Following their triumphant live debut at NYC’s TV Eye in March 2022 and explosive shows at SXSW before Kevin Whelan injured his knee during a performance, Sub Pop recording artists AEON STATION are announcing a round of live shows this Summer. Their live performance as hailed by The Aquarian “created magic… It was like a sporting event where deep in your bones you knew your favorite team or athlete was not just going to win, but achieve something extraordinary.”
Kicking off July 9th at Chicago’s Square Roots Festival where they are sharing the stage with friends Guided By Voices, they will be performing more shows in August and September on the coasts.
July 9 – Chicago @ Square Roots Festival August 12 – San Francisco @ The Independent (tickets) August 13 – Los Angeles @ The Echo (tickets) August 26 – NYC @ Le Poisson Rouge (tickets) August 27 – Boston @ Brighton Music Hall (tickets) September 23 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios (tickets) September 24 – Seattle @ Tractor Tavern (tickets)
Surprising an unsuspecting public last Summer with the news of Aeon Station’s debut release (this was the first new music from any of The Wrens since 2003’s critically adored album Meadowlands), Observatory’s (released in December 2021) effect was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. Pitchfork lauded, “Whelan’s instincts are exquisite. His melodies are sweet, but never overstated. His songs rise and swell, but it’s never too much, always just enough.” Referencing The Wrens’ long-awaited follow up, SPIN proclaimed, “Though this isn’t a Wrens album, which is what many of their extremely patient fans had hoped for, it’s certainly a great consolation prize.” Calling the album “arresting,” Wall Street Journal contributes their praise, “The album’s essential idea, embodied in both the words and Mr. Whelan’s gesture to form this band and get his songs out there, is that endurance matters above all.”
Joined by his Wrens bandmates drummer Jerry MacDonald and guitarist Greg Whelan (both of whom also play on the album), Aeon Station is rounded out with NYC/NJ indie rock veteran Lysa Opfer (Gramercy Arms, Big Lake) and guitarist/producer/author Tom Beaujour.
Referencing the injury that sidelined the band for the Spring while his leg healed, Whelan concludes: ”After the minor setback during SXSW which was one in a long line of rocker injuries, we can’t wait to see you at a show!”
“Hotline” is Lael Neale’s effervescent new single and video, and is available today worldwide on all DSPs from Sub Pop. The song was written by Neale in collaboration with her friend, Jane McCarthy, arranged and produced by Guy Blakeslee, and mastered by Chris Coady. “Hotline” follows the release of Acquainted with Night, her acclaimed album of 2021.
In celebration of the new song, fans can dial a “hotline” to connect with Neale, and she will read callers’ fortunes for 2022. The number will be active beginning today, January 11th from noon - 5 pm ET. Neale explains, “I became interested in numerology through John Lennon and his belief in the significance of numbers, specifically the number nine. Because this song imagines a late night call of desperation into a psychic hotline, I thought it’d be fun to act as that ‘psychic’ and connect with people directly, giving them a personalized fortune for this year based on their unique numerology.” Call 858-224-3129 today!
Neale’s Acquainted with Night features ten tracks and includes the standouts “Blue Vein,” “Every Star Shivers in the Dark,” “For No One For Now,” and the title cut, and is available on CD/LP/CS/DSPs through Sub Pop. The album was composed and arranged by Neale, produced and mixed by Blakeslee, and mastered by Chris Coady.
Upon its release Acquainted with Night saw praise from the likes of Uncut, MOJO, Loud & Quiet, The AV Club, Stereogum, SPIN, and earned “Best of 2021” placement from the likes of Under the Radar, Les Inrocks, Aquarium Drunkard, Gold Flake Paint, Still Listening, Secret Meeting and more.
