Category: post-punk

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Low Praise Returns with Existential “Time Is Calling”

Oakland-based post punk trio Low Praise — Andrew (drums), Chris (guitar vocals) and Warren (baritone guitar, vocals) — have specialized in the sort of nervous energy paired and chanted hooks that bring late 70s post-punk bands like The Fall and Wire to mind. 

Low Praise’s full-length debut DRESSING is slated for a May 19, 2023 release. Recorded over the course of two sessions split apart by the peak of the pandemic, the album captures the band being forced to evolve and collaborate remotely, leading to experimentation in song structure and their overall sound. When the band was able to reconvene, they were able to reimagine the material in a stripped down, live band format. The end result reportedly sees the band writing material that’s their most diverse and wide-reaching while touching upon the anxiety and helplessly they individually and collectively felt during the pandemic. 

Last month, I wrote about “Forget That It’s Summer,” a single built around looping and angular, reverb-drenched guitar attack and a nervous, motorik groove paired with chanted, mantra-like hooks. Sure it brings Wire, The Fall and even Blessing to mind, but it also manages to evoke an eerily family existential dread and despair.

“‘Forget That It’s Summer’ was the first song we wrote together during the Covid depths, during our shared peak fear, anxiety and loneliness,” Low Praise’s Warren says in press notes. “As a band that had always jammed stuff out in person and worked off that energy this song was originally composed through chopping up loops, file sharing and experimentation. We actually built a complete version of this song as a weird loop construct with a ton of layers, mostly as a way to still make something, anything together during that self-imposed separation. We then reconstructed it as a stripped down live band version once we could finally get together again. So I think you kind of still hear that in the song that it was born from a pretty different process.

Thematically, this was a period where I think we were all mega-bumming and at the same time getting the immense appreciation and perspective for all of the little things you take for granted in normal life that we all lost access to during that period. Just being able to see your friends, make music together, have physical contact with the people you love. It was a period of forced reflection and forced appreciation. All put to a dance groove for some reason.” 

“Time Is Calling,” DRESSING‘s second and latest single is built around a decidedly 120 Minutes-era alt-rock take on post-punk featuring a sort of jangling guitar attack, thunderous drumming and the band’s penchant for pairing arena rock friendly hooks with an unerring sense of melodicism. But much like its predecessor, the song is rooted in existential dread — of time and peers passing you by while your life seemingly sputters in front of your eyes. In this line of work, the bitter feeling of failure is all too familiar.

“This song is about accepting impermanence. Like a lot of folks the past few years (especially), I was riding a wave of anxiety, depression, and uncertainty of what the future was going to be like. At the time I was nearing 40, unemployed due to Covid related layoffs, filled with existential dread, and pondering what I’ve done with my life and what to do with the rest of it,” Low Praise’s Chris Stevens explains. “I’d often wake up in the middle of the night with all of these thoughts and try to find a way to calm myself down in order to get a couple of hours of sleep. I already had the phrase ‘time is calling’ in my head, along with the main guitar riff and vocal melody. So, I would just run through lyric ideas based around that until I’d eventually fall asleep. When we all got together to go over the song idea, we ended up fleshing out the basic structure in one night pretty much. It’s just one of those songs that felt strong and we didn’t want to overthink too much.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: FACS Shares Menacing and Uneasy “Constellation”

In 2013, Chicago-based post-punk act Disappears — founding member Brian Case (vocals, guitar) along with  Noah Leger (drums), Jonathan van Herirk (guitar) and Damon Carruesco (bass) — released two somewhat related yet very different efforts that have remained in my album rotation — the atmospheric and tempestuous Kone EP and the tense, raging Era. 

Carruesco left the band in 2017. The remaining members — Case, Lager and van Herrik — eventually decided to continue onward, but under a new name, new songwriting approach and sound as FACS. And with 2018’s full-length debut, Negative Houses, the trio quickly established themselves as a heavy band, although they don’t necessarily feel or seem like one in the traditional sense.

Since Negative House, the Chicago-based trio have released three more albums, including 2021’s Present Tense. Each of those albums have seen the band perfecting their unique brand of intense, catharsis-inducing post punk while pushing their sound and approach in increasingly further and newer directions.

Recorded by Sanford Parker at Chicago’s renowned Electrical Audio Recording, FACS’ fifth album Still Life in Decay is slated for a Friday release through Trouble In Mind Records. The album sees bassist Alianna Kalaba, who joined the band after the release of Negative Houses making her amicable last stand with the group. The album’s material sees the band’s rhythm section dancing and twisting around each other, much like a double helix, in which they collectively approach rhythm from outside the grove, rather than inside it, creating a lattice in which Case weaves his guitars in and around.

