In the official video for Deaf Wish’s tense and epic track “The Rat Is Back” guitarist/vocalist Jensen Tjhung directs himself, delivering an unpredictable, humorous, and menacing performance. This new offering is from the band’s great forthcoming album, Lithium Zion.
Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Deaf Wish have scheduled US tour dates in support of Lithium Zion, beginning September 4th in Columbus at Spacebar and ending September 27th-30th in Memphis for Gonerfest. The tour will include stops in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, San Francisco, Atlanta, Austin, New Orleans and an appearance at Raleigh’s Hopscotch Music Festival (September 6th). Along the way, Deaf Wish will join Sub Pop labelmates The Gotobeds (September 7th; 9th-14th).
Sep. 04 - Columbus, OH - Spacebar Sep. 05 - Asheville, NC - Mothlight Sep. 06 - Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Sep. 07 - Baltimore, MD - Joe Squared * Sep. 08 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool Sep. 09 - Boston, MA - Great Scott * Sep. 11 - Pittsburgh, PA - The New Shop * Sep. 12 - Cleveland, OH - Now That’s Class * Sep. 13 - Detroit, MI - Deluxx Fluxx * Sep. 14 - Chicago, IL - GMan Tavern * Sep. 18 - Seattle, WA - Highline Sep. 19 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios Sep. 20 - Arcata, CA - Outer Space Sep. 21- San Francisco, CA - The Knockout Sep. 22 - Los Angeles, CA - Zebulon Sep. 23 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress Sep. 25 - Austin, TX - Barracuda Sep. 26 - New Orleans, LA - Poor Boys Sep. 27 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl Sep. 27-30 - Memphis, TN - Gonerfest * w/ The Gotobeds
The music on Lithium Zion was collaboratively written by Deaf Wish, with each member taking turns on lyrical and vocal duties throughout the album. Lithium Zion was recorded at Head Gap Recording Studio in Melbourne in April of 2017 with Nao Anzai, and mixed and mastered by Mikey Young of Total Control (who also mixed the group’s “St. Vincent’s” 7” single and Pain album, both released on Sub Pop).
Lithium Zion will be available on CD/LP/DL/CS worldwide on Friday, July 27th, except for the UK on Friday, August 3rd, through Sub Pop right over here. LP preorders of the album through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on hot pink vinyl (while supplies last).
Forth Wanderers have delivered a pensive new visual for the song “Taste,” from their acclaimed Sub Pop debut, and directed by Everett Ravens.”
In a song review of “Taste” earlier this year, NPR Musichad this to say, “Forth Wanderers thrives in distance. Singer Ava Trilling writes the lyrics in New York, guitarist Ben Guterl builds the backbone of music in Ohio. “Taste,” in particular, came from diametrically opposed places in their young love lives…the distance - emotional and physical - doesn’t undercut the dizzying intimacy of the song.”
Forth Wanderers album has earned “Best Albums of 2018 (So Far)” notices from the likes of Stereogumand FLOOD Magazine. And recently, Ava Trilling was included in Playboy’s “Music’s Women of Summer” feature [read here].
Forth Wanderers’ previously announced U.S. summer tour in support of their album begins this Wednesday, June 27th in Richmond, VA at Strange Matter and ends July 18th in Cleveland at Mahall’s Lockeroom. Along the way the band will play with Illuminati Hotties (July 5th-14th). Following the tour, the band will appear at Shadow of the City in Ashury Park, NJ at Stone Pony on August 28th, and at Philadelphia’s Made in America Festival September 1st and 2nd, 2018.
Jun. 27 - Richmond, VA - Strange Matter Jun. 28 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle Jun. 29 - Atlanta, GA - Masquerade Jun. 30 - New Orleans, LA - Pour Boys Jul. 02 - Dallas, TX - Regal Room Jul. 03 - Austin, TX - Barricuda Jul. 05 - Phoenix, AZ - Rebel Lounge* Jul. 06 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues* Jul. 07 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo* Jul. 08 - San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop* Jul. 10 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir* Jul. 11 - Seattle, WA - The Vera Project* Jul. 13 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court* Jul. 14 - Denver, CO - Lost Lake* Jul. 17 - Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen Jul. 18 - Cleveland, OH - Mahall’s Lockeroom Aug. 28 - Asbury Park, NJ - Stone Pony Sep. 01-02 - Philadelphia, PA - Made In America Festival
Forth Wandererswas produced and recorded by Cameron Konner in Philadelphia over 5 days in the summer of 2017. The album is available now on CD/LP/CS/DL through Sub Pop [link here].