What people are saying about Lael Neale: “Who knew the world was lacking a country-folk version of Broadcast until now?” - ★★★★ MOJO
“With her Omnichord, the singer/songwriter exposes the nerve endings of her songs.” ★★★★★ - Musikexpress
“This album reminds listeners that life is full of beauty not in spite of, but because of, the ordinary details of every day.” [8/10] - Loud & Quiet
“…an intimate, lo-fi set of songs that seem unearthed from the dusty vaults of time.” ★★★★ - The Forty Five
“The simplicity is part of what makes her record so beautiful; just her voice, her words, her electric guitar, and her omnichord are enough to put the listener in a trance.” - SPIN
“The result is the urgent melodies and unadorned instrumentals on Acquainted With Night, a collection of songs that’s disarmingly poetic in its simplicity.” - The AV Club
“Her lyrics are intuitive, meandering between memory and fantasy. As she ponders the rituals of the mundane – folding sheets, making toast, watching strangers in the street – her old-timey vocals and country-folk melodies make gorgeous, placid trails, gently crackling on the four-track tape.” - The Guardian
“With a celestial voice stripped of any artifice, Lael Neale skillfully blends romance and the banality of life with brilliant songs of drama and humor.” - Les Inrocks
“…There is a raw, unvarnished energy screaming throughout these 10 tunes.” [8/10],Northern Transmissions
“Lael Neale’s second album weaves intimacy with dreamy, Omnichordal magic.” - Secret Meeting
“A collection of intimate, powerful, and incredibly relatable songs, Acquainted with Night paints a portrait of solitude that resonates with the current state of the world.“ - Monster Children
On Friday, November 18th, 2022, Sub Pop will release the astonishing new Weyes Blood full-length And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow. The album’s ten tracks were written by Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering, with album production from Mering along with Jonathan Rado on all songs except for “A Given Thing,” produced by Mering and Rodaidh McDonald. And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow was mixed by Kenny Gilmore at 101 Studio, mastered by Emily Lazar and Chris Allgood at The Lodge, and features guest appearances from Meg Duffy, Daniel Lopatin, and Mary Lattimore.
The album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising, the first album of three in a special trilogy. Where Titanic was an observation of doom to come, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos (spoiler alert: the next one will be about “hope”). “We’re in a fully functional shit show,” Mering says. “My heart is a glow stick that’s been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness.”
The new album’s first single, “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody,” is about the interconnectivity of all beings, but also the fraying of society around us.
And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow will be available on CD/LP/CS/DSPs, and can be preordered now from Sub Pop. In North America, LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers, and Weyes Blood’s official website will receive the limited Loser Edition on translucent purple vinyl. Meanwhile, preorders of the LP at select independent retailers in the UK and EU will receive the Loser Edition on clear vinyl (both Loser Edition options available while supplies last).
Weyes Blood has also announced the “In Holy Flux Tour,” a headlining international touring run for the Spring of 2023 in support of And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow. The UK and EU dates begin on Saturday, January 28th in Berlin at Festsaal Kreuzberg and ending Tuesday, February 14th in Brighton, UK at CHALK. The North American leg will begin Wednesday, February 22nd in Nashville at Brooklyn Bowl and currently ends Saturday, April 2nd in Tulsa at Cain’s Ballroom. Tickets for these shows go on sale Friday, September 16th at 10 am (local). For early access to tickets please visit WeyesBlood.com/tour.
Due to popular demand, Weyes Blood is now headlining a two-night stand at Theatre at The Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 8th, which is now sold out, and Friday, December 9th, 2022. Tickets for December 9th show goes on sale to the general public on Friday, September 16th at 10 am.