The album reportedly sees the band at their most solidified and focused: The apocalyptic chaos that defined its immediate predecessor is pushed away in favor of examination with a remarkable and unsettling clarity — but while still being a sort of addendum to Present Tense.

So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles:

  • “When You Say,” an uneasy track built around the propulsive lockstep rhythm held between Leger and Kalaba, and Case’s reverb-soaked guitar slashes. The song’s narrator shouts repeated phrases with a desperate urgency, as though trying to hold on to something — anything, really before it falls out of his grasp. The song’s stream of consciousness-like free-form lyrics touch upon the themes of resignation, cynicism, classism and the search for identity and meaning in a fucked up, crumbling society. The end result is a song that savagely pulls the bandages off to expose the rot, grime and ugliness of our world to the sunlight.

  • “Slogan,” a brooding track built around shimmering, meditative guitar lines, a forceful and insistent rhythm section paired with Case’s reverb-drenched vocal and a soulful, aching guitar solo. The song features a a narrator meditating on the connection between identity and memory, repeating the phrase “I had it in the palm of my hand,” like a sad, desperate slogan.

“Constellation,” Still Life in Decay‘s third and latest single begins with a squall of white noise and distortion that quickly collapses into the song’s lumbering and thunderous groove. Case’s guitar has a spectral presence, appearing and disappearing in gauzy feedback throughout. The song’s narrator continues an uneasy meditation on memory, the past, the present and fate, sounding like a man striking out desperately against forces bigger than him.

The accompanying video by Nick Ciontea features lighting patterns that pulse and undulate in time to the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Oakland’s Low Praise Shares Nervous “Forget That It’s Summer”

Oakland-based post punk trio Low Praise — Andrew (drums), Chris (guitar vocals) and Warren (baritone guitar, vocals) — have specialized in the sort of nervous energy paired and chanted hooks that bring late 70s post-punk bands like The Fall and Wire to mind.

Low Praise’s full-length debut DRESSING is slated for a May 19, 2023 release. Recorded over the course of two sessions split apart by the peak of the pandemic, the album captures the band being forced to evolve and collaborate remotely, leading to experimentation in song structure and their overall sound. When the band was able to reconvene, they were able to reimagine the material in a stripped down, live band format. The end result reportedly sees the band writing material that’s their most diverse and wide-reaching while touching upon the anxiety and helplessly they individually and collectively felt during the pandemic.

“Forget That It’s Summer,” DRESSING‘s latest single is built around a looping, angular and reverb-drenched guitar attack and a nervous, motorik groove paired with chanted hooks. Sure it’ll bring Wire, The Fall and even Blessing to mind, but it also manages to evoke an eerily familiar existential dread and despair.

“‘Forget That It’s Summer’ was the first song we wrote together during the Covid depths, during our shared peak fear, anxiety and loneliness,” Low Praise’s Warren says in press notes. “As a band that had always jammed stuff out in person and worked off that energy this song was originally composed through chopping up loops, file sharing and experimentation. We actually built a complete version of this song as a weird loop construct with a ton of layers, mostly as a way to still make something, anything together during that self-imposed separation. We then reconstructed it as a stripped down live band version once we could finally get together again. So I think you kind of still hear that in the song that it was born from a pretty different process.

Thematically, this was a period where I think we were all mega-bumming and at the same time getting the immense appreciation and perspective for all of the little things you take for granted in normal life that we all lost access to during that period. Just being able to see your friends, make music together, have physical contact with the people you love. It was a period of forced reflection and forced appreciation. All put to a dance groove for some reason.”

Directed and edited by Gregory Downing, the accompanying video for “Forget That It’s Summer” is centered around stock footage of summery scenes and old school projector cues cut and edited in a way that pulsates along with the song’s nervous groove.
 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: FACS Share Brooding “Slogan”

Back in 2013, Chicago-based post-punk act Disappears — founding member Brian Case (vocals, guitar) along with  Noah Leger (drums), Jonathan van Herirk (guitar) and Damon Carruesco (bass) — released two related yet very different efforts that are among some of my favorite albums — the atmospheric and tempestuous Kone EP and the tense, raging Era.  

In 2017, Carruesco left the band. The remaining members — Case, Lager and van Herrik — eventually decided to continue onward, but under a new name, and new sonic direction and songwriting approach as FACS. With 2018’s full-length debut, Negative Houses, the trio quickly established themselves as a heavy band, although they don’t necessarily feel like one.

