Watch the Animated Video for METZ’s take on Gary Numan’s “M.E.” + Find Details of Newly Announced Fall Shows
On July 12th, Sub Pop released Automat, a collection of METZ non-album singles, B-sides, and rarities dating back to 2009, available on LP for the first time, and including the band’s long out-of-print early (pre-Sub Pop) recordings. It’s a chronological trip through the lesser-known material of METZ, the widely-adored and delightfully noisy 3-piece punk band from Toronto, ON.
The vinyl LP format of Automat included an exclusive bonus 7” single of METZ interpretations of three diverse cover songs, a glimpse of their wide-ranging and excellent taste. And, on Aug. 20 (aka today) these three bonus tracks will be available in digital services everywhere (such as YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music). Rejoice! And then also go listen to: a cover of Sparklehorse’s “Pig,” from a very limited 2012 Record Store Day split single originally released by Toronto’s Sonic Boom record shop; “I’m a Bug,” a cover of the Urinals’ art-punk classic, originally released on YouTube (not an actual record label) in 2014; and METZ’s previously unreleased rendition of Gary Numan’s “M.E.”
You can also watch the mesmerizing video for “M.E.,” featuring a three-headed Pleasure Principle hydra illustrated by Kirin Booth and animated by Martin MacPherson here now, and/or also by clickinghere.
M.E Tracklisting: 1. “I’m a Bug” by the Urinals 2. “Pig” by Sparklehorse 3. “M.E” by Gary Numan
METZ have a handful of upcoming shows before getting to work on their 4th full-length LP which will be released on Sub Pop when we are all damn good and ready.
Sep. 07 - Toronto, ON - Echo Beach (MATTYFEST w Wu Tang Clan) Oct. 10 - Perris, CA - Desert Daze (w The Flaming Lips, Stereolab, Lightning Bolt) Oct. 19 - Queens, NY - Octfest 2019, presented by Pitchfork and October, at Knockdown Center Nov. 01 - London, ON - The Rec Room @ Dec. 02 - Glasgow, UK - The Barrowland Ballroom # Dec. 03 - Glasgow, UK - The Barrowland Ballroom # Dec. 04 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Academy 1 # Dec. 05 - Leeds, UK - O2 Academy Leeds # Dec. 07 - London, UK - Alexandra Palace Theatre #
Clipping has returned with There Existed an Addiction to Blood, the group’s fourth effort and the follow up to Splendor and Misery, their acclaimed album of 2016. There Existed an Addiction to Blood features the singles “Nothing Is Safe,” “Blood of the Fang,” “La Mala Ordina” (Feat. Benny The Butcher, ElCamino, The Rita), and was produced by Clipping, mixed by Steve Kaplan, and mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysium Masters in Los Angeles. The album also features appearances from Ed Balloon, La Chat, Counterfeit Madison, and Pedestrian Deposit. There Existed an Addiction to Blood will be available on 2xLP/Deluxe 2xLP/CD/CS/DL on Friday, October 18th, 2019 worldwide from Sub Pop.
There Existed an Addiction to Blood finds Clipping interpreting another rap splinter sect through their singular lens. This is Clipping’s transmutation of horrorcore, a purposefully absurdist and creatively significant sub-genre that flourished in the mid-90s. If some of its most notable pioneers included Brotha Lynch Hung and Gravediggaz, it also encompasses seminal works from the Geto Boys, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and the near-entirety of classic Memphis cassette tape rap.
The most subversive and experimental rap has often presented itself as an “alternative” to conventional sounds, but Clipping respectfully warp them into new constellations. There Existed an Addiction to Blood absorbs the hyper-violent horror tropes of the Murder Dog era, but re-imagines them in a new light: still darkly-tinted and somber, but in a weirder and more vivid hue. If traditional horrorcore was akin to Blacula, the hugely popular blaxploitation flick from the early 70s, Clipping’s latest is analogous to Ganja & Hess, the blood-sipping 1973 cult classic regarded as an unsung landmark of black independent cinema, whose score by Sam Waymon, the band samples on “Blood of the Fang” and inspired the album’s title.