December 2022 Thu. Dec. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - The Theatre at Ace Hotel [SOLD OUT] Fri. Dec. 09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Theatre at Ace Hotel
In Holy Flux Tour 2023 UK/Europe Sat.Jan. 28 - Berlin, DE - Festsaal Kreuzberg Mon. Jan. 30 - Stockholm, SE - Berns Tue. Jan. 31- Oslo, NO - Rockefeller Wed. Feb. 01 - Copenhagen, DK - VEGA Fri. Feb. 03 - Cologne, DE - Kulturkirche Sat. Feb. 04 - Paris, FR - Le Trianon Sun. Feb. 05 - Brussels, BE - Botanique - Orangerie Mon. Feb. 06 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Wed. Feb.08 - London, UK - Roundhouse Thu. Feb. 09 - Bristol, UK - SWX Fri. Feb. 10 - Glasgow, UK - QMU Sun. Feb. 12- Dublin, IE - Vicar Street Mon. Feb. 13 - Manchester, UK - O2 Ritz Tue. Feb. 14 - Brighton, UK - CHALK
North America Wed. Feb. 22 - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl Thu. Feb. 23 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse Fri. Feb. 24 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel Sat. Feb. 25 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle Mon. Feb. 27 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club Tue. Feb. 28 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer Fri. Mar. 03 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel Sun. Mar. 05 - Boston, MA - Royale Tue. Mar. 07 - Montreal, QC - Corona Theatre Wed. Mar. 08 - Toronto, ON - The Danforth Music Hall Fri. Mar. 10 - Detroit, MI - El Club Sat. Mar. 11 - Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre Mon. Mar. 13 - Milwaukee, WI - The Pabst Theater Tue. Mar. 14 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue Wed. Mar. 15 - Des Moines, IA - Wooly’s Fri. Mar. 17 - Englewood, CO - Gothic Theatre Sat. Mar. 18 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot Sun. Mar. 19 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory Concert House Tue. Mar. 21 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom Wed. Mar. 22 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox Thu. Mar. 23 - Portland, OR - McMenamins Crystal Ballroom Sat. Mar. 25 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency Ballroom Tue. Mar. 28 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren Wed. Mar. 29 - Santa Fe, NM - Meow Wolf Fri. Mar. 31 - Austin, TX - Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater Sat. Apr. 01 - Dallas, TX - Studio at The Factory Sun. Apr. 02 - Tulsa, OK - Cain’s Ballroom
And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow is the long-awaited follow-up to Weyes Blood’s 2019 breakthrough album Titanic Rising, which earned placement on over 100 year-end lists, including The AV Club, Pitchfork, NPR Music, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Under the Radar, and Uproxx. The album also saw “Best of the Decade” placement from the likes of All Music, The AV Club, Aquarium Drunkard, Pitchfork, PASTE, and Uproxx. Weyes Blood also made her TV debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers and performed for NPR Music’s “Tiny Desk Concert.”
Weyes Blood And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow November 18th, 2022
Tracklist 1. It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody 2. Children of the Empire 3. Grapevine 4. God Turn Me Into a Flower 5. Hearts Aglow 6. And in the Darkness 7. Twin Flame 8. In Holy Flux 9. The Worst Is Done 10. A Given Thing
Quasi (aka Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss) will release Breaking the Balls of History, their awesome new Sub Pop debut and frontrunner for our favorite album title ever, worldwide on February 10th, 2023. The twelve-track effort was produced by the duo and John Goodmanson (Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, Unwound, Treepeople, Team Dresch) at Rob Lang Studios in Seattle, engineered and mixed by Goodmanson, and mastered by Bill Skibbe at Third Man Mastering.
Quasi’s Breaking the Balls of History features the highlights “Doomscrollers,” “Nowheresville,” “Gravity,” and “Queen of Ears,” the album’s first single and official video, directed by Patrick Stanton.
Quasi’s Breaking the Balls of History will be available on CD/LP/CS/DSPs and can be preordered now from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America, the UK, and Europe will receive the limited Loser edition on pink vinyl.
Quasi is also announcing a headlining U.S. tour to support Breaking the Balls of History which begins Friday, February 10th in Boise, ID at Neurolux and currently ends Tuesday, March 28th in Pittsburgh, PA at Club Cafe. Tickets for these shows go on sale Friday, October 28th. Preceding these dates, Quasi will headline a show in London, UK on December 7th, 2022 at The Victoria. Please find a complete list of dates below.
