2017 tour dates include Capitol Hill Block Party (July 21st) and direct support for Arcade Fire this September
We have news! News of new music, that is.
Wolf Parade have announced that Cry Cry Cry, the band’s first new album in seven years (and fourth full-length overall), will be released worldwide (pre-order here) on Friday, October 6th, 2017. The album will also be available in Canada from Universal Music.
The soaring choruses, rousing anthems, sprawling guitars and chaotic keys that make up Wolf Parade are proudly on display over the course of Cry Cry Cry. These elements are captured on the album’s anthemic lead single “Valley Boy” and additional standouts “You’re Dreaming,” “Artificial Life” and “King of Piss and Paper.” Cry Cry Cry was produced by John Goodmanson at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle and mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound in New York.
[Photo Credit: Shane McCauley]
Wolf Parade announced its return to the live stage in early 2016, after a five-year hiatus, scheduling multi-night residencies that May in New York, London, and Toronto to support of Apologies to the Queen Mary, the reissue of its classic, Sub Pop debut. Tickets sold out within a matter of hours. As the May shows neared, Wolf Parade surprised fans again, with a self-titled-and-released EP’s-worth of new material. The excitement surrounding the band’s return led to marquee festival appearances and late night TV performances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Conan and Last Call with Carson Daly.
Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Wolf Parade’s previously announced tour schedule for 2017 resumes later this week, with a performance at Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party on Friday, July 21st. In August, the band will also appear at Ponderosa Music & Arts Festival in Rock Creek, BC on August 18th-20th. Then from September 5th through September 28th, Wolf Parade will act as direct support for The Arcade Fire (select dates). There will be additional live dates announced soon.
Jul. 21 - Seattle, WA - Capitol Hill Block Party Aug. 18-20 - Rock Creek, BC - Ponderosa Music & Arts Festival Sep. 05 - Quebec City, QC - Videotron Center* Sep. 06 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre* Sep. 09 - Ottawa, ON - Canadian Tire Center* Sep. 21 - Duluth, GA - Infinite Energy Arena* Sep. 22 - Tampa, FL - USF Sun Dome* Sep. 23 - Coral Gables, FL - Watsco Center* Sep. 24 - St. Augustine, FL - St. Augustine, FL Amphitheatre* Sep. 26 - New Orleans, LA - UNO Lakefront Arena* Sep. 27 - Austin, TX - Frank Erwin Center* Sep. 28 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center* *w/ Arcade Fire
Cry Cry Cry is now available for pre-order on CD / 2xLP / DL / CS, worldwide from Sub Pop right over here and in Canada from Universal Records here. LP pre-orders through megamart.subpop.comand select independent retailers in the U.S. will receive the limited loser edition on creme colored vinyl (while supplies last). A new t-shirt design will also be available.
Cry Cry Cry Tracklisting
1. Lazarus Online 2. You’re Dreaming 3. Valley Boy 4. Incantation 5. Files on the Sun 6. Baby Blue 7. Weaponized 8. Who Are Ya 9. Am I an Alien Here 10. Artificial Life 11. King of Piss and Paper
About Wolf Parade’s Cry Cry Cry: The soaring choruses, rousing anthems, sprawling guitars and chaotic keys that make up Wolf Parade are on proud display over the course of Cry Cry Cry, the band’s thunderous first album in seven years.
Wolf Parade’s unique combination of sounds and influences, spearheaded by electric co-frontmen Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner—is a complex yet relatable, energetic brew of glam, prog, synth-rock, and satisfying discomfort—helped define 2000s indie rock with three critically celebrated albums, and propelled a growing Wolf Parade fandom even after the band went on a then-indefinite hiatus in 2010.
Cry Cry Cry is their first album to be produced by Pacific Northwest legend John Goodmanson (Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, Unwound) at Robert Lang Studios outside of Seattle, and is accompanied by a renewed focus and the creativity of a band that took their time getting exactly where they needed to be. It’s also a homecoming to Sub Pop, which released all three of the band’s previous albums.