What people have said about Forth Wanderers: “The band inhabits a space that can feel bigger than the sprawling tree-lined streets and byzantine freeways of their local inspiration. Instead, the place Trilling and her bandmates create is more personal, messier, and chaotic. They give musical cues to the growing pains of young adulthood that are relatable but never trite—their songs, like any you might’ve been obsessed with in high school, feel like a mirror held up to the all-consuming triumphs and heartbreaks of your own youth.” [album review] - Pitchfork
“An indie rock record for the ages” [feature] - Stereogum
“Blissful” [feature] - Noisey
“This lot are shooting for the premiership of American indie.” [album review] - DIY
“These might be some of the most well-crafted rock songs you’ll hear all year long.” [album review] - NME
“The joyfully raucous Forth Wanderers bears testament to just how well the distance formula is working.” [album review] - CLASH
“Forth Wanderers is nonetheless a bittersweet and refreshingly candid second record from a band that’s seemingly found its voice.” [album review] - The Line Of Best Fit
“Throughout it’s bursting with the uncontainable energy of glorious garage rock.” [album review] - Loud and Quiet
“Vocalist Ava Trilling’s songs are wistful but rarely self-pitying, and ‘Forth Wanderers’ sparkles with a pensive, but optimistic energy.” [album review] - Dork
“By playing to their strengths – creating tousled, jangly indie rock around argumentative lyrics that beg for resolution – Forth Wanderers aptly illustrate when a band is truly in sync.” [album review] - Gold Flake Paint
There’s no rest for Frankie Cosmos who have announced additional North American dates starting on September 13th in Baltimore, with shows in Durham, Atlanta, Austin, Detroit and Pittsburgh, ending on Oct 7th in their home of New York City. These dates will follow the band’s European shows in July & August and are in support of their latest release, Vessel. See below for a full list of shows.
Ever wonder what it would be like to co-write an album with a band? Now you have the chance to find out. Loosely inspired by conceptual artist, Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings, Frankie Cosmos front person, Greta Kline has created An Induced Album. Moved by the idea that LeWitt’s artwork can still be installed in new forms even after his death, Kline sought to create a version of this for her songwriting. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever made that I feel is incomplete until it is out in the world” says Kline. “Releasing recorded music is great, but I have never felt an excitement quite like this one– that once I release this, it really changes what it is. It’s not done until the audience participates, which really excites me (or actually, maybe it’s never “done”). It’s also very out of my control once I release it, unlike a finished recorded album, so that’s scary, but fun.”
You can access all the details to co-pilot your own Frankie Cosmos album at www.frankiecosmosband.com.
Jul. 14 - Madrid, ES - Mad Cool Festival Jul. 15 - Port of Menteith, UK - Doune The Rabbit Hole Jul. 27-29 - Denver, CO - Underground Music Showcase Aug. 17 - Paredes de Coura, PT - Vodafone Paredes de Coura Aug. 19 - Brecon Beacons, UK - Green Man Festival Aug. 21 - Belfast, UK - Voodoo Aug. 22 - Galway, IE - Roisin Dubh Aug. 23 - Dublin, IE - Button Factory Sep. 13 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar Sep. 14 - Durham, NC - Motorco Sep. 15 - Asheville, NC - The Mothlight Sep. 16 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade Sep. 17 - Birmingham, AL - Saturn Sep. 19 - New Orleans, LA - Gasa Gasa Sep. 20 - Houston, TX - Satellite Bar Sep. 21 - San Antonio, TX - Paper Tiger Sep. 22 - Austin, TX - Barracuda Sep. 23 - Dallas, TX - Deep Ellum Art Co. Sep. 24 - Oklahoma CIty, OK - Tower Theatre Sep. 26 - Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line Sep. 27 - Milwaukee, WI - The Back Room @ Colectivo Sep. 30 - Detroit, MI - El Club (Outside) Oct. 01 - Cleveland, OH - The Grog Shop Oct. 02 - Pittsburgh, PA - Cattivo Oct. 03 - Harrisburg, PA - HMAC Stage on Herr Oct. 05 - Jersey City, NJ - White Eagle Hall Oct. 06 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg Oct. 07 - New York, NY - The Bowery Ballroom
[Photo Credit: Angel Ceballos]
What The People are saying about Frankie Cosmos: “It’s a dreamy rock album with lyrics that face unsatisfying relationships and inner turmoil with realism and flashes of warped humor.” [Vessel] - Paste
“The album is less about the epic poem of New York than about how the brain and the heart are connected by nerves and blood—less about Kline’s place in the world, than her place within herself.” [Vessel] - Pitchfork
Kline has a keen, quick grip on the back-and-forth of modern uncertainty, swinging high from triumph to low-lit sorrow. It’s why she’s such a comfort to return to.” [Vessel, 8/10] - Crack
“While intimacy has found a large pop audience in the social-media era […] Kline’s disclosures are striking because they feel genuinely homespun…nobody does it better currently”[Vessel, 4/5] - Q
“Slight but powerful indie-pop” / “There’s great charm to these yearning tunes”. [Vessel, 8/10] -Uncut
“Completely enchanting, it’s further proof that the band are one of the best” [Vessel] - Wonderland
Now watch their incisive take on the gentrification and “sceneism” of today, in the official video for “Give You Game” [NSFW], a new song featuring Stas The Boss (THEESatisfaction).
