News for Sub Pop

NEWS : TUE, FEB 27, 2024 at 7:00 AM

Watch Pissed Jeans’ Official Video for “Cling to a Poisoned Dream” From Half Divorced, Out This Friday

Pissed Jeans is sharing the Joe Stakun-directed official video for “Cling to a Poisoned Dream,” a bruising meditation of harsh truths, and a highlight from their excellent sixth album Half Divorced, out this Friday, March 1st, worldwide on Sub Pop.
 
The twelve songs on Half Divorced skewer the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood. Pissed Jeans’ – Matt Korvette (vocals), Bradley Fry (guitar),  Randy Huth (bass), and Sean McGuinness (drums) – notorious acerbic sense of humor remains sharper than ever as they dismember some of the joys that contemporary adult life has to offer.
 
Half Divorced has earned praise from the likes of MOJO (★★★★), and UNCUT. In their 8/10 review, the latter says, “Almost 20 years on, this lot are still kicking against the pricks with their ferocious hybrid of (post-) punk, hardcore and sludgy grunge. Track titles here such as ‘Anti-Sapio’ and ‘Cling to a Poisoned Dream’ suggest their view of the status quo remains brutally realistic, but as always it’s leavened with tunefulness and dark humour. Matt Korvette is a misanthropic force of nature, whether ticking off the negatives of cities from Boston to Rome (‘Everywhere Is Bad’) or addressing adult responsibility (‘Helicopter Parent’). ’80s hardcore rules, as on closer ‘Moving On,’ which taps Bob Mould’s chiming intensity, but PJ throw it off course, notably on Killing Joke-esque epic ‘Junktime.’” Meanwhile, God Is In the TV says the album’s “…throttling compulsion and an undeniable lightness of being make for a winning combination,” and Record Collector succinctly adds “It’s a corker.”

Half Divorced was produced and mixed by Pissed Jeans and Don Godwin and engineered by Mike Petillo at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, Maryland, and mastered by Arthur Rizk (co-producer and mixer for Why Love Now).
 
Half Divorced is available to preorder from Sub Pop. Preorders in North America from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser Edition on Spotify-Colored vinyl (otherwise known as an opaque lime green…). In the UK and Europe, LP orders from independent retail stores will receive the Loser Edition on Coke Bottle Green vinyl. A UK-only Magenta vinyl edition will also be available to preorder through Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and Rough Trade Shops. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
 
Pissed Jeans’ previously announced international tour dates in support of Half Divorced span Friday, February 29th through April 4th. More live dates will be announced soon.
 
Thu. Feb. 29 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
Fri. Mar. 01 - Seattle, WA - Madame Lou’s
Sat. Mar. 02 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
Fri. Mar. 15 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground 
Sat. Mar. 16 - Brooklyn, NY - St. Vitus
Fri. Mar. 29 - Schijndel, NL - Paaspop Festival
Sat. Mar. 30 - London, UK - EartH (aka Hackney Arts Centre)
Sun. Mar. 31 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Punk Fest
Tue. Apr. 02 - Glasgow, UK - Stereo
Wed. Apr. 03 - Dublin, IE - Whelan’s
Thu. Apr. 04 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
 
Next week, Pissed Jeans will host an hourlong takeover of NTS Radio on Friday, March 8th (noon EST). 

Pissed Jeans
Half Divorced
 
Tracklisting:
1. Killing All the Wrong People
2. Anti-Sapio
3. Helicopter Parent
4. Cling to a Poisoned Dream
5. Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt
6. Everywhere Is Bad
7. Junktime
8. Alive With Hate
9. Seatbelt Alarm Silencer
10. (Stolen) Catalytic Converter
11. Monsters
12. Moving On

Posted by Abbie Gobeli

NEWS : THU, FEB 22, 2024 at 7:00 AM

Hear Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 8 Tracks From haha same and En Attendant Ana

Today, Thursday, February 22nd, marks the release of the brand new and final two contributions to Volume 8 of the Sub Pop Singles Club -  haha same’s “Guess What to Do” b/w “Calling It a Night” and En Attendant Ana “Magical Lies” / “Interlude” b/w “Teeny Tiny Tyche” – both available now on all DSPs and as limited-edition vinyl 7” singles.
 