[2xLP Deluxe Limited “Lamestain” Edition]
There Existed an Addiction to Blood is available through Sub Pop Mega Mart. Preorders of the LP through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited, deluxe 2xLP “Lamestain” edition on blood-splattered clear vinyl (while supplies last). Meanwhile, LP preorders of There Existed an Addiction to Blood throughout the UK and Europe from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on opaque silver vinyl (while supplies last).
Clipping
There Existed an Addiction to Blood
Tracklisting: 1. Intro 2. Nothing Is Safe 3. He Dead (feat. Ed Balloon) 4. Haunting (Interlude) 5. La Mala Ordina (feat. The Rita, Benny The Butcher & El Camino) 6. Club Down (feat. Sarah Bernat) 7. Prophecy (Interlude) 8. Run for Your Life (feat. La Chat) 9. The Show 10. Possession (Interlude) 11. All in Your Head (feat.Counterfeit Madison & Robyn Hood) 12. Blood of the Fang 13. Story 7 14. Attunement (feat. Pedestrian Deposit) 15. Piano Burning (composed by Annea Lockwood)
Clipping will perform at the 2019 Adult Swim Festival in Los Angeles on Saturday, November 16th. Additional live performances to be announced soon.
About Clipping’s There Existed an Addiction to Blood: The science-fiction visionary Octavia Butler once declared that “there is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.” The aphorism could apply to any art form where the basic contours are fixed, but the appetite for innovation remains infinite. Enter Clipping, flash fiction genre masters in a hip-hop world firmly rooted in memoir. If first-person confessionals historically reign, the mid-city Los Angeles trio of rapper Daveed Diggs and producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes have spent the last half-decade terraforming their own patch of soil, replete with conceptual labyrinths and industrial chaos. They have conjured a mutant emanation of the future, built at odd angles atop the hallowed foundation of the past.
Their third album for Sub Pop, There Existed an Addiction to Blood, finds them interpreting another rap splinter sect through their singular lens. This is clipping’s transmutation of horrorcore, a purposefully absurdist and creatively significant sub-genre that flourished in the mid-90s. If some of its most notable pioneers included Brotha Lynch Hung and Gravediggaz, it also encompasses seminal works from the Geto Boys, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and Three 6 Mafia and the near-entirety of classic Memphis cassette tape rap.
The most subversive and experimental rap has often presented itself as an “alternative” to conventional sounds, but Clipping respectfully warp them into new constellations. There Existed an Addiction to Blood absorbs the hyper-violent horror tropes of the Murder Dog era, but re-imagines them in a new light: still darkly-tinted and somber, but in a weirder and more vivid hue. If traditional horrorcore was akin to Blacula, the hugely popular blaxploitation flick from the early 70s, Clipping’s latest is analogous to Ganja & Hess, the blood-sipping 1973 cult classic regarded as an unsung landmark of black independent cinema, whose score by Sam Waymon, the band samples on “Blood of the Fang” and inspired the album’s title.
From the opening “Intro,” Clipping summon an unsettling eeriness. Diggs sounds like he’s rapping through a drive-thru speaker about the bottom falling out, bodies hitting the floor, and recurrent ghosts. You hear ambient noises, footsteps and shovels. The hairs on your arms stick up like bayonets. You can practically see the knife’s edge, sharp and luminous.
Each song contains its own premise and conceptual bent. There is “Nothing is Safe,” a reversal of Assault on Precinct 13, where the band create their own version of a John Carpenter-inspired rap beat and the cops are the ones raiding a trap house. Diggs sketches the narrative from the perspective of the victims, full of lurid and visceral details and intricate wordplay. The windows are boarded and sealed, the product simmers on the stove, the bodies sleep fitfully in shifts. Then law enforcement arrives and the bullets start to fly.
