Philadelphia’s Pissed Jeans have been making gnarly noise for 13 years, and on their fifth album Why Love Now, the male-fronted quartet is taking aim at the mundane discomforts of modern life—from fetish webcams to office-supply deliveries. The album will see its worldwide release on February 24th, 2017, and we’re pretty fucking psyched about it.
Pissed Jeans’ gutter-scraped amalgamation of sludge, punk, noise, and bracing wit make the band—Matt Korvette (vocals), Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums)—a release valve for a world where absurdity seems in a constant battle trying to outdo itself. Why Love Now picks at the bursting seams that are barely holding 21st-century life together. Take the grinding rave-up and lead single “The Bar Is Low” [link] which, according to Korvette, is “about how every guy seems to be revealing themselves as a shithead.”
As they did on their last album, 2013’s Honeys, Pissed Jeans offer a couple of “fuck that shit type songs” about the working world, with the blistering “Worldwide Marine Asset Financial Analyst” turning unwieldy job titles into sneering punk choruses and “Have You Ever Been Furniture” waving a flag for those whose job descriptions might as well be summed up by “professionally underappreciated.”
And the startling “I’m A Man,” which comes at the album’s midpoint, finds author Lindsay Hunter (Ugly Girls) taking center stage, delivering a self-penned monologue of W.B. Mason-inspired erotica—office small talk about pens and coffee given just enough of a twist to expose its filthy underside, with Hunter adopting a grimacing menace that makes its depiction of curdled masculinity even more harrowing.
No Wave legend Lydia Lunch shacked up in Philadelphia to produce Why Love Now alongside local metal legend Arthur Rizk (Eternal Champion, Goat Semen). “I knew she wasn’t a traditional producer,” Korvette says of Lunch. “We wanted to mix it up a little bit. I like how she’s so cool and really intimidating. I didn’t know how it was going to work out. She ended up being so fucking awesome and crazy. She was super into it, constantly threatening to bend us over the bathtub. I’m not really sure what that entails, but I know she probably wasn’t joking.”
The combination of Lunch’s spiritual guidance and Rizk’s technical prowess supercharged Pissed Jeans, and the bracing Why Love Now documents them at their grimy, grinning best. While its references may be very early-21st-century, its willingness to state its case cement it as an album in line with punk’s tradition of turning norms on their heads and shaking them loose.
Read more on Pissed Jeans from Maura Johnston here.
Why Love Now will be released on CD / LP / DL, and is available for preorder now here. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com will receive the limited Loser Edition on lavender vinyl (while supplies last).
And at last, let us encourage/facilitate your obsessive following of Pissed Jeans on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Both bands have been playing their music on the road this year; Mass Gothic in support of their self-titled debut, and Kyle Craft in support of his Sub Pop debut, ”Dolls of Highland.”
Speaking of raucous good times… The time is now for you not to miss seeing Kyle Craft and his band play live; they’re currently on tour with Drive By Truckers through the end of November.
The long-unavailable, classic discography of beloved and iconic Seattle band, TAD – God’s Balls (1989), Salt Lick (1990), 8-Way Santa (1991), and assorted singles from the band’s 1988-1992 run – finally received the deluxe reissue treatment. Producer & engineer Jack Endino (who produced God’s Balls, TAD’s first full-length) has remastered all of the recordings from the original tapes. God’s Balls, Salt Lick and 8-Way Santa are available today from Sub Pop.
As if that weren’t life-changing enough, you can also stream all three remastered albums via YouTube: 8-Way Santa | Gods Balls | Salt Lick.
Might we also suggest you treat yourself to TAD’s deluxe unboxing video (as seen on Facebook & Instagram), and spend some quality time with Tad Doyle as he sits for an enlightening interview with Sub Pop Podcast, which you can listen to here.
The deluxe editions of God’s Balls, Salt Lick, and 8-Way Santa feature new images from celebrated photographer Charles Peterson, bonus tracks, and expansive liner notes from the band and Jack Endino. The bonus material associated with each release will be included on the CD and digital formats. And each of the gatefold vinyl LPs will include that album’s bonus material as part of its free, associated download. All of the bonus material, from all three of these monumental heavy rock/punk albums will be collected on an additional bonus LP available for free with purchase of all three (3) albums on vinyl from the Sub Pop Mega Mart and also from select independent retailers.
BUT WAIT! There’s more…
For those in the Seattle area, TAD’s original line up – Tad Doyle, Kurt Danielsen, Steve Wied, and Gary Thornstensen – have scheduled a Q&A session at Easy Street Records on November 9th at 7pm. The event is hosted by Sub Pop’s Jonathan Poneman.
For the rest of the world, we’ll be streaming the above referenced Q&A via Facebook Live.