Sometimes music seems to come from an undefinable source, appearing in your mind as though sent from a place outside of yourself. Other times it comes from your friend’s brain while you are sitting right next to them, and it still somehow feels like your own.
 
haha same, the new project from Greta Kline of Frankie Cosmos and Cody Fitzgerald of Stolen Jars, is an effortless collaboration between friends. Filled with warmth, energy, and just a tinge of darkness, their singles “Guess What To Do” and “Calling It A Night” are a true mix of their distinct musical styles. Fitzgerald’s indie-pop production style marries perfectly with Kline’s particular lyrical sensibility, grasping for an understanding of the world at large by focusing in on the smallest moments. It all comes together to give haha same a sound all their own.
 
“A word that kept coming up when we talked about collaborating was ‘easy’,” says Kline of the songwriting process, “we bounced sonic ideas around and got excited about little details. Sometimes Cody would be laying down a part in the song and I’d be sitting on the floor with his dog Moon, writing lyrics. Then we kind of unfolded the stories behind the songs together, asking questions and clarifying the meanings behind each line.”
 
“Yeah exactly,” notes Fitzgerald, “over the course of a couple hours these songs felt like they had fallen out of our brains fully formed. At the end of the day, these songs are about extremely particular, but very relatable moments in life. So just like we did when we were writing them, we hope that everyone who listens to them will have that same moment of recognition and maybe even find themselves saying the words ‘haha same.’”
 
En Attendant Ana is a Paris-based indie pop band formed in 2014 and known for their jangly guitars, catchy hooks, layered melodies and poetic lyrics that gravitate around Margaux Bouchaudon’s vocals. They burst onto the international scene with their debut album Lost and Found on Chicago’s Trouble in Mind label, which led to a U.S. tour in 2018.
 
Their second album Juillet has a similar energy, but sees the band make an artistic shift from the lo-fi references of their debut to more sophisticated songwriting. Released just before the lock-down, the album was critically acclaimed but never got the chance to be fully presented live by the band, who are known for their raw, emotional, captivating, and honest live performances.

In 2023, En Attendant Ana (Margaux Bouchaudon, Camille Fréchou, Maxence Tomasso, Vincent Hivert et Adrien Pollin) returned with a third album entitled Principia, widely considered their best work to date, which saw them travel the world on an impressive world tour. The album, said to nod to ’90s British indie, jazz, Krautrock and French pop, has been very well received, both by the media, who have placed Principia on numerous year-end lists (here’s TIME…), and by the band’s ever-growing audience. Here at Sub Pop we’re altogether crazy about them.
 
En Attendant Ana’s UK tour schedule for 2024 begins Tuesday, April 2nd in Kalsruhe, DE at Kohl, and runs through June 14th in Southend, UK at Twenty-One Arts. A full list of dates are below.
 
Tue. Apr. 02 - Kalsruhe, DE - Kohl
Wed. Apr. 03 - Stuttgart, DE - Merlin
Thu. Apr. 04 - Nuremberg, DE - Soft Spot
Fri. Apr. 05 - Berlin, DE - Schokoladen
Sat. Apr. 06 - Hannover, DE - Feinkost Lampe
Sun. Apr. 07 - Hambourg, DE - Nachtasyl
Mon. Apr. 09 - Amsterdam, NL - Toekomstmuziek
Wed. Apr. 11 - Liège, BE - Kultura
Fri. May 17 - Brighton, UK - The Great Escape (One Church)
Sat. May 18 - Brighton, UK - The Great Escape (Patterns)
Sun. May 19 - Coventry, UK -Just Dropped In Records
Mon. May 20 - Newcastle, UK - Cumberland Arms
Tue. May 21 - Hull, UK - Polar Bear Music Club
Wed. May 22 - Glasgow, UK - Mono
Thu. May 23 - Liverpool, UK - Kazimier Stockroom
Fri. May 24 - London, UK - Dot to Dot Party (Oslo)
Sat. May 25 - Bristol, UK - Dot to Dot festival
Sun. May 26 - Nottingham, UK - Dot to Dot festival
Fri. Jun. 14 - Southend, UK - Twenty-One Arts

 
You can still subscribe to the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 8 to get all twelve super-limited 7” vinyl records featuring exclusive music by today’s finest musicians! It’s limited to a mere 835 subscriptions because it’s volume 8, and 2023 marked Sub Pop’s 35th birthday! You’ll get the aforementioned 7”s from En Attendant Ana and haha same, along with singles from Mary Jane Dunphe, Vanishing Twin, SUNN O))), Telehealth, Thrash Palace (feat. EMA, Vice Cooler, Sarah Register), Gaye Su Akyol, Jessica Winter & Jonathan Snipes, Margaritas Podridas, Brontez Purnell, and Suki Waterhouse (which includes her collaboration with Belle & Sebastian).
 
