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.”
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
Today, the unholy union of Weird Nightmare and Ancient Shapes brings you the double A-Side experience of the year! “I Think You Know” w/ “Bird With an Iron Head” delivers two sides of sing-along power-punk you need to hear to believe.
This pairing is now available in physical form on a bright red 7”colored vinyl single. Featuring Weird Nightmare’s “I Think You Know” on side A, and Ancient Shapes’ 3-part suite “Bird With an Iron Head” (+official video), ”Imaginary Agony” and “I’m Against the Wind” on side AA. All four songs are also available digitally on all DSPs from Sub Pop.
Weird Nightmare and Ancient Shapes have a handful of upcoming Canadian release shows for the new single, as covered below. And Weird Nightmare will also be the main support for select Archers of Loaf east coast shows beginning Tuesday, November 29th in Baltimore at Ottobar and ending Friday, December 2nd in Brooklyn at Warsaw. Please find a complete list of Weird Nightmare shows below.
Weird Nightmare/Ancient Shapes
Thu. Nov. 17 - Hamilton, ON - Casbah
Fri. Nov. 18 - Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace
Sat. Nov. 19 - St. Catherines, ON - Warhorse
Weird Nightmare supporting Archers of Loaf
Tue. Nov. 29 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
Wed. Nov. 30 - Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts
Thu. Dec. 01 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair
Fri. Dec. 02 - Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
Weird Nightmare’s self-titled full-length debut is available now on CD/LP/CS/DSPs from Sub Pop. The LP’s limited Loser Edition on transparent cotton candy swirl vinyl, packaged in a special embossed jacket with semi-transparent obi-strip along the spine, can be purchased from megamart.sub pop.com, select independent retailers in North America, and at Weird Nightmare live shows. In the UK, and in EU, the Loser Edition is available on coke bottle clear vinyl (both while supplies last).
Ancient Shapes was spawned in 2015 as a recording side project of Daniel Romano. Here’s Weird Nightmare’s Alex Edkins on Daniel Romano, “I think Daniel is a real treasure and a severely underappreciated genius. He released 11 albums last year! I’m quite tickled to be sharing a release with him.”
Today, October 21st, 2022, Frankie Cosmos releases their new record, Inner World Peace via Sub Pop. Inner World Peace, is available on CD/LP/CS/DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop. The album features the standout tracks “F.O.O.F.”, “Aftershook,” “One Year Stand,” and “Empty Head.” It was co-produced by Frankie Cosmos, Nate Mendelsohn, and Katie Von Schleicher at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, New York, mixed by Mendelsohn and Von Schleicher, and mastered by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering. The Inner World Peace album art also features illustrations from band member Lauren Martin.
About Inner World Peace by Katie Von Schleicher: Several things happened before a warm day when I met the four members of Frankie Cosmos in a Brooklyn studio to begin making their album. Greta Kline spent a few years living with her family and writing a mere 100 songs, turning her empathy anywhere from the navel to the moon, rendering it all warm, close and reflexively humorous. In music, everyone loves a teen sensation, but Kline has never been more fascinating than now, a decade into being one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation. She’s lodged in my mind amongst authors, other observational alchemists like Rachel Cusk or Sheila Heti, but she’s funnier, which is a charm endemic to musicians.
Meanwhile Frankie Cosmos, a rare, dwindling democratic entity called a band, had been on pandemic hiatus with no idea if they’d continue. In the openness of that uncertainty they met up, planning to hang out and play music together for the first time in nearly 500 days. There, whittling down the multitude of music to work with, they created Inner World Peace, a collection of Greta’s songs changed and sculpted by their time together. While Kline’s musical taste at the time was leaning toward aughts indie rock she’d loved as a teenager, keyboardist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson cite “droning, meditation, repetition, clarity and intentionality,” as well as “‘70s folk and pop” as a reference for how they approached their parts. Bassist/guitarist Alex Bailey says that at the time he referred to it as their “ambient” or “psych” album. Somewhere between those textural elements and Kline’s penchant for concise pop, Inner World Peace finds its balance.
Instant centerpiece “One Year Stand” is a small snowglobe of intimacy recalling the softest moments of Yo La Tengo’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. Lifted by Martin’s drones on Hammond organ and synthesizer, it could be played on repeat in a loop. I like to think it’s obvious how Greta’s vocals were recorded: late at night as we all sat by in low light, transfixed as she sings “I’m not worried about the / rest of my life / because you are here today / I go back in time / I’m a cast iron.” The voices of Kline and Martin, who have sung together since middle school, blend seamlessly.
The first order of business upon setting up camp in Brooklyn’s Figure 8 studios was to project giant colorful slides the band had made for each track. Co-producing with Nate Mendelsohn, my Shitty Hits Recording partner, we aimed for FC’s aesthetic idiosyncrasies to shine.The mood board for “Magnetic Personality” has a neon green and black checkerboard, a screen capture of the game Street Fighter with “K.O.” in fat red letters, and a cover of Mad Magazine that says “Spy Vs. Spy! The Top Secret Files.” On tracks like “F.O.O.F.” (Freak Out On Friday), “Fragments” and “Aftershook,” the group are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don’t miss. When on Inner World Peace they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they’re coming deeper into their own.