Since Negative Houses, the Chicago-based outfit has released three more albums, including 2021’s Present Tense. Each of those albums have seen the members of FACS perfercting their unique brand of intense, catharsis-inducing art rock/post-punk, while pushing their sound and approach in new directions.

The Chicago-based outfit’s fifth album, Still Life In Decay was recorded by Sanford Parker at Electrical Audio Recording and is slated for an April 7, 2023 release through Trouble In Mind Records. Bassist Alianna Kalaba, who took over for founding member Jonathan van Herik after the release of Negative Houses makes her amicable last stand with the group. Alongside Leger, the band’s rhythm section dance and twist around each other like double helix in which collectively they approach rhythm from outside the groove, rather than inside it, creating a lattice in which Case can weave his guitar lines in an around, like creeping vines. 

Reportedly, Still Life in Decay is a decidedly focused effort that sees the band at their most solidified. The apocalyptic chaos of that defined their previous album is pushed away in favor of examination with a remarkable clarity — while being a sort of addendum to Present Tense. 

Last month, I wrote about Still Life in Decay‘s first single, the uneasy “When You Say.” Built around the propulsive lockstep rhythm between Leger and Kalaba, and Case’s reverb-drenched, guitar slashes, the song sees Case shouting repeated phrases with a desperate agency, as though desperately trying to hold on to something — anything, really. The song’s freeform lyrics touch upon themes of resignation, cynicism, classism and search for identity and meaning in a crumbling society. The song is a primal, forceful meditation on the exposed ugliness, divides and inequities within our world — both pre-pandemic and post pandemic.

“Slogan,” Still Life in Decay‘s second and latest single is a brooding track rooted in shimmering and meditative guitar, a forceful rhythm section paired with Case’s reverb-drenched vocal and a soulful yet buzzing guitar solo. The song narrators meditates on identity and memory — repeating one phrase “I had it in the palm of my hand,” much like a slogan.

Directed by the band’s Brian Case, the lyric video for “Slogan” features the song’s lyrics floating on top of a geometric field.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Heartworms Shares Startling and Cinematic Visual for Brooding “Retributions Of An Awful Life”

Jojo Orme is a South London-based singer/songwriter, producer and mastermind behind the rapidly rising, goth-inspired post-punk outfit Heartworms. Uniformity plays a huge role with Orme and Heartworms: the metronomic music and meticulous fashion of acts like Interpol and Kraftwerk have been a major influence on the South London-based artist. But she also cites PJ Harvey, whose dark sense of humor and lyrical dexterity permeates her own songwriting.

Orme’s Heartworms debut, “Consistent Dedication” quickly exploded across both the British and international scene: She received nods from the NME 100 and Dork Hype List for 2023, and she received critical applause from The FADER, The Quietus, Loud and Quiet, The Line of Best Fit, So Young Magazine, Clash Magazine and a lengthy list of others. The song was added to BBC Radio 6 Music‘s playlist following airplay from the station’s Chris Hawkins, Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne and Tom Ravenscroft. And the song received airplay from Radio X‘s John Kennedy and BBC Radio 1‘s Jack Saunders and Gemma Bradley.

She has also made a name for self on the national live circuit in the past year: She played DIY Magazine and So Young Magazine showcases at The Great Escape. She opened for Lime Garden. And lastly, Sports Team invited her to play their annual Margate bus trip.

Building upon a growing profile, the rising South London-based artist’s debut EP A Comforting Notion is slated for a March 24, 2023 release through Speedy Wunderground. The EP’s latest single “Retributions Of An Awful Life” further cements an uneasy and deeply goth-inspired take on post-punk featuring ambient noise, glistening synth oscillations, skittering beats and slashing guitars paired with Orme’s defiant and swaggering delivery, which seems equally indebted to hip-hop and punk rock. The song reveals a singular artist, crafting something completely new from the familiar, while delving deep into her own psyche.

Directed by Niall Trask and Dan Matthews, the accompanying video for “Retributions Of An Awful Life” is shot in a cinematic yet intimate black and white, and stars Orme, along with Natalia Tonner, Lizzy Walsh, Lizzy Walsh, Pip Smith, Marko Andic, Tom White, Simone Reca and Jazz as a military regiment going through some brutal military training exercises. Throughout we see the members of the miserable regiment, covered in dust and mud, wincing in pain, fighting to continue through the wet and cold. Their suffering is real and difficult to watch yet compelling and symbolic: We all have to figure out some way to push through in the face of terrible suffering — whether from outside forces larger than us or from within — and in face of our own fears.