Computer users: fear not! You will also get digital downloads of the tracks through your Sub Pop Mega Mart account. Hear music from the series via the Singles Club playlist, and subscribe here.





haha same Instagram 
En Attendant Ana Instagram / Facebook / X (Twitter)

Posted by Abbie Gobeli

NEWS : WED, FEB 21, 2024 at 7:00 AM

Girl and Girl Announce Call A Doctor, Their Debut LP, Available May 24

On May 24th, Australian group Girl and Girl will release their debut full-length, Call A Doctor, on CD/LP/DSP via Virgin Australia (AU/NZ) and Sub Pop (ROW.)  The album is the full-length follow-up to Girl and Girl’s 2023 digital release Divorce +, an eight-track EP that featured the standout singles “All I See” and “Dance Now.”
 
Call A Doctor is an unforgettable first bow from Girl and Girl, an audacious and aggressively tuneful blast of a record from this Australian four-piece garage rock outfit. The band is comprised of frontperson Kai James (singer, guitarist) and his Aunty Liss (drums), along with longtime friends Jayden Williams (guitar) and Fraser Bell (bass). 
Call A Doctor was recorded at Sundowner Sound in Melbourne, a two-story industrial complex where the band ate, slept, and made music in marathon sessions for two weeks straight with producer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, Julia Jacklin).
 
To celebrate the launch of their new forthcoming long player, the band is sharing an official video for their lead single, “Hello,” from director Tayla Lauren.
 
The band’s front person, Kai James, shares this about the single:
 “‘Hello’ is the story of a young man who requires daily consults with health professionals in order to rationalise his self-destructive thoughts and routines. It’s about romanticizing your own misery. Letting those deep, dark, dirty thoughts take over. Understanding that even if you could pull yourself out, you wouldn’t because the constant stress and worry are all too familiar and comfortable.”
 
Girl and Girl have also announced North American & Australian tour dates, with additional appearances at Eurokennees in France and End of the Road in the UKThe band will appear at SXSW in March before heading home for the Hello Australia Tour in April. In late April, the band heads back to the States for a North American tour supporting fellow Aussies Royel Otis. See below for a full list of shows.

Wed. Mar. 13 - Austin, TX - SXSW
Thu. Mar. 14 - Austin, TX - SXSW
Fri. Mar. 15 - Austin, TX - SXSW
Sat. Mar. 16 - Austin, TX - SXSW
Thur. Apr. 04 - Gold Coast, QLD - Mo’s Desert Clubhouse
Fri. Apr, 05 - Sunshine Coast, QLD - Sol Bar
Sat. Apr. 06  - Brisbane, QLD - Black Bear Lodge
Fri. Apr. 12 - Melbourne, VIC - The Tote
Sat. Apr. 13 - Sydney, NSW - Lansdowne
Sun. Apr. 14 - Wollongong, NSW - La La Las
Tue. Apr. 23 - St. Paul, MN - Amsterdam Bar & Hall *
WED. Apr. 24 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall  *
Fri. Apr. 26 - Toronto, ON -  Longboat Hall *
Sar. Apr. 27 - Columbus, OH - A&R Music Bar *
Sun. Apr. 28 - Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop *
Tue. Apr. 30 - 
New York, NY - Racket *
Wed. May 01 - New York, NY - Racket *
Thu. May 02 - Philadelphia, PA - Theater For The Living Arts *
Fri. May 03 - Washington, DC - The Howard *
Sat. May 04 - Carrboro, NC - Cats Cradle *
Wed. May 08 - Austin, TX - The Parish *
Thu. May 09 - Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves *
Sat. May 11 -Denver, CO -  The Perplexiplex at Meow Wolf *
   Wed. May 15 - Phoenix, AZ - Rebel Lounge *
Thu. May 16 - Hollywood, CA - The Fonda Theater *
   Fri. May 17 - Santa Barbara, CA - Soho Restaurant & Music  Club *
Sat. May 18 - San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop *
Mon. May 20 - Portland, OR - The Aladdin Theater *
Tue. May 21 - Vancouver, BC - Fox Cabaret *
  Wed. May 22 - Seattle, WA - Neptune Theater *
Thu. Jul. 04 - Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees 
Fri. Jul. 05 - Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees 
Sat. Jul. 06- Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees 
Sun. Jul. 07- Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees
Thu. Aug. 29 - Dorset, UK - End Of The Road
Fri. Aug. 30 - Dorset, UK - End Of The Road
Sat. Aug. 31 - Dorset, UK -End Of The Road
Sun. Sep. 01 - Dorset, UK -End Of The Road
 