Knife Knights is a new collaboration from Ishmael Butler and musician/producer Erik Blood. The first offering from the union comes in the form of new [and somewhat NSFW] visual for “Give You Game,” directed by Justin Henning.
On “Give You Game,” Butler and Blood weave their distant voices through a landscape of synthesizers and drums that bubble up sporadically, like geysers. Marquetta Miller and former THEESatisfaction member Stasia Irons soon join, their round tones lacing around those sounds and giving them shape. It is an abstract anthem to astral love. “Give You Game” also features a guest appearance from guitarist Thaddillac.
Recorded during fertile sessions interrupted by Shabazz Palaces tours and Blood’s recording projects, “Give You Game” marks an exciting new chapter in the creative partnership, realized at the crossroads of Butler’s and Blood’s mutual enthusiasms. Their shared interests have been split into pieces and fused together with enviable imagination.
The “J.Z.O.K.” visual captures both the optimistic and romantic nature of the song and finds members Noel Heroux and Jessica Zambri cavorting through city streets in the wee hours of the night. The video was helmed by returning director Addison Post of Loroto Productions (who also helmed Mass Gothic’s “Every Night…” & “Nice Night” visuals).
Even when you’re married and you’re best friends and you’ve spent a lifetime collaborating with each other, it’s not often obvious what’s staring you right in the face. I’ve Tortured You Long Enough is the tongue-in-cheek title of Mass Gothic’s second album for this reason, among several others. Husband/Wife duo Heroux and Zambri have always dipped in and out of each other’s creative spaces, advising on their respective outputs and supporting one another. But never had they before completely committed to doing an entire album as a duo, sharing an equal load. The time had come. And thank goodness. They have dreamed up a record packed with the tension, chaos and beauty of a fluid and cathartic two-way conversation. In a universe increasingly threatening our abilities to work hard on communication and coexistence, their creative union isn’t just inspired but important. “Why did it take us so long?” laughs Heroux.
Live, Mass Gothic expands to a four-piecewith multi-instrumentalistCristi Jo Zambri and drummer Joe Stickney, who also play on the album. ITYLE was co-produced by the band and Josh Ascalon, mixed by Chris Coady and mastered by Heba Kadry.
I’ve Tortured You Long Enough features the aforementioned “J.Z.O.K.,” and the previously released lyric video for “Dark Window” [see here], and will be available on CD/LP/DL/CS worldwide August 31st through Sub Pop [buy here]. Preorders of the album through megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on marbled black and white vinyl (while supplies last)
I’ve Tortured You Long Enough Tracklisting
1. Dark Window 2. Call Me 3. J.Z.O.K. 4. Keep On Dying 5. How I Love You 6. I’ve Tortured You Long Enough 7. New Work 8. The Goad 9. Big Window
Mass Gothic Tour Dates
On Friday, August 10th, Mass Gothic will join labelmates The Afghan Whigs and Yuno to kick-off SPF30: Sub Pop’s 30th Anniversary weekend with a show at Seattle Center’s Mural Amphitheatre. Additional live dates will be announced soon.
More on Mass Gothic by Eve Barlow:
Even when you’re married and you’re best friends and you’ve spent a lifetime (18 years is a lifetime, right?) collaborating with each other, it’s not often obvious what’s staring you right in the face. I’ve Tortured You Long Enough is the tongue-in-cheek title of Mass Gothic’s second album for this reason, among several others. Husband/Wife duo Noel Heroux and Jessica Zambri have always dipped in and out of each other’s creative spaces, advising on their respective outputs and supporting one another. But never had they before completely committed to doing an entire album as a duo, sharing an equal load. The time had come. And thank goodness. They have dreamed up a record packed with the tension, chaos and beauty of a fluid and cathartic two-way conversation. In a universe increasingly threatening our abilities to work hard on communication and coexistence, their creative union isn’t just inspired but important. “Why did it take us so long?” laughs Heroux from their home in Queens, New York.