“The song itself lyrically is deeply unsettling, I wanted it to come alive in action. I had an idea of being kitted up in full militaria of no specific regiments, in black and white, putting my body through cold water and wet mud,” Orme explains. “This was stepping outside my comfort zone because I’m not a skilled swimmer; deep water frightens me immensely, especially when cold and in full military gear.”

She continues: “Not many artists/bands I know have done something this raw. I didn’t want to go for a fancy video with pretty dancers or lovely wallpaper plastered with an airbrush filter – I wanted to imbibe a new pain, bring to life punishment, fight fears while abiding relentlessness with my friends by my side. To have put my body through something I found frightening just for the art… there’s something exhilarating about it.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Shares Slow-Burning “Turn Away”

Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon (bass, vocals) — can trace their origins to their hometown’s DIY scene: Each individual member had been immersed in the scene when they met. They started jamming back in 2017. The trio quickly became a local club circuit mainstay.

Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

The trio’s sophomore album Excess was released last year through Stones Throw Records. The album sees the band sonically riding an imaginary edge where the ’70s underground met ’80s corporate culture. As the band puts it, “That fleeting moment when what was once cool quickly turned and became mainstream all for the sake of consumerism.” Using that particular point in time as a lens through which to view our uncertain and seemingly apocalyptic present, the album’s material sees the trio taking aim at corporate culture and extravagance through deadpan critiques and razor sharp hooks. 

Last year, I wrote about two album singles:

  • “Skyscraper,” a dance floor friendly bop built around glistening synth arpeggios, relentless four-on-the-floor and disco-influenced bass lines paired with an icy, insouciant delivery and razor sharp, well-placed hooks. And while sonically seeming like a slick and effortless synthesis of Blondie, Devo and Talking Heads, the song is rooted in incisive and politically charged commentary. The band’s Halle Saxon explains that “Skyscraper” is ” . . .about spending your life making money and then spending it to fill the void created by said job.” Lola Dompé adds, “Kind of like going to LA to live your dreams.”

  • “Teen Beat,” a single centered around multi-part harmonized chanted vocals, bubbling and arpeggiated synths and a relentless motorik groove that seemed like a seamless mesh of Gang of Four and Nots. Much like its predecessor, “Teen Beat” continues a run of material that rooted in incisive and urgent political commentary. “The title was taken from a preset on a dinky drum machine, and the song is about the chaos of climate change descending upon Gen Z,” the band explain. 

“Turn Away,” Excess‘ latest single is a slow-burning, bop centered around a syrupy groove rooted in a rapid-fire boom bap-like drumming, twinkling, reverb-drenched keys and a propulsive bass line paired with sultrily delivered vocals and the trio’s unerring knack for razor sharp hooks.

Directed by Amber Navarro, the accompanying video for “Turn Away” begins with the band flying aboard a private jet, when something goes disastrously wrong mid-flight. The plane crashes and the trio miraculously survives what appears to be a catastrophic crash in the middle of the desert. Naturally, the members of the band are left to fend for themselves — completely alone.

“We got to work together with Ambar Navarro, our friend and director of the first music video off our album Excess, ‘New Beginning’. We have a lot of fun on set with Ambar because she gets our sense of humor and she visually adds some lightness to the heavier themes of our album, like climate change and income inequality. We become the capitalist death cult in this satirical animation of what could happen if we as a society continue on this path of excess.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Share Urgent and Angular “Teen Beat”

Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon (bass, vocals) — met while immersed in their hometown’s DIY scene. They started jamming together back in 2017.

Since then, the trio quickly became a local club circuit mainstay. Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

 Stones Throw Records released the Los Angeles-based trios sophomore album, Excess earlier this year. Sonically Excess reportedly rides the imaginary edge where the ’70s underground met ’80s corporate culture — or as the band says “That fleeting moment when what was once cool quickly turned and became mainstream all for the sake of consumerism.” Using that particular point in time as a lens through which to view our uncertain and seemingly apocalyptic present, the album’s material sees the trio taking aim at corporate culture and extravagance through deadpan critiques and razor sharp hooks. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about album single “Skyscraper,” a dance floor friendly bop built around glistening synth arpeggios, relentless four-on-the-floor and disco-influenced bass lines paired with an icy, insouciant delivery and razor sharp, well-placed hooks. And while sonically seeming like a slick and effortless synthesis of Blondie, Devo and Talking Heads, the song is rooted in incisive and politically charged commentary. The band’s Halle Saxon explains that “Skyscraper” is ” . . .about spending your life making money and then spending it to fill the void created by said job.” Lola Dompé adds, “Kind of like going to LA to live your dreams.”