* w/ Royel Otis

 

 
Call A Doctor is available to preorder now on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.comselect independent retailers (US), select independent retail stores (EU/UK) & Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) will receive the Loser Edition on White vinyl. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
 
About Girl and Girl’s Call A Doctor:
In one sense, it’s easy for artists—songwriters, specifically—to express their feelings in their work. After all, that’s what the lyrics are for! But it’s much harder to convey emotional energy in how you play, slash at the guitar, and the structure of the music itself. That’s precisely why Girl and Girl’s Sub Pop debut, Call A Doctor, feels like such a vital, electrifying shock to the senses. Not since the early work of Car Seat Headrest or Conor Oberst’s widescreen emotional brutality as Bright Eyes has indie rock managed to come across as this intimate and grandiose, as the Australian quartet led by Kai James lay a lifetime’s worth of woes—mental health, the human race’s planned obsolescence if you’ve been living on this cursed rock you know what we’re getting at—across a canvas of indie rock that feels both timeless and in-the-moment.
 
An audacious and aggressively tuneful blast of a record, Call A Doctor is an unforgettable first bow from Girl and Girl, whose origins lie in James and guitarist Jayden Williams jamming in his mother’s garage in the afternoon after school. One afternoon, James’ Aunty Liss headed down to their practice space after walking her dog and asked if she could sit in on drums. “It sounded really great,” James recalls. “We begged her to stay, and she said, ‘I’ll stay until you find another drummer.’ We wore her down, and she eventually became a permanent member.”
 
After bassist Fraser Bell joined to round things out, Girl and Girl hit the road and began to make a name for themselves beyond the Australian bush, eventually signing to Sub Pop off the strength of word of mouth. Call A Doctor came together quickly soon after, largely recorded in marathon sessions in a two-story industrial complex over the course of two weeks. “That added to the intensity of the album,” James says about the frenzied creative process overseen by producer Burke Reid. “I can hear the stress in the record, which is good because that’s what it’s about—being tense, tied up, and in your own head.”
 
Call A Doctor’s eleven songs—spanning sweeping guitar epics and wry acoustic shuffles to spiky punk maneuvers and the type of raw, adoringly unvarnished indie-pop associated with legendary PacNW label K Records—are literally plucked from James’ personal history, as he reworked older recordings with newer lyrics reflecting his past struggles as well as new anxieties that emerged prior to the album’s recording. “I’ve struggled with mental health for a lot of my life,” he explains, “and I went through a particularly difficult patch when we were making the album; the band had started to get some attention, and I felt an enormous amount of pressure to live up to it.”
 
Far from the sound of collapsing under pressure, Call A Doctor finds James and Co. stepping up with their entire collective chest. This is a record that’s so out-and-out alive that you nearly feel like you’re in the same room with Girl and Girl as you listen to it; lead single “Hello” practically bursts through the speakers, amplified by Aunty Liss’ unbelievable stickhandling duties. “‘Hello’ is all about romanticizing your own misery. Letting those deep, dark, dirty thoughts take over. Understanding that even if you could pull yourself out, you wouldn’t because the constant stress and worry is far too familiar and comfortable.”
 