Wed. Dec. 07 - London, UK - The Victoria Fri. Feb. 10 - Boise, ID - Neurolux Sat. Feb. 11 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court Mon. Feb. 13 - Albuquerque, NM - Sister Wed. Feb. 15 - San Antonio, TX - Paper Tiger Thu. Feb. 16 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall Fri. Feb. 17 - Austin, TX - The Parish Sat. Feb. 18 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada Mon. Feb. 20 - El Paso, TX - Lowbrow Palace Wed. Feb. 22 - Phoenix, AZ - Rebel Lounge Thu. Feb. 23 - Pioneertown, CA - Pappy and Harriet’s Fri. Feb. 24 - Los Angeles, CA - Zebulon Sat. Feb. 25 - Oakland, CA - Starline Social Club Sun. Feb. 26 - Sacramento, CA - Starlet Room Thu. Mar. 02 - Vancouver, BC - Fox Cabaret Fri. Mar. 03 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern Sat. Mar. 04 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge Tue. Mar. 14 -Boston, MA - The Sinclair Wed. Mar. 15 - Kingston, NY - Tubby’s Thu. Mar. 16 - Ridgewood, NY - TV Eye Fri. Mar. 17 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s Sun. Mar. 19 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook Tue. Mar. 21 - Atlanta, GA - 529 Wed. Mar. 22 - Birmingham, AL - Saturn Thu. Mar. 23 - Nashville, TN - Blue Room at Third Man Records Fri. Mar. 24 - St. Louis, MO - Off-Broadway Sat. Mar. 25 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle Sun. Mar. 26 - Columbus, OH - Ace of Cups Mon. Mar. 27 - Detroit, MI - Third Man Records Tue. Mar. 28 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe
Breaking the Balls of History is Quasi’s tenth record, landing ten years after their last record, on February tenth. Three tens, which aligns with the thirty years they’ve played together. Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss have become Pacific Northwest icons, and Quasi has always felt so steadfast— their enduring friendship so generative, their energy infinite, each album more raucous and catchy and ferocious and funny than the last. But we were wrong to ever take Quasi for granted. For a while, they thought 2013’s intricate Mole City might be their last record. They’d go out on a great one and move on.
Then in August 2019 a car smashed into Janet’s and broke both legs and her collarbone. Then a deadly virus collided with all of us, and no one knew when or if live music as we knew it—the touring, the communal crowds, the sonic church of the dark club—would ever happen again. “There’s no investing in the future anymore,” Janet realized. “The future is now. Do it now if you want to do it. Don’t put it off. All those things you only realize when it’s almost too late. It could be gone in a second.”
Under lockdown, Portland’s streets fell still, airplanes vanished, wildlife emerged. And with the obliterated normal came an unexpected gift: uninterrupted time, hours every day, to make art. Quasi couldn’t go on the road, so they got an idea: they would act as if they were on tour and play together every single day. Each afternoon, Sam and Janet bunkered down in their tiny practice space and channeled the bewilderment and absurdity of this alien new world into songs. Janet’s strength returned and rose to athlete-level stamina. “When you’re younger and in a band, you make records because that’s what you do,” Sam said. “But this time, the whole thing felt purposeful in a way that was unique to the circumstances.” They knew they would keep it to just the two of them playing together in a room. They knew they’d record the songs live and together, to capture a moment.
The incredible result of those sessions is Breaking the Balls of History, recorded in five days and produced by John Goodmanson at the legendary Robert Lang Studios in Shoreline, WA. Here are two artists at their prime, each a human library of musical knowledge and experience, entirely distinctive in their songcraft and sound. In Quasi-form, the band becomes alchemically even greater than the sum of its parts: Janet’s galloping drums and Sam’s punk-symphonic Rocksichord and their intertwining vocals make something gigantic, anthemic. In the thick of a cataclysmic social and political moment, they’ve crafted exquisitely melodic songs that glitter with rage and wild humor and intelligence, driven by a big bruised pounding heart.