“Teen Beat,” Excess‘ latest single is a centered around multi-part harmonized chanted vocals, bubbling and arpeggiated synths and a relentless motorik groove. Sonically being a bit of a mesh of Gang of Four and Nots, the song continues a run of material rooted in incisive and urgent political commentary.

“The title was taken from a preset on a dinky drum machine, and the song is about the chaos of climate change descending upon Gen Z,” the band explain.

Directed by Kevin Clark, the accompanying video for “Teen Beat” is a surreal and apocalyptic fever dream that features the trio seemingly preparing for the end of the world in the California desert.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Empty Mirrors Team Up with Anastasia Kareva on Sultry and Brooding “Shameless Tango”

Finnish JOVM mainstays The Empty Mirrors publicly cite The Cure, The Smiths, PJ Harvey, Pixies and Suzanne Vega as major influences on their sound and approach — but generally speaking, the Finnish outfit specializes in a seemingly 4AD Records/Cocteau Twins-inspired sound. 

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year or so, you might recall that the Finnish outfit had a collaborated with Welsh-born, Finnish-based singer/songwriter and musician Jenny Stevens, a.k.a. The Ukelele Girl over the course of a handful of singles including: 

Earlier this week, I wrote about “Who Knows Where The Time Goes,” a slow-burning A Storm in Heaven-meets-4AD Records like song centered around shimmering and swirling guitars, atmospheric synths and a propulsive rhythm section. Adding to the dreamy feel of the entire affair, Glasgow-based, Hungarian-British singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Robert Severin contributes his gentle and vulnerable crooned delivery. The end result is a wistful and aching meditation on time, aging and mortality that feels like a gentle lullaby. 

The Finnish act’s latest single “Shameless Tango” is a brooding and atmospheric mix of glistening and swirling Cocteau Twins and A Storm in Heaven-like textures paired with thunderous drumming, a sinuous bass line and Anastasia Kareva‘s yearning, pop belter-like vocal. The end result is a song that feels and sounds as though it draws from trip hop and goth simultaneously — while being accessible.

The accompanying video is fittingly campy and horror themed and features footage shot in a graveyard, the hand of a zombie pushing out of the wet soil, couples tango dancing, soldiers marching and more. It’s a unsettling and apocalyptic fever dream.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Thus Love Shares Angular and Anthemic “In Tandem”

Brattleboro, Vermont-based outfit Thus Love — multi-instrumentalists Echo Mars (she/her) and Lu Racine (he/him) and bassist Nathaniel van Osdol (they/them) — is a rising indie trio with a bond cemented by their individual and collective experiences as outsiders looking in: They’ve ascribed to a DIY ethos that not only reflects their musical vision but their very existence as three self-identifying trans artists.

The band can trace its origins to Mars’ and Racine’s serendipitous meeting at a local print show back in 2018, when the multi-instrumentalists agreed to collaborate on a new musical project. The band’s lineup was finalized when Mars and Racine were finally able to convince their roommate van Osdol to join the band in 2019.

From the band’s inception, its members have lived together under the same roof, designed and produced their own merch, and even created their own recording studio from scratch. “I realize that most artists don’t live this way,” Thus Love’s Echo Mars says. “But for us, it was never really a choice. The art we make is so tied to who we are and the community we’re a part of, that this is the only way we can possibly do it.”

The trio was just starting to regularly headline renowned local venue The Stone Church when the pandemic struck and everything came to a sudden and screeching halt. “The pandemic hit everyone hard, but I think it was especially difficult for new artists like us that rely on live shows to spread the word,” Thus Love’s Lu Racine says. “At that point, we had a couple of demos and we weren’t sure what the future would hold.”

Rather than idly wait, the band decided to take their future in their own hands. Armed with their innate curiosity and a ton of YouTube videos, Mars constructed a makeshift studio in their downtown Brattleboro apartment and the band set to work recording during the odd hours when their next-door neighbors were out and about.

The end result is the rising band’s full-length debut Memorial. Slated for an October 7, 2022 release through Captured Tracks, Memorial is reportedly a remarkably self-assured and accomplished album, considering the circumstances surrounding its creation. While sonically, the album’s material draws heavily from classic post-punk and indie rock, the band manages to tap into that sound and approach and find a way to find their own voice — and to tell their story.