“Mother” pogos on a spiky groove that’s reminiscent of the geographically close New Zealanders who make up the legendary Flying Nun label, while “Oh Boy” draws from the Shins’ own jangly sound, injected with James’ wonderfully nervy vocals. Then there’s Call A Doctor’s sorta-centerpiece “Maple Jean and the Anthropocene,” a five-minute epic offering a new perspective on climate change and the notion of what it means, in a personal sense, to suffer: “I live in the bushland, and I was driving home one night and hit and killed a wallaby with my car,” James recalls while discussing the song’s lyrical inspiration. “My first thought was, ‘What is the universe trying to tell me?’ No remorse, no guilt, just total self-centeredness. Which was like, Woah, you fucking psychopath! This wallaby wasn’t put on this earth to send you a message. That’s what the song is about, our egocentric species - thinking you’re the main character and that everything that happens is somehow about you.”
 
“This record is about an individual who’s too far in their head, trying to get out,” James continues while discussing Call A Doctor’s overall outlook—specifically the snapshot it offers of its creator. But even though this record deals with uneasy topics we all know well from within ourselves, it’s important to emphasize how teeming with life Girl and Girl’s music is. There’s a brazen, bold sense of humor to this stuff, an undeniable brightness to the darkness that makes it impossible not to be drawn in as a listener. Feeling down never sounded so goddamn good.


Girl and Girl

Call A Doctor
Album Artwork Download
 
Track Listing:
1. INTRO
2. Call A Doctor
3. Hello
4. Maple Jean and the Anthropocene
5. Oh Boy!
6. Suffocate
7. Mother
8. You’ll Be Alright
9. Comfortable Friends
10. Our Love (Ours Only)
11. OUTRO

Posted by Abbie Gobeli

NEWS : TUE, FEB 20, 2024 at 7:00 AM

A New Split Single Featuring Clipping’s “Tipsy” b/w Cooling Prongs “Midnight” Is Out Today

Today, Tuesday, February 20th, marks the release of a split single featuring Clipping’s “Tipsy” and Cooling Prongs’ “Midnight,” available worldwide from Sub Pop.
 
Clipping’s “Tipsy” was previously only available as part of the 2020 Save Stereogum, an exclusive ‘00s Covers Comp and crowdfunding campaign for the site’s supporters. Clipping was one of 40 artists asked to record never-before-heard covers of songs from 2000-2009. Clipping says, “J-Kwon’s ‘Tipsy’ is one of the greatest party rap songs of all time. We could never make a beat as hard as the original, so we took our version in another direction — something like if Skinny Puppy had somehow remixed it in the late 1980s.”
 
“Midnight” by Cooling Prongs (AKA Christopher Fleeger, who collaborated with Clipping on Double Live) is a musique concrète tribute to Ice-T’s classic track of the same name. Fleeger’s process involved recording for many weeks, every night between midnight and 6am, with microphones mounted to the outside of his van, at all the locations mentioned in the lyrics to the original song. Hundreds of hours of audio were edited and arranged to create a field-recording companion to the journey the rapper describes through South Central Los Angeles, from the AMPM location on Vermont, through all of the intersections he names, finally ending at Ice-T’s childhood home, just off Crenshaw.
 
Clipping’s “Tipsy” and Cooling Prongs’ “Midnight” split single is available now worldwide digitally from Sub Pop. Fans in North America can purchase the 7” single, which is limited to 2,000 copies, from megamart.subpop.comselect independent retail stores, and Clipping’s Bandcamp page. In the UK and Europe, the 7” is available to preorder now through select UK/EU Independent retailers and Sub Pop’s new Mega Mart 2 (estimated to ship in mid-March).
 
Clipping has also scheduled a series of UK & European tour dates for 2024, which begin Thursday, April 18th in Tilburg, NL with an appearance at the Roadburn Festival, and run through Thursday, April 25th in Leeds, UK at Project House.
 