“He Dead” turns police officers into werewolves while Diggs flips Kendrick Lamar’s “Riggamortis” into something gravely literal.“All In Your Head” finds Clipping re-contextualizing the pimp talk of Suga Free and Too $hort into a metaphor for an Exorcist-style possession. The album contains interludes featuring hissing recordings of demonic invasions and guest appearances from Griselda Gang’s Benny the Butcher and Hypnotize Minds horror queen La Chat. Other tracks feature contributions from noise music legends The Rita and Pedestrian Deposit. It all ends with “Piano Burning,” a performance of a piece written by the avant-garde composer Annea Lockwood. Yes, it is the sound of a piano burning.
In the hands of the less imaginative or less virtuosic, it could come off as overwrought or pretentious. Instead, Clipping annex new terrain for a sub-genre often left for dead. In its own way, one could compare what they’ve accomplished to Tarantino’s post-modern reworkings of critically overlooked but creatively fertile blaxploitation, horror and spaghetti western cinema.
Everything fits neatly into the broader scope of the band’s career, which has seen them expand from insular experimentalists into globally recognized artists. Since the release of their first album in 2013, Diggs has won a Tony and a Grammy, as well as co-written and starred in 2018’s critically hailed Blindspotting, while Snipes and Hutson have scored numerous films and television shows.
Clipping’s last album, the 2016 afro-futurist dystopian space opusSplendor & Misery was recently named one of Pitchfork’s Best Industrial Albums of All-Time. Commissioned for an episode of This American Life, their 2017 single “The Deep” became the inspiration for a novel of the same name, written by Rivers Solomon and published by Saga Press. But it’s their latest masterwork that embodies what the band had been building towards — a work that finds them without peer. This is experimental hip-hop built to bang in a post-apocalyptic club bursting with radiation. It’s horror-core that soaks up past blood and replants it into a different organism, undead but dangerously alive. It is a new sun, blindingly bright and built to burn your retinas.
Minor Poet has announced new tour dates for September 2019 in support of The Good News out now on Sub Pop. The quartet’s eastern U.S. trek begins on September 12th in Washington, DC at the Songbyrd Cafe and ends September 27th in Charlottesville, VA at The Southern. Along the way, Minor Poet will co-headline with 6131 Records act Sammi Lanzetta (September 12th-26th), and Stray Fossa (September 27th).
Sep. 12 - Washington, DC - Songbyrd Cafe * Sep. 13 - New York, NY - Alphaville * Sep. 14 - Wilmington, DE - 1984 * Sep. 19 - Chapel Hill, NC - Nightlight * Sep. 20 - Charlotte, NC - Petra’s * Sep. 21 - Norfolk, VA - Charlie’s Cafe * Sep. 26 - Harrisonburg, VA - Golden Pony * Sep. 27 - Charlottesville, VA - The Southern ^
* w/ Sammi Lanzetta ^ w/ Stray Fossa
Minor Poet’s The Good News, featuring the singles “Museum District” and “Tropic of Cancer” was produced by Andrew Carter and Adrian Olsen (Natalie Prass, Foxygen) at Montrose Recording in Richmond. The Good News is available through Sub Pop Mega Mart. Purchases of the LP through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America, UK, and Europe will receive the limited Loser edition on clear with red and blue swirl vinyl (while supplies last).
On November 1st, Omni will release their Sub Pop debut Networker. The first single, “Sincerely Yours”, delivers a tight groove accompanied by smart leads. Elements that have become a definitive part of Omni’s immediately recognizable sound. However, there is a new sonic brilliance to this recording. If spring single, “Delicacy”, was a taste for what was to come, “Sincerely Yours” lifts the curtain to reveal their lush, new sound.
Networker’s 11 tracks were written between tours and a handful of studio sessions, allowing Omni’s Frankie Broyles and Philip Frobos to push their songwriting boundaries while keeping the stage in mind, designing songs to enhance their tight, energetic performances. Longtime collaborator, Nathaniel Higgins returned to help capture what is their most “HI-FI” album to date. Together they recorded the LP in Vienna, GA between November 2018 - April 2019.