“The band itself is almost a fifth member of the band, something more or at least different than the sum of its parts,” says Spencer Krug. “We don’t know who or what is responsible for our sound, it’s just something that naturally and consistently comes from this particular combo of musicians.”
“Once we got back together, I was playing guitar, writing and singing in a way that I only do while I’m in Wolf Parade,” says Dan Boeckner, who shares primary lyrical and singing duties with Spencer. “It’s just something that I can’t access without the other three people in the room.”
In the time apart, the band scattered geographically and focused on family and other work–Spencer on his solo project Moonface, Dan on his bands Handsome Furs, Operators, and Divine Fits (with Spoon’s Britt Daniel), and Dante De Caro on records with Carey Mercer’s Frog Eyes and Blackout Beach. And that time allowed for an even stronger, tighter band to emerge.
Eventually, Spencer, Dante, and Arlen found themselves all back living on remote Vancouver Island, accompanied by a population density less than that of Alaska, and the tranquility that leads to creative emanations like a government-sponsored bathtub race. With Dan on the same coast in Northern California, discussions began about picking things up where they left off.
“All of our albums are always a reaction to our last one,” says Arlen. “Expo 86 (2010) was about as sparse as we get, which is usually still pretty dense, and this time we wanted to make the palette a little larger.” Adds Dante, “Expo was a real rock record. We just sort of banged it out, which was kind of the point.” Cry Cry Cry, on the other hand, is more deliberate in its arrangements and embrace of the studio process. “If a part was going on for too long it would get lopped, you know?” says Dan. “That being said, there are two very long songs on the record and I don’t think it would be a Wolf Parade record if it didn’t have some kind of prog epic.”
“I think we’re actually a better band than we were when we stopped playing music together,” says Arlen. “A little bit more life experience for everybody, and people having made a bunch of records on their own.”
The result of this new consciousness is songs like “Valley Boy,” a Bowie-inflected anthem for which Spencer wrote lyrics after Leonard Cohen died the day before the 2016 election (“The radio’s been playing all your songs, talking about the way you slipped away up the stairs, did you know that it was all gonna go wrong?”). “You’re Dreaming,” also influenced by the election and the spinning shock that followed, is driving, urgent power pop that draws from artists like Tom Petty and what Dan calls one of his “default languages” for writing music. The swirly, synth-heavy crescendo of “Artificial Life” takes on the struggle of artists and at-risk communities (“If the flood should ever come, we’ll be last in the lifeboat”).
The album carries a sense of uprising that is not unrelated to Wolf Parade’s renewed determination to drive the band forward in uncertain times. Welcome to Cry Cry Cry.
Talk Tight is Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s first release, which originally came out on CD in March of 2016 on Ivy League Records in the band’s home country of Australia. This is the first time Talk Tight will been available in the US, and the first time it is available on vinyl anywhere.
One might consider Talk Tight a mini-album, or extended EP, if you will. Whatever you call it, this thing garnered the band critical acclaim in their home country and in the US, where Pitchfork gave the record an 8.0 (!) and described it like so:
“Seven rip-roaring tracks that move by their own logic, any one of which could be a single and all of which leave you wanting more in the best way possible… Listening to these seven tunes, you can easily trace a national lineage: the relentlessness of Radio Birdman, the pop literacy of the Go-Betweens, the rambunctious energy of the Easybeats, and the belief—shared with Courtney Barnett—that guitars are not just crucial to the message but might very well be the message themselves.”
The band released their Sub Pop debut, The French Press EP, in March of 2017, and they are currently working on their first full-length album.
AUS and European tour dates + ticket links can be found right over here.
You can (and should) follow Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever everywhere in the known universe… via Facebook | Instagram | Twitter and also here on subpop.com.
Light Information will be available in Canada from Flemish Eye and the rest of the world from Sub Pop on September 8th.
In Chad VanGaalen’s new animated video for “Pine and Clover”, a shapeshifter is born with the inability to form memories. It transforms into whatever creature or object it senses to be closest to it in the moment, but cannot remember what it was previously. It seems to have no sense of self, whatsoever. Or as VanGaalen humorously theorizes it: “This is what humans will end up being, or possibly have been.”