Fri. Apr. 19 - Tilburg, NL - Roadburn Festival
Sat. Apr. 20 - Krems an der Donau, AT - Donaufestival
Sun. Apr. 21 - Munich, DE - Zirka
Mon. Apr. 23 - Koln, DE - Club Volta
Wed. Apr. 24 - Brussels, BE - Les Nuits Botanique
Thu. Apr. 25 - Leeds, UK- Project House



Posted by Abbie Gobeli

NEWS : THU, FEB 15, 2024 at 7:00 AM

Boeckner Announces 2024 North American Headlining Tour Dates In Support Of His Forthcoming, Self-Titled Debut

Today, February 15th, Boeckner is announcing North American headlining touring plans for Spring and Summer 2024 to support his forthcoming self-titled Sub Pop debut. He is also sharing new album highlight “Euphoria,” a song that dips into that off-kilter darkness, dashes of vibraphone tossed against woozy waves of synth. “It’s too late/ Time accelerates/ From the cradle to the grave,” Boeckner calls like some nuclear fallout Ziggy Stardust, glitching electronics dripping off the mix. The track’s percussive thrum comes courtesy of Matt Chamberlain and serves to bolster Boeckner’s potent guitar throughout the record.
 
Boeckner will perform material from the new album along with deep cuts and highlights from Operators, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits, and Wolf Parade catalog. The tours will also feature different lineups for the April and June dates. For the west coast shows, the live band will include Sam Brown (Operators, Divine Fits, New Bomb Turks) on drums, Alex Fischel (Spoon, Divine Fits) on keys, and Brad Laner (Medicine, Savage Republic) on guitar.  The east coast band line up will be announced soon. Tickets for these shows go on sale tomorrow at 10 am (local).


Wed.  Apr. 24 - Los Angeles, CA - Lodge Room
Thu. Apr. 25 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
Sun. Apr. 28 - Portland, OR - Polaris Hall
Mon. Apr. 29 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile
Tue. Apr. 30 - Vancouver, BC - The Pearl on Granville
Wed. Jun. 05 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
Thu. Jun. 06 - Detroit, MI - El Club
Fri. Jun. 07 - Toronto, ON - The Horseshoe Tavern
Sat. Jun. 08 - Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz
Mon. Jun. 10 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
Wed. Jun. 12 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
Thu. Jun. 13 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
Fri. Jun. 14 - Washington, DC - The Atlantis
 
Boeckner! is an eight-song, thirty-two-minute collection that includes the aforementioned “Euphoria,” “Dead Tourists,” and “Lose.”
 
Boeckner was produced, engineered, and mixed by Randall Dunn at Circular Ruin in New York City and mastered by Heba Kadry in Brooklyn.
 
Boeckner! is now available to preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders of the album from megamart.subpop.comMega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart), and select independent retailers in North America and the UK and Europe will receive the limited Loser Edition on Orange vinyl. A special Jalapeno Green vinyl edition will also be available from select retailers in Canada.


Boeckner
Boeckner!

Tracklisting:
1. Lose
2. Ghost in the Mirror
3. Wrong
4. Don’t Worry Baby
5. Dead Tourists
6. Return to Life
7. Euphoria
8. Holy Is the Night

Boeckner Instagram / Tik Tok / Threads / Blue Sky / Twitter


Posted by Abbie Gobeli

NEWS : WED, FEB 14, 2024 at 7:00 AM

The Amazing New METZ Album Up On Gravity Hill Is Out Worldwide April 12th

On April 12th, METZ will release Up On Gravity Hill, their first album in 4 years, on Sub Pop for the world ex-Canada and in Canada on Dine Alone. The album was engineered by Seth Manchester (Mdou Moctar, Lingua Ignota, Battles, The Body) and features guest performances from Amber Webber of Black Mountain and composer/string arranger Owen Pallett.
 
METZ, a band once known for blowing out eardrums with songs of joyous rage, have, over their past few records, begun exploring ways to turn abrasiveness into atmospherics, the evolution of their sound not only a reflection of the maturing of the band themselves but also of a changed world that demands nuance and compassion to comprehend and to survive. This is so on their latest effort, Up On Gravity Hill, which finds the band continuing to bend the raw power of rock music to its most delicate, intricate ends. Delivering a deep, detailed, and unyieldingly personal collection of songs that are fused together to form not only METZ’s most powerful record to date but also their most beautiful.
 
To spotlight this evolution, the band has shared two new contrasting singles: the stomping motorik “99,” and the charging and deeply melodic, “Entwined (Street Light Buzz)”, that offers a dreamier Swervedriver-esque guitar sheen never before utilized by the Canadian trio. 
 