“A last long laugh at the edge of death” sings Sam at the album’s outset, and that gleeful defiance—which might as well be the logline of our present moment—sets the table for the songs to come. In “Gravity,” Quasi’s predilection for the absurd now tips into unnerving realism; in the post-facts era, the very thing that tethers us all to the earth is rendered meaningless (“you can walk on water if you so choose in your made-in-USA concrete shoes.”) Punchy warning verses about death and disarray swoon into the blissed-out, checked-out chorus of “Queen of Ears” (“But I, I float above it all, wizard of idleness, mistress of killing time.”) Janet’s voice floats sweet and eerie through the atmospheric suspended reality of “Inbetweenness.” Etch “Doomscrollers” onto the golden record and launch it into space as a precise time capsule of the incomprehensible present. “The Losers Win” is a tart arsenic nightcap to close out the record, and hell, the nation.
It sounds dark, and because it’s rising to the moment, it is. But this is also a record surging with energy and pleasure and joy. “It felt so life-affirming. I can hear in the music how happy I am to be there and to be playing at that level again,” Janet said. “I get to exist.”
I’ve been listening to this record for a few months now, and I can’t stop thinking about how as the world started to end, and then kept on ending in all kinds of surprising new ways, Sam and Janet returned to their practice space every day and made songs. Face to face, instrument to instrument, they decided to build something new. They did the work. They made their art. They’ve lived through enough to understand that nothing is permanent, and that when your faith in humanity sinks, you turn to the life force of what you can rely on: the people you trust, the community that claims you, and what you can create. You can’t control the time. But you can make a record of a time. And luckily for us, Quasi has again.
Quasi Breaking the Balls of History
Tracklisting: 1. Last Long Laugh 2. Back in Your Tree 3. Queen of Ears 4. Gravity 5. Shitty Is Pretty 6. Riots & Jokes 7. Breaking the Balls of History 8. Doomscrollers 9. Inbetweenness 10. Nowheresville 11. Rotten Wrock 12. The Losers Win
King Tuff, the project of Kyle Thomas, announces his long-awaited new album Smalltown Stardust, with a video for its lead single and title track “Smalltown Stardust.” The album is available for pre-order now and due January 27th via Sub Pop.
Smalltown Stardust, which was co-produced and largely co-written with SASAMI, is “an album about love and nature and youth,” Thomas explains. Much like its lead single, the album is an ode to the cherished moments of inspiration and the small towns in which they are formed. Thomas pulled from his nostalgia for where he grew up, where he first nurtured his songwriting impulses, bouncing ideas off other like-minded artists. It’s a spiritual, tender and ultimately joyous record that might come as a shock to those with only a passing knowledge of the artist’s back catalog.
“The truth is I never really wanted to leave my little town in Vermont. I knew it was something I had to do in order to actually pursue a career as a musician, but I loved my life there, and I cried and cried the day I left on a Greyhound bus for LA in 2011,” says Thomas. “In some alternate dimension there’s a version of me still living there, still hanging on the stoop, drawing pictures in the coffeeshop, walking the railroad tracks that run along the river… but alas, in this here dimension, I’m nothing but a townie without a town! ‘Smalltown Stardust’ is a song about keeping that little place and all its strange magic with me wherever I go. It’s a portal that I can access when I need inspiration, or when the city feels too big and hot and I need to mentally escape into some dark woods. It’s a place I found myself going to often in the last few years while I was writing this record, stuck in scorched and crispy ol’ Los Angeles, so it felt fitting as an album title as well as the first song to release into the world. Enjoy!”
At its core, Smalltown Stardust showcases Thomas’s desire to commune with nature on a spiritual level. Images of the natural world, from blizzards to green mountains to cloudy days, fill the songs and create a setting unmistakably far away from Los Angeles, where Thomas resides with SASAMI and Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy. “I consider nature to be my religion,” he expounds, and Smalltown Stardust is nothing if not a spiritual exploration. If the first King Tuff record was content to merely state Thomas was no longer dead, Smalltown Stardust is a paean to what that life means. A statement of belief and a hymnal to the magic still to behold all around us.