[Photo Credit: Emily Frobos]
Elaborating on the inspiration behind “Sincerely Yours”, Frobos shares that “The last couple of years marked a lot of friends making the 9 to 5 career change. While I’m aware that there are many advantages to that lifestyle, the song is written from an outsider’s perspective while remaining close to their struggles.” You can watch the new video for “Sincerely Yours” right here, and also here.
The band has announced a 26 date world tour this fall in support of their Sub Pop debut Networker. The North American run will kick off on Oct. 23rd in Nashville, and find the group touring through Chicago, Brooklyn, DC, and Raleigh, ending in their home city of Atlanta on Nov. 4th. They will then head overseas beginning on Nov. 10th in Kortrijk, Belgium with shows in Hamburg, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris, Lille, Brighton, Glasgow, and London. See below for a full list of shows.
Networker is now available for preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders of the album through megamart.subpop.comand select independent retailers in North America, UK, and Europe will receive the limited Loser edition on opaque blue while supplies last.
Oct. 23 - Nashville, TN - The Basement Oct. 25 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle Oct. 27 - Toronto, ON - The Garrison
Oct. 28 - Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz Oct. 29 - Brooklyn, NY - Baby’s All Right Oct. 30 - Brooklyn, NY - Sultan Room Nov. 2 - Washington, DC - Pie Shop Bar Nov. 3 - Raliegh, NC - Kings Raleigh Nov. 4 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl Nov. 10 - Kortrijk, BE - Sonic City Festival Nov. 11 - Hamburg, DE - Molotov Nov. 12 - Copenhagen, DK - Loppen Nov. 13 - Berlin, DE - BERGHAIN KANTINE Nov. 14 - Utrecht, NL - Ekko Nov. 15 - Le Havre, FR - Mc Daids Nov. 18 - Paris, FR - La Boule Noire Nov. 19 - Lille, FR - La Bulle Nov. 20 - Brussels, BE - Le Botanique Nov. 21 - Colmar, FR - Le Grillen Nov. 22 - St. Gallen, CH Palace St. Gallen Nov. 23 - Lyon, FR - Sonic Nov. 25 - Brighton, UK - Hope Nov. 26 - Bristol, UK - Rough Trade (Bristol) Nov. 27 - Manchester, UK - YES Nov. 28 - Glasgow, UK - Mono (Glasgow) Nov. 29 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Nov. 30 - London, UK - Oslo
About Omni:
Enter Networker, the new album by Omni and first with indie giant Sub Pop Records. Their sound is still defined by sparse drums, locked-in bass, blistering guitar, and nonchalant, yet assured vocals, but from the first notes of “Sincerely Yours” you’ll immediately notice that Networker sounds much cleaner and more “HI-FI” than their prior two albums, Deluxe (2016) and Multi-task (2017). The departure in fidelity suits the new record and allows the listener to enjoy the nuances of their meticulous arrangements. Don’t worry, the riffs of Gang of Four and Wire are still present, but the production is more lush and the harmony is even more expansive. Despite nods to the sounds of the ’70s and ’80s what comes through is a record fully rooted in the here and now. Thematically, this is apparent on the title track “Networker” taking a candid snapshot of the “digital you” aspect of life in the age of the internet. The otherwise fun romp “Skeleton Key” also acknowledges the “direct message and obsessive” side of social media with lines like “if you don’t like what you see, the pretty face on the screen, scroll on by…”
Networker was written half between tours and half during recording sessions. The band, Philip Frobos on bass/vocals and Frankie Broyles on guitars/drums/keys, returned with longtime collaborator Nathaniel Higgins to the studio in South Georgia where they also recorded Multi-task and most recent single “Delicacy.” In this case, the “studio” is a cabin near Vienna, GA (pronounced Vye-anna) that was built by Frankie Broyles’ great-grandparents in the 1940s. The band completed four sessions between November 2018 and April 2019. Omni hit their stride in the cabin with songs such as “Moat,” which cruises along at a nice mid-tempo clip with sounds that are maybe piano or maybe the “behind the bridge” strings of a Jaguar a la Sonic Youth or This Heat. “Blunt Force” provides a nice contrast to some of the more upbeat cuts, getting jazzy with it’s less traditional arrangement and psychedelic outro.