When Heroux put out 2016’s self-titled Mass Gothic record, he was necessarily doing so as a solo entity. Mass Gothic was born as a necessary project for his workings following the aftermath of Hooray For Earth’s end. Plagued by his own insecurities and anxieties, Heroux wasn’t yet ready to deal with putting his trust and confidence into another shared project. He wasn’t in a place to take on the burden of those responsibilities with another individual, especially not an individual so fundamental to his existence. So what changed? He can’t exactly pinpoint when the phrase I’ve Tortured You Long Enough came to him. It was before a single song of this record was written. But it became a mantra, almost a premonition. Says Heroux, “It just popped into my head,” explains Heroux. “You can say it to a loved one, or to a friend. Or you could wish someone say it to you. It covers so many bases but it’s taken on extra meaning in the past couple of years while everybody is at each other’s throats; frustrated and confused all the time.”
The most important application of the phrase, however, was upon Heroux himself. He had tortured his own psyche long enough, and was particularly in need of forcing himself out of his comfort zone and letting go of that prior stubbornness. “I’ve struggled greatly with telling myself that I can’t do things, or that things aren’t good enough.” he says. Then in the Fall of 2016 circumstances led him to face his biggest fears head on, because he physically had no other choice. “We rented a small tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York. We put ourselves away and worked on music all day, wondering what it would feel and sound like,” explains Zambri.
It began with Zambri penning the first iterations of ‘Keep On Dying’, a synth-laden call-to-arms that recalls the frantic energy of Animal Collective and the celestial torch-bearing of Bat For Lashes. Zambri had the melody and lyrics, and Noel arranged the chords to finish the song. Then things started snowballing. While the writing may have begun in New York, it relocated to LA while their lives became totally in flux. They threw caution to the wind last January and got rid of their Brooklyn apartment. Not only that, they also purged all their belongings, except the bare bones for making an album: instruments and recording equipment.
They bought a car and lived out of a duffle bag of clothes for an entire year. They drove to LA, lived with their co-producer Josh Ascalon, and wrote and wrote and wrote. “The entire record from start to finish was done without having our own place to live,” marvels Heroux now. “Maybe we wouldn’t have been able to do it if we were anchored at home. We were forced into it. Jess was trying to open me up and if we could have just sat on a couch and thrown on the TV it probably wouldn’t have worked.”
The partnership has distinctly evolved the project’s sound. “Mass Gothic” was a far more diverse debut, and as the most successful debuts do it was just Heroux by himself, throwing a hundred different ideas at the wall. He describes it now as “the hellish sounds” of his own brain. Its follow-up therefore is a far more intentional meeting-of-minds. Their openness to work with one another had to come without rules as neither of them could afford to hold back.
Last Spring, for instance, when they thought they’d done all the work and had a fully mixed album, they realized separately that it had way more potential. While they were preparing to go on tour with Zambri’s sister, Cristi Jo, and her sister’s boyfriend Joseph Stickney, Heroux woke up one morning, turned to Zambri and said: “Oh god, we have to fucking re-record the whole album.” The rehearsals were the equivalent of pre-records, and they knew the tracks could accomplish so much more. Although he was afraid to say it out loud, they both agreed it was what was required.
The final ten days took place in the studio in Brooklyn where they laid it down from start to finish with Rick Kwan (Chris Coady mixed the record and Heba Kadry mastered it). “It was too pristine before,” says Zambri. “We wanted it to be perfect but it wasn’t breathing. Even if there would be tension, we wanted it to flow like water.” On that front they’ve achieved a remarkable arc. Bookended by the tracks ‘Dark Window’ and ‘Big Window’, it begins from a place of uncertainty, overwhelming disquiet and self-doubt, and it works towards a feeling greater than the individual. Via an optimistic number of romantic love songs (‘Call Me’, ‘J.Z.O.K.’, ‘How I Love You’) the record basks in the acceptance of co-dependence. Even though the works are intensive, there’s an element of ease to their overall message. The chords and beats may feel squeezed and claustrophobic at times, but expansive guitar tones and electronics allow the listener to deep dive into a chasm of potential.
“Overall it’s a conversation between the two of us,” explains Zambri. It isn’t autobiographical to the point of alienating its listener though. It’s important that the songs provoke. It’s a record that concludes with the comfort in knowing that you can be both independent and successful in a relationship, which speaks quite literally of the pairs’ experience giving in to this process with one another.