Additionally King Tuff has announced a 2023 North American tour that kicks off March 1st in San Diego, CA and wraps April 7th at Joshua Tree, CA with a show at Pappy and Harriets. Tour highlights include shows in Los Angeles, CA, Brooklyn, NY and Chicago, IL. Tickets will be available on Friday October 28th at 10 am local time. All dates below.
March 15 Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Upstairs
March 17 Nashville, TN @ The Basement East
March 18 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
March 19 Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
March 21 Washington, DC @ DC9
March 22 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
March 23 Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
March 24 Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Hall
March 25 Brattleboro, VT @ The Stone Church
March 28 Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB
March 29 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
March 31 Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
April 1 Minneapolis, MN @ The Turf Club
April 3 Kansas City, MO0 @ The Record Bar
April 5 Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
April 6 Phoenix, AZC @ The Rebel Lounge
April 7 Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
There are times in our life when we feel magic in the air. When new love arrives, or we find ourselves lost in a moment of creation with others who share our vision. A sense that: this is who I want to be. This is what I want to share.
It’s a fleeting feeling and one that Kyle Thomas, the singer-songwriter who records and performs as King Tuff, found himself longing for in the spring of 2020.
But knowing he couldn’t simply recreate this time in his life at will, Thomas—who hails from Brattleboro, Vermont—set out to write a love letter to those cherished moments of inspiration and to the small town that formed him. The one where he first nurtured his songwriting impulses, bouncing ideas off other like-minded artists. The kind of place where the changing of the seasons always delivered a sense of perspective and fresh artistic inspiration. Where he felt a deeper connection with nature and sense of community that had once been so close at hand.
“I wanted to make an album to remind myself that life is magical,” he reflects.
While so much of Smalltown Stardust invokes idealized traces and places of Thomas’s past, the album’s recording process made his communal vision a reality. Thomas’s Los Angeles home in 2020 formed a micro-scene of sorts, with housemates Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Sasami Ashworth recording their own heralded albums (2021’s Fun House and 2022’s Squeeze, respectively) at the same time. A shared spirit dominated an era spent largely on the premises, with Thomas serving as engineer and contributor to both records, and Ashworth working as co-producer on Smalltown Stardust. Thomas describes the time with a fitting metaphor: “I’ve always thrived around other people making things. You want to bloom with each other.” Ashworth’s contributions are vital to the album: she co-wrote a majority of the record and contributed vocals, arrangements, and instrumentation to each song. As Thomas notes, “I tried to follow her vision a lot. It helps to open your world to collaborators. You always get something completely different than you would have expected.”
Sub Pop is ecstatic to welcome Guerilla Toss to their iconic roster of artists. The label will be releasing their latest effort, Famously Alive on March 25th. After a decade sprinkling glitter into grit, building a reputation as one of the most ferociously creative art-rock groups working, the upstate New York band have eased fully into their light. This is Guerilla Toss at their most luminescent – awake, alive, and extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to soak it all up beside them.
Singer and lyricist Kassie Carlson, multi-instrumentalist Peter Negroponte and guitarist Arian Shafiee wrote Famously Alive at home in the Catskills during the pervading quiet of the pandemic year. Together with guitarist Arian Shafiee, Carlson and Negroponte cultivated a sound that spliced together psychedelic texturing and Krautrock syncopation with the gloss and glow of contemporary pop music.
The group’s debut single and album opener, “Cannibal Capital,” is a song about the exhaustion and dread of social anxiety. The song came together in a flurry toward the end of the album’s sessions. A taut bass groove erupts into competing squalls of guitar and synth that support one of the most immediate and arresting vocal hooks of Guerilla Toss’s catalog to date.
The band will embark on a 16 date North American tour beginning Apr. 13th in Richmond VA. With additional shows in Atlanta, Milwaukee, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Philadelphia, and Queens, NY. See below for a full list of shows.