Looking back now, Mars is glad the band decided to forge ahead. “I obviously would never want to go through a pandemic again, but I’m pretty confident in saying that this album would not be coming out in 2022 if we hadn’t had the forced downtime.”

While the album does deal with grief and loss, the band’s Racine suggests that working through those feelings are a necessary prerequisite to true and meaningful healing. He points to his own process of transition as proof. “I was in a dark place for a long time even when we were making this record. I knew what I had to do, but it didn’t make it any easier. There was a long period of mourning.” Racine completed top surgery last September, an important step in a years-long journey to embrace his true self. “Even though I was struggling at the time, the happiness I feel now makes it all worth it. I will always have positive associations with this record.”

“In Tandem,” Memorial‘s latest single is centered around angular, reverb-drenched guitar attack, glistening and atmospheric synths and a relentless, motorik punch paired with a rousingly anthemic chorus. While sonically “In Tandem” brings 4AD Records‘ heyday to mind, the song is simultaneously rooted in bitterness, heartache and hope. As the the band explained to the folks at FLOOD, “Written in 12 hours of digestion of emotional turmoil, ‘In Tandem’ is a sonic promise to hold awareness of a fundamental truth: we are nothing but star-dust.”

Directed and edited by Erin Vassilopoulos, the accompanying video for “In Tandem” is simultaneously nightmarishly surreal and playful as it follows the band performing the song — and as a John Waters diva-esque monsters posing for pictures and eating breakfast at a divey diner.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Ed Schrader’s Music Beat Releases a Sleek and Brooding Single

With the release of 2018’s Dan Deacon-produced album Riddles, the Baltimore-based post-punk duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat — Devlin Rice and Ed Schrader — turned heads nationally and elsewhere. 

The Baltimore duo’s fourth album Nightclub Daydreaming is slated for a March 25, 2022 release through Carpark Records. The album’s origins can be traced back to 2019 when Schrader and Rice began writing material with the idea of making a fun, danceable album. The duo, along with touring drumming Kevin O’Meara road-tested the album’s songs while on tour with Dan Deacon in February 2020. 

Of course. the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a screeching halt. As it turned out, sadly, that Dan Deacon tour was one of the last experiences that Schrader and Rice had with O’Meara, who had died in October 2020. O’Meara’s death weighed heavily on their minds as they finished working on the album. It was understandably, an unshakeable moodiness and heartache. As Schrader puts it, “The cave followed us into the discotheque.”

They then went to record and mix Nightclub Daydreaming over a breakneck two-week period with Craig Bowen at Baltimore’s Tempo House. Interestingly, the end result isn’t the album of “sunny disco bangers,” that Rice says the band set out for, but something far deeper and darker. Their long-held reputation for whiplash-inducing stylistic shifts between aggressive and noisy rock and operatic, gloom pop have given way to a single aesthetic that seamlessly fuses those impulses in propulsive, stark arrangements. 

“The fun thing about this record is that it’s all at once informed by our more recent lush productions with Dan Deacon, yet spartan and boiled-down, exuding a coldness wrapped in ecstasy, following our time honored trend of never giving people what they expect, but hopefully what they want,” says Schrader.

Along with the album announcement, the Baltimore-based duo released two singles off the forthcoming album and dates for an extensive Spring 2022 tour that the duo (optimistically) have on the books. (The tour includes an April 23, 2022 stop at Union Pool. As always, those dates will be below the proverbial jump.)

Earlier this week, I wrote about Nightclub Daydreaming‘s sparse and uneasy lead single “This Thirst.” Featuring a narrator, who finds his irresistible urges leading him through a surrealistic, chemical-fueled fever dream of desperate back-alley bartering and scheming, uncertainty and existential threats, “This Thirst” is a gritty yet sleek post-punk ripper centered around angular guitar attack, a forceful and driving groove, a rousingly anthemic synth-led chorus and Schrader’s cool delivery. The duo manage to make bleakness and anxiety intense and sexy.

“Berliner,” Nightclub Daydreaming‘s second single is dark and brooding bit of post-punk centered around rumbling and distorted bass, scorching angular attack and unrelenting four-on-the-floor paired with Schrader’s coolly delivered baritone. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Berliner” evokes a bleak and intense, creeping anxiety, flop sweat and bleary-eyed late nights fueled by booze and drugs, lingering ghosts, and fever dreams.