Created by VanGaalen, the “Pine and Clover” video is a combination of hand drawn drawn animation (cell animation), claymation, and paperless 2D animation. As the singer describes it: “The style and economy of the animation is governed by my ability to sit in a chair and draw for as long as I possibly can without being distracted by my beautiful vegetable garden. Because of the garden and its beauty, I have been inspired to make most of the environments similar to what I see in the garden, so needless to say there is a lot of lettuce.”
Chad VanGaalen’s “Pine and Clover” is one of the highlights from Light Information, the creative polymath’s sixth album.
Read more about Chad Van Gaalen (bio by Evie Nagy) at subpop.com, and follow Chad everywhere in the known inter-verse via Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.
[Photo Credit: Marc Rimmer]
In other fantastical (but also very factual) news: on September 8th, Sub Pop will repress VanGaalen’s Infiniheart, his beloved and long out of print (on vinyl) 2005 debut on 2xLP and Turquoise vinyl. And now at long last, Chad VanGaalen’s discography (Shrink Dust, Infiniheart, Skelliconnection, Soft Airplane, and Diaper Island) is available for the first time time ever on Bandcamp.
Light Information is available for preorder now on CD / LP / DL / CS from Sub Pop and Flemish Eye. LP pre orders of the album from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on crystal clear vinyl (while supplies last). There will also be a new T-shirt design available for your bundling pleasure.
Chad VanGaalen’s previously announced fall 2017 international tour dates in support of Light Information span October 15th in Utrecht, Netherlands at EKKO through December 8th in Montreal, Quebec at The Fairmount.
Europe Oct. 15 - Utrecht, NL - EKKO Oct. 16 - Rotterdam, NL - Rotown Oct. 17 - London, UK - Oslo Oct. 18 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club Oct. 20 - Hamburg, DE - Molotow (Sky Bar) Oct. 21 - Copenhagen, DK - Stengade Oct. 22 - Berlin, DE - Kantine am Berghain Oct. 24 - Düdingen, CH - Bad Bonn Oct. 25 - Lyon, FR - Le Sonic Oct. 26 - Amiens, FR - La Lune des Pirates Oct. 27 - Paris, FR - Point Ephemere Oct. 28 - Nantes, FR - SOY Festival Oct. 29 - Tourcoing, FR - Le Grand Mix Oct. 30 - Luxemburg, LU - Rotondes Oct. 31 - Gent, BE - NEST
North America Nov. 09 - Vancouver, BC - The Biltmore Cabaret Nov. 10 - Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern * Nov. 12 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir * Nov. 14 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel * Nov. 15 - Los Angeles, CA - Satellite Club * Nov. 16 - San Diego, CA - Soda Bar * Nov. 17 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar * Nov. 19 - Denver, CO - Hi Dive * Nov. 20 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court Nov. 30 - Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace Dec. 01 - Detroit, MI - El Club ** Dec. 02 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle ** Dec. 03 - Indianapolis, IN - The Hi Fi ** Dec. 05 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe ** Dec. 06 - Brooklyn, NY - Rough Trade NYC ** Dec. 07 - Allston, MA - Great Scott ** Dec. 08 - Montreal QC - Fairmont** *w/ NE-HI **w/ Un Blonde
“Accompanied by production from Greg Norman and Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, Downtown Boys sound sharper than ever, their urgency tightened into a raging storm.” – Pitchfork, Best New Track
“[A Wall] feels powerful enough to break down any physical boundary.” – FADER
“Downtown Boys’ mission: to reject boundaries that separate our humanity.” – NPR
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Downtown Boys will release their third album, Cost of Living, August 11th on Sub Pop. The Providence, RI band savagely stand their ground with this new album cut (and follow-up to the politically charged single “A Wall”) “Lips That Bite,” now available from the Adult Swim Singles Program via Stereogum.