We at Sub Pop Records are quite pleased with ourselves in announcing that Melbourne rockers, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, have joined our ever-growing family. Now let us get on with never shutting up about them, as follows:
Born from late
night jam sessions in singer/guitarist Fran Keaney’s bedroom and honed in the
thrumming confines of Melbourne’s live music venues, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever began to take shape as audiences
got moving. Sharing tastes and songwriting duties, cousins Joe White and Fran
Keaney, brothers Tom and Joe Russo, and drummer Marcel Tussie started out with
softer, melody-focused songs. The more shows they played, the more those
driving rhythms that now trademark their songs emerged. Since then, Rolling
Blackouts Coastal Fever rode that wave from strength to strength. Touring
around the country on headline bills and festival slots, they entrenched
themselves with their thrilling live shows.
[Photo Credit: McLean Stephenson]
In early 2016,
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever released Talk Tight, their first EP.That
effort put the group on the map with glowing support from SPIN, Stereogum,
and Pitchfork, praising them as standouts even among the fertile
landscape of Melbourne music. Chock full of snappy riffs, spritely drumming and
quick-witted wordplay, Talk Tight was praised by Pitchfork “for
the precision of their melodies, the streamlined sophistication of their
arrangements, and the undercurrent of melancholy that motivates every note.”
“Julie’s Place,” the first single off Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s forthcoming EP (out in 2017, and premiered via Stereogum on Nov. 2), levels up on everything that made Talk Tight
such an immediate draw. It’s about being young and dumb but full of bravado.
Sprinting guitars mimic singer Keaney’s pangs of heartache, his awkwardly
sensual lyrics calling to mind the chaos and confusion of being around someone
you can’t get off your mind.
You can (and should) follow Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever everywhere in the known universe… and also via their Facebook | Instagram | Twitter .
Clipping’s “Shooter,” a standout from Wriggle, the group’s summer EP, now has an officially official video (as seen above) directed by the massively talented Carlos Lopez Estrada.
1/3 of Clipping - William Hutson - had this to say about it, “Since the beginning of the band, we had discussed making a dance video for one of our songs but didn’t think we could actually pull it off. When Voltaire Wade-Green offered to choreograph something for us, we jumped at the chance to work with him and the other dancers (all of whom were Hamilton ensemble members at the time). He and Carlos conceived the video together based on the scenarios of gun violence depicted in the song’s lyrics, and managed to match the cheery tone of the song to the seriousness of its themes.”
[Photo Credit : Brian Tamborello]
The band also just added European dates to its 2016 tour schedule in support of Wriggle, and Splendor & Misery, their Sci Fi-Dystopian concept record released last month. The new dates begin December 9th in Brussels at M4 and end December 20th in London at Corsica Studios. The tour will include stops in Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, and more. Clipping is currently in the midst of an east coast co-headline a tour with Youth Code (through November 4th). The group will also perform on Conan on TBS Thursday, November 17th. Current tour dates are below.
Frankly, there is no shortage of Clipping related news we can’t shut up about. On their recent Seattle visit, Clipping sat for an interview with the Sub Pop Podcast, where they discussed art, intention and believe it or not, killer conference papers [listen here]. Frontman Daveed Diggs is also the current cover star of FLOOD Magazine’s 5th issue [view here]. And late last week, Clipping delivered “Fat Fingers,” a new, anti-Trump song for 30 Songs, 30 Days campaign [listen here].
Splendor & Misery is available now on CD/LP/DL/CASS worldwide from Sub Pop [here] and Deathbomb Arc [here]. For proof that this album is actually “fire” as the kids say, see/hear: “Baby Don’t Sleep,” “A Better Place,” and “Air ‘Em Out”. The also excellent (also pretty fire) Wriggle EP is available from Sub Pop right over here.
Tour Dates + Ticket Links Nov. 01 - St. Petersberg, FL - Local 662 * Nov. 02 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl * Nov. 04 - Austin, TX - Sound on Sound Festival Nov. 17 - Los Angeles, CA - CONAN (TV appearance). Dec. 09 - Brussels, BE - M4 Dec. 10 - Tilburg, NL - Incubate / 013 Dec. 12 - Tel Aviv, IR - Gagarin Dec. 13 - Amsterdam, NL - Sugar Factory Dec. 14 - Hamburg, DE - Hafenklang Dec. 15 - Berlin, DE - Cassiopeia Dec. 16 - Frankfurt, DE - Zoom Dec. 17 - Munich, DE - TBA Dec. 18 - Düsseldorf, DE - FFT Foyer Dec. 19 - Paris, FR - TBA Dec. 20 - London, UK - Corsica Studios * w/ Youth Code ^ World War (fka Mincemeat or Tenspeed)