On “Courtesy Call,” Omni successfully ride the line of being able to pleasantly reference influences without mimicking. They venture into experimental Haruomi Hosono territory while still managing to sound like Thin Lizzy. The same could be applied to “Sincerely Yours” where the fantastic guitar work and a beautiful breakdown in the middle dive into late 70’s jazz production. On standout cut “Present Tense,” Yellow Magic Orchestra vibes are present in the fun synthesizer riff while the guitar counterpoint checks this direction pulling the song back into something fresh, sharp, and definitely Omni.
Overall, Networker is simultaneously fun, catchy, and contains some truly impressive musicianship. This combo is especially hard to pull off as bands that are great players often don’t have great or memorable songs. Omni and Nathaniel Higgins have done a stellar job of reigning in their diverse influences into a cohesive record by curating their sounds into a tight package that leaves you just on the cusp of understanding where the band is coming from, while still feeling like you’re hearing something totally fresh. While their earlier records had more of a “post-punk” sound, Networker is an amalgamation of the best sounds of the ’70s and ’80s, all arranged with (mostly) guitars, bass, and drums for our contemporary age, and it really works! There are hooks everywhere, vocal and instrumental, that will leave you humming along, even during the first listen. As Philip Frobos says in “Present Tense,” “guess who’s on my mind right now?” Well, Omni’s on mine and will be on yours soon.
Close it Quietly, available worldwide on September 6th via Sub Pop.
On September 6th, Sub Pop will release Frankie Cosmos’ fourth studio album, Close It Quietly. This album is a manifestation of the band’s collaborative spirit: Greta Kline and longtime bandmates Lauren Martin (synth), Luke Pyenson (drums), and Alex Bailey (bass) luxuriated in studio time with Gabe Wax, who engineered and co-produced the record with the band at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios.
The bands latest video for “Wannago” features comedian Catherine Cohen and was directed by the fine folks at House of Nod. The video is centered around the band’s love for reality baking shows, specifically The Great British Bake Off. “I thought a baking competition theme would translate well to a music video. In some ways I think the lighthearted drama, tension, and release of that format mirrors the ebb and flow of emotions (lyrically and musically) in this song, and so it was kind of a natural fit” says drummer Luke Pyenson. You can watch the video for the song here and also here.
When asked about the song, Kline had this to share “Wannago is an older song that I thought would never come out. Every time we ever tried to arrange it we gave up or lied that we would come back to it later. It felt too hard, and I found some of the lyrics embarrassing. Then Alex encouraged us to give it another shot because he really loved the demo. We ended up all working together to turn this into a song that feels sparkly and distinct; and it’s really fun to play. I’ve accepted the cheesier lyrics as part of the youthful glow of the song, it feels very wide-eyed and is purely about love, distance, and life.”
Frankie Cosmos has announced a World Tour, splitting these shows into three legs. The first leg of dates will begin on September 18 in Boston, MA, and end on Sep. 29 in their hometown of New York City which will include an opening comedy set from “Wannago” video star Catherine Cohen. They will then head overseas beginning on Oct. 8th in Munich, Germany with shows in Prague, Amsterdam, and Paris, ending on Oct. 22nd in London. The final leg of dates will run from Oct 31st - Nov 16th with shows in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Berkeley. See below for a full list of shows.
Close It Quietly is now available for preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders of the album through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America, UK, and Europe will receive the limited Loser edition on blue pearlescent (North America) and opaque yellow (UK/EU) while supplies last.