Downtown Boys’ new album, Cost of Living, will be released on CD / LP / CASS / DL, and is available for pre-order here now. LP pre-orders in North America through the Sub Pop Mega Mart and select independent retailers will receive the Loser Edition on marbled gold vinyl while supplies last. Plus, a new T-shirt design will also be available for some sweet bundling action.
[Photo Credit: Miguel Rosario]
Downtown Boys use their ferocious energy and powerhouse live shows to unite crowds in the struggle to smash racism, queerphobia, capitalism, fascism, boredom, and all things people use to try to close our minds, eyes and hearts. In addition to festival appearances at Riot Fest, London Calling, Made In America, and a House of Vans summer show w/ Royal Headache and Sheer Mag next week, Downtown Boys have added a slew of dates to their upcoming tour. Full list of dates HERE or see below.
Cost of Living is Downtown Boys’ first record for Sub Pop, and the band is using this new platform as a megaphone for their protest music, amplifying and centering Chicana, queer, and Latino voices in the far-too-whitewashed world of rock. The album is at once incendiary, cathartic, and fun, melding the band’s revolutionary ideals with boundless energy. Produced by Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, one of indie-rock’s most mythological figures (he also produced Blonde Redhead, The Gossip, and others), Cost of Living shows a sense of maturity without compromising the band’s righteous assault and captivating presence.
The position of Downtown Boys has been clear since they started storming through basements and DIY spaces with their radically-minded, indefatigable rock music: they are here to topple the white-cis-het hegemony and draft a new history. This is how Downtown Boys began, and their resolve has only strengthened as both their sound and audience have grown. Like the socially conscious groups of years past, from Public Enemy to Rage Against the Machine, Downtown Boys harness powerful sloganeering, repetitive grooves, and earworm hooks to create one of the most necessary musical statements of today.
The Day is Quazarz’s, and the Time is now to plug your audio-visual sensors:
“Welcome to Quazarz,” the first, official video from Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines - Directed by Nep Sidhu - is viewable here via Black Constellation’s new YouTube channel.
Join US. Trust US. WE know what is best. Sleep more. Watch more. Eat gristle. Drink pop. Do Less.
JoinUS. Trust US. WE know what is best. Sleep more. Watch more. Eat gristle. Drink pop. Do Less.
JoinUS. Trust US. WE know what is best. Sleep more. Watch more. Eat gristle. Drink pop. Do Less. ——————— An interruption of the Guild’s proliferation of porcinepoliculapropogandai. A notification of service:
We received the beams and mixed them for the youth of ourterra so that they might know that they were not alone, that the revolution of resolution was still well underway.
We saw shattered fragments of the ritual dance that sustained them even in the midst of thetechno tyranny. It’s form was fitting as they like us were shards of what was Once.
They needed To know that theQuazarian fight mirrored their own and that there was hope in both the old ways and the new.
The guild doesn’t want you to see-hear-feelthi…
END FEED
JoinUS. Trust US. WE know what is best. Sleep more. Watch more. Eat gristle. Drink pop. Do Less
JoinUS. Trust US. WE know what is best. Sleep more. Watch more. Eat gristle. Drink pop. Do Less
JoinUS. Trust US. WE know what is best. Sleep more. Watch more. Eat gristle. Drink pop. Do Less
Published in Quazarian Con-Guild leaflet The Proper Gander circa right now “Release Day” by Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes
Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star and Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines are available for purchase now from Sub Pop right here. LP orders for each album from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will continue to receive the limited “Loser” edition on colored vinyl (…Jealous Machines on mashed-up purple; …Born on a Gangster Star on aluminum) while supplies last. Both albums can be purchased together from Sub Pop as a special bundle, and there are also new T-shirt designs associated with each release (one for …Born on a Gangster Star and two for …vs. The Jealous Machines).
Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star, which includes tracks “Shine A Light” (feat. Thaddillac), “Since Caya,” “When Cats Claw” and Moon Whip Quäz (feat. Darrius),” was produced by Knife Knights (aka Ishmael Butler and Erik Blood) and recorded and mixed by Blood at Protect and Exalt Labs: A Black Space in Seattle.
Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines, which includes tracks “30 Clip Extension” “Effeminence” and “Julian’s Dream (Ode to a Bad)” was produced by the Palaceer Lazaro and Sunny Levine, recorded in Seattle at Protect and Exalt Labs: A Black Space and in Marina Del Rey at Dror Lord Studios, and mixed by Levine and Kamal Humphrey at Kamal’s House Studio.
Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines will also be available as a special-edition illustrated album: illustrated by cartoonist Joshua Ray Stephens this full-color, hand-numbered, 32-page book includes a download code for the full album. Joshua Ray Stephens worked directly with Shabazz Palaces to interpret the album track-by-track, creating a cohesive whole that synchronizes music and image. Printed in a large 11” x 17” format, with saddle-stitch binding, this limited-edition art piece further expands the ambitious universe of Quazarz and Shabazz Palaces. The illustrated album version of Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines will be released in collaboration with Fantagraphics Books on Friday, August 18th.
Shabazz Palaces have extended their 2017 tour schedule in support both Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star and Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines with international dates that begin July 13th-16th at Cascadia Festival in Granite Falls, Washington run and through November 9th-12th at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands. The European leg of the tour will visit 23 cities including Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Istanbul, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Geneva, Paris, Dublin, London, Glasgow, and Brussels.
Jul. 13-16 - Granite Falls, WA - Cascadia Festival Aug. 16 - Portland, OR - The Star Theater* Aug. 18 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall* Aug. 19 - Los Angeles, CA - The Regent Theatre* Aug. 20 - Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom* Aug. 21 - El Paso - TX - The Lowbrow * Aug. 21 - El Paso, TX - Lowbrow* Aug. 23 - Austin, TX - Mohawk (Outdoor Stage)* Aug. 24 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada* Aug. 25 - Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon* Aug. 26 - Atlanta, GA - Terminal West* Aug. 27 - Charleston, SC - Music Farm* Aug. 28 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle* Aug. 30 - Columbus, OH - Ace of Cups* Aug. 31 - Detroit, MI - El Club* Sep. 01 - Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace* Sep. 02 - Montreal, QC - Theatre Fairmount* Sep. 03 - Quebec City, QC - Le Cercle Sep. 05 - Boston, MA - The Sinclair* Sep. 06 - Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw* Sep. 07 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer* Sep. 08 - Washington, DC - Black Cat* Sep. 09 - Baltimore, DC - Ottobar* Sep. 11 - Asheville, NC - The Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall * Sep. 12 - Nashville, TN - Exit In * Sep. 13 - St. Louis - MO - Ready Room * Sep. 16 - Chicago, IL - Riot Fest at Douglas Park Oct. 06 - Copenhagen, DK - Jazz House Oct. 07 - Stockholm, SE - Debaser Strand Oct. 08 - Oslo, NO - Parkteateret Oct. 09 - Gotheburg, SE - Pustervik Oct. 11 - Helsinki, FI - Kuudes Linja Oct. 12 - Tallin, Estonia - Sinilind Oct. 13 - Riga, LV - Skaņu Mežs festival Oct. 17 - Bratislava, SK - A4 Zero Space Oct. 19 - Ljubljana, SI - Kino Siska Oct. 20 - Istanbul, TR - Garajstanbul Oct. 21 - Vienna, AT - Arena Oct. 22 - Prague, CZ - Struny Podzimu Festival Oct. 23 - Berlin, DE - Gretchen Oct. 26 - Dudingen, CH - Bad Bonn Oct. 27 - Zurich, CH - Rote Fabrik Oct. 28 - Geneva, CH - La Graviere Oct. 30 - Paris, FR - Batofar Nov. 03 - Dublin, IE - Sugar Club Nov. 06 - London, UK - Oval Space Nov. 07 - Manchester, UK - Deaf Institute Nov. 08 - Glasgow, UK - Art School Nov. 10 - Brussels, BE - AB Nov. 09-12 - Utrecht, NL - Le Guess Who? Festival (Curated by Shabazz Palaces)