METZ frontman Alex Edkins says, “These two songs couldn’t be more stylistically and thematically dissimilar. ‘Entwined (Street Light Buzz)’ is a song about the deep connection humans can foster with one another and how we carry people with us forever, even after death. ‘99’ is about the scourge of corporate greed and bottom-line thinking that runs rampant in modern society. Anything for a buck is the message being sent to younger generations.”
 
METZ is also announcing headlining international tour dates supporting Up On Gravity Hill, with dates in North America from April 17th to May 17th and a run of UK and EU dates in the fall from November 3rd through November 29th. The band also has a series of UK and EU festival performances in August, including stops at The Green Man Festival in the UK, La Route Du Rock and Cabaret Vert Festival in France, and the Canela Party in Spain. See below for a full list of shows.
 

North America
Wed. Apr. 17 - Boston, MA - Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre $
Fri. Apr. 19 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom $
Sat. Apr. 20 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts $ *
Sun. Apr. 21 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar $
Tue. Apr. 23 -  Atlanta, GA - The Earl $
Thu. Apr. 24 - Birmingham, AL - Saturn $
Fri. Apr. 25 - Fayetteville, AR - George’s Majestic Lounge  $
Sat. Apr. 26 - Austin, TX - The Parish (Austin Psych Fest) $
Sun. Apr. 27 - Dallas, TX - Sons of Hermann Hall $
Mon. Apr. 29 - Sante Fe, NM - Meow Wolf $
Tues. Apr. 30 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar $
Wed. - May 01 -  San Diego, CA - The Casbah $
Tue. May 02 - Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy Theatre $
Wed. May 03 - San Jose, CA - The Ritz $
Thu. May 04 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel $
Mon. May 06 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom $
Tue. May 07 - Seattle, WA - Neumos $
Fri. May 10 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club $
Sat. May 11 - Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge $
Thu. May 16 -Montreal, QE - Theatre Fairmount $
Sat. May 17 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall $
 
$ w/ Gouge Away
* w/ Rid of Me

UK/EU
Thu. Aug. 15 - Crickhowell, UK - Green Man Festival
Fri. Aug. 16 - St Malo, FR La Route Du Rock
Sat. Aug. 17 -  Charleville-Mezières, FR - Cabaret Vert Festival
Fri. Aug. 23 - Malaga, ES - Canela Party
Sat. Nov. 02 - Rennes, FR – L’Antipode

Sun. Nov. 03 - La Rochelle, FR - La Sirène
Mon. Nov. 04 - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie
Tue. Nov. 05 - Clermont-Ferrand, FR - La Coopérative de Mai
Wed. Nov. 06 - Lyon, FR - Le Transbordeur
Thu. Nov. 07 - Zurich, CH - Bogen F
Sat. Nov. 09 - Prague, CZ - Futurum
Sun. Nov. 10 - Budapest, HU - Turbina
Tue. Nov. 12 - Krakow, PL - Klub Zascianek
Wed. Nov. 13 - Warsaw, PL - Klub Hydrozagadka
Sat. Nov. 16 - Berlin, DE - Hole44
Mon. Nov. 18 - Copenhagen, DK - Loppen
Tue. Nov. 19 - Hamburg, DE - Hafenklang
Wed. Nov. 20 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
Thu. Nov. 21 - Groningen, NL - Vera
Fri. Nov. 22- Antwerp, BE - Trix
Sat. Nov. 23 - Lille, FR - L’Aéronef
Mon. Nov. 25 - Birmingham, UK - Hare & Hounds
Tue. Nov. 26 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
Wed. Nov. 27 - Birkenhead, UK - Future Yard
Thu. Nov. 28 - Bristol, UK - Strange Brew
Fri. Nov. 29 - London, UK - Village Underground

Up On Gravity Hill is available to preorder now on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders in North America from megamart.subpop.com, and select independent retailers will receive the Loser Edition on clear w/ red splatter vinyl. LP orders from independent retail stores & Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) in the UK and Europe will receive the Loser Edition on Opaque Yellow vinyl. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.


METZ
Up On Gravity Hill
 
Tracklisting:
1. No Reservation / Love Comes Crashing
2. Glass Eye
3. Entwined (Street Light Buzz)
4. 99
5. Superior Mirage
6. Wound Tight
7. Never Still Again
8. Light Your Way Home


Posted by Abbie Gobeli