone who is gone a lot. A gentle reassurance to one another that even if you’re not physically together, the love remains strong. “Blue” is also a reference to, as Shannon puts it, “the color of Marge Simpson’s hair. I’ve always admired her devotion and understanding.”
Guy Garvey, frontman of the UK band Elbow, premiered “Blue” earlier this week via his Sunday BBC6 radio show, and today revealed that August, Shannon’s Sub Pop debut, is his album of the year.
The Shins and Shannon Lay’s 7”’s are the December 2019 installments of the Sub Pop Singles Club, subscriptions to which are completely sold-out. However, you still have a chance to sign up for the Volume 5/2020-21 edition of the club, with an entirely new set of artists (subscribe here please).