Throughout the album there are plays on the notion of feeling seen or invisible, as in “Magnetic Personality” when Kline sings “ask me how I am and I won’t really say,” or in “One Year Stand” when she says “maybe I’m asking myself.” Kline emphasizes that this was her first group of songs in years that weren’t written while on tour, but rather with ample time on her hands. She reflects on past selves in “Abigail” (“that version of myself I don’t want back”) and “Wayne” (“Like in first grade / How I went by Wayne / I always had / another name”). If we’re alone, what becomes of the things we see? As in “Fruit Stand,” Kline asks “If it’s raining and I can’t feel it, is it raining?”
Inner World Peace excels in passing on the emotions it holds. When in the towering “Empty Head” Kline sings of wanting to let thoughts slide away, her voice is buoyed on a bed of synths and harmonium as tranquility abounds. When her thoughts become hurried and full of desire, so does the band, and she leaps from word to word as if unable to contain them all. As a group, they carry it all deftly, and with constant regard for Kline’s point of view.
Says Greta, “To me, the album is about perception. It’s about the question of “who am I?” and whether or not the answer matters. It’s about quantum time, the possibilities of invisible worlds. The album is about finding myself floating in a new context. A teenager again, living with my parents. An adult, choosing to live with my family in an act of love. Time propelled us forward, aged us, and also froze. If you don’t leave the house, who are you to the world? Can you take the person you discover there out with you?”
Frankie Cosmos Inner World Peace
Tracklisting 1. Abigail 2. Aftershook 3. Fruit Stand 4. Magnetic Personality 5. Wayne 6. Sky Magnet 7. A Work Call 8. Empty Head 9. Fragments 10. Prolonging Babyhood 11. One Year Stand 12. F.O.O.F. 13. Street View 14. Spare the Guitar 15. Heed the Call
This Friday, October 21st, 2022, Frankie Cosmos will release their new record, Inner World Peace via Sub Pop. In celebration of the album’s release, the group has shared their latest video for “Empty Head,” a new offering from the album.
This song “is about wishing for inner peace, and conversely: spiraling” shares frontperson Greta Kline. “It’s about self-control and the fear of unlocking myself and overflowing. It’s also about finding joy in small moments - walking in circles, hoping to see the neighbor’s dog. I’m so happy we got to work with Sophia Bennett Holmes again for this music video (I last worked with her in 2014 on the “Art School” video). I love the concept Sophia came up with - it tells its own story that fits in with the story of the song, but also takes it somewhere else. To me, the video is about blossoming because of a chill perspective (once I stop trying to jump into flight, I lift off the ground with ease); and then letting go of the need to be perceived, and instead disappearing and floating into the sunset. It perfectly captures the way meditation works - that once you stop focusing and trying too hard, it comes naturally.”
Inner World Peace, will be available on CD/LP/CS/DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop. The album features the standout tracks “F.O.O.F.”, “Aftershook,” “One Year Stand,” and “Empty Head.” It was co-produced by Frankie Cosmos, Nate Mendelsohn, and Katie Von Schleicher at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, New York, mixed by Mendelsohn and Von Schleicher, and mastered by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering. The Inner World Peace album art also features illustrations from band member Lauren Martin.
What people are saying about Frankie Cosmos Inner World Peace: “Minimal and impressionistic — a collection of small features that coalesce into a vivid landscape.” [“One Year Stand”] - PAPER
“Instrumentally understated, with cheeky and sweet lyrics sung in Greta’s classic whispery tone. The band stays true to their bedroom indie sound through the song and music video” [“One Year Stand”] - Brooklyn Vegan
“Patient and lush.” [“One Year Stand”] - Uproxx
“Dreamy” [“One Year Stand”] - Consequence of Sound
“The band’s instrumentation feels more substantial, bringing in a loose, psychedelic groove that feels like new ground. Buoyed by a winsome melody and spirited rhythm section, Frankie Cosmos’ latest single “F.O.O.F.” (“Freak Out on Friday”), continues this collaborative streak. Kline is abuzz with anticipation on the power-pop gem…” - Pitchfork
“Robert Smith was in love on Friday, Rebecca Black had to get down on Friday and now Greta Kline — leader of the indie-pop project Frankie Cosmos — freaks out on Friday. That’s what the playful acronym “F.O.O.F.” stands for and, accordingly, the latest single from Frankie Cosmos’s forthcoming album “Inner World Peace” is alive with Kline’s signature wry, muted humor. “It’s still Wednesday, I have to wait two more sleeps ’til I can freak,” Kline sighs, while a mildly noodly guitar solo saves up its most raucous energy. That the brief song ends before that promised freakout is the point: Kline is more interested in capturing that hopeful, anticipatory feeling — usually a comforting fiction — that everything will be all right once the weekend comes.” [“F.O.O.F.”] - New York Times
“Their latest preview of the record, “F.O.O.F.” (short for “Freak Out on Friday”) is a concise song about the way certain feelings are anything but. Over a breezy pop-rock instrumental accented by gently psychedelic guitars and keys, Kline marvels at the elasticity of time…the band’s own history folding in on itself. The song captures, on multiple levels, how the pandemic era has rewritten the rules of societal tension and release, complicating emotional regulation to the point that we each have to get reacquainted with who we really are.” [“F.O.O.F.”] - PASTE
Frankie Cosmos Inner World Peace
Tracklisting 1. Abigail 2. Aftershook 3. Fruit Stand 4. Magnetic Personality 5. Wayne 6. Sky Magnet 7. A Work Call 8. Empty Head 9. Fragments 10. Prolonging Babyhood 11. One Year Stand 12. F.O.O.F. 13. Street View 14. Spare the Guitar 15. Heed the Call