Tour Dates:
Wed. Apr. 13- Richmond, VA - Richmond Music Hall
Thu. Apr. 14 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
Fri. Apr. 15 - Atlanta, GA - Aisle 5
Sat. Apr 16 - Nashville, TN - The Blue Room @ Third Man Records
Sun. Apr. 17 - Louisville, KY - Zanzabar
Tue. Apr. 19 - Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
Wed. Apr. 20 - Chicago, IL - The Empty Bottle
Thu. Apr. 21 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
Fri. Apr. 22 - Toronto, ON - The Garrison
Sat. Apr. 23 - Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz P.D.B
Mon. Apr. 25 - Portland, ME - Space
Tue. Apr. 26 - Somerville, MA - Crystal Ballroom at Somerville
Dig deep enough inside yourself – start treating your body as your sanctuary rather than your enemy – and eventually you’ll find yourself blooming right back out into the sun. That’s the transformation Guerilla Toss trace on their newest album Famously Alive, their effervescent Sub Pop debut. After a decade sprinkling glitter into grit, building a reputation as one of the most ferociously creative art-rock groups working, the upstate New York band have eased fully into their light. This is Guerilla Toss at their most luminescent – awake, alive, and extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to soak it all up beside them.
Singer and lyricist Kassie Carlson, multi-instrumentalist Peter Negroponte and guitarist Arian Shafiee wrote Famously Alive at home in the Catskills during the pervading quiet of the pandemic year. The uncertainty of COVID-19 lockdowns and the total disruption of routine forced Carlson to negotiate with herself in new and challenging ways. “You have to be with yourself all the time during the pandemic,” she says. “I had to figure out a way to manage my anxiety. The pandemic was hard, but it helped me get comfortable inside my own body. My peace of mind came out of being thrust into the deepest shit. This album is all about being happy, being alive, strength. It’s meant to inspire people.”
The album’s title derives from a poem written by a close friend of the band, Jonny Tatelman, who supported Carlson through the early stages of her recovery from opiate addiction. The poem comprises the entirety of the lyrics to the title track, an exuberant ode to loving your own survival and charting a course into unconditional self-acceptance. “The song ‘Famously Alive’ is about living with purpose and excitement whether you’re famous or not, accepting your strangeness and thriving even if your successes look different than other people’s,” notes Carlson. “To me, ‘Famously Alive’ means flipping the notion of dying famously to living famously,” Negroponte adds. “I also like to think of it as a way to describe living through something traumatic and coming out of it a stronger, wiser person.”
Songs like the expansive, gleaming “Live Exponential” similarly invite the listener to lean into the light. “It’s about loving yourself and finding a way to be comfortable in your own body – to live life to the fullest and beyond,” says Carlson. Throughout the record, Guerilla Toss meet themselves with curiosity, generosity, and acceptance even for the harder parts of being alive. Opener “Cannibal Capital,” a song about the exhaustion and dread of social anxiety, came together in a flurry toward the end of the album’s sessions. A taut bass groove erupts into competing squalls of guitar and synth that support one of the most immediate and arresting vocal hooks of Guerilla Toss’s catalog to date.
Together with guitarist Arian Shafiee, Carlson and Negroponte cultivated a sound that spliced together psychedelic texturing and Krautrock syncopation with the gloss and glow of contemporary pop music. “I like to combine as many musical influences as possible,” says Negroponte. “We thought the sleekness of current radio pop would make our dense wall-of-sound aesthetic both more bizarre and more accessible and fun at the same time.” Carlson was similarly inspired by a wide range of artists from around the world after diving deep into obscure 7-inches for her weekly show on Radio Catskill, Rare Pear Radio.
While writing the album, Carlson took voice lessons online for the first time. Though she has been singing since she was four years old, at first with a vocal harmony group in her family’s church, she hadn’t formally trained her voice since joining Guerilla Toss. The lessons allowed her to deepen and broaden her range, helping her feel more embodied and connected to her voice. Underneath ripples of Auto-Tune, playful, searching vocal melodies suspend lyrics about reaching for yourself and holding fast in your own love.
Famously Alive finds Guerilla Toss coming into the fullness of their power, celebrating their prismatic idiosyncrasies from a place of optimism and abundance. “It felt like I didn’t need to force myself into this dark place to create anymore,” Carlson says. “For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m finally comfortable inside my body.
