With the release of 2024’s Partisan Records debut, Hex Dealer, NYC-based hardcore outfit Lip Critic –Bret Kaser (vocals, synths, mixing), Connor Kleitz (synths, vocals), Danny Eberle (drums) and Ilan Natter (drums, mixing) — firmly established the act as a ferocious, standout creative force, earning praise from international renowned outlets like Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NME and Paste.
Building upon a growing profile, the quartet continued a relentless touring schedule while releasing standalone singles “Mirror Match” and “Second Life.” Their reach expanded with a remix of an IDLES track that was featured in Darren Aronofsky’s 2025 film, Caught Stealing.
Their highly-anticipated third album, Theft World is slated for a May 1, 2026 release through Partisan Records. While touring to support their debut album, Lip Critic’s frontman Bret Kaser discovered his identity had been stolen, with someone using his information to make hundreds of purchases, including the band’s entire discography. When Kaser eventually tracked this person down, he found a young fan, who believed he uncovered a hidden puzzle embedded in Lip Critic’s music and had effectively “won” some larger, cryptic game. That encounter became the foundation for Theft World, a concept album that sees the band channeling themes of digital obsession, misinterpretation and fractured identity into something chaotic but sharply intentional. Theft is explored as a political, digital and emotional condition.
Produced by the band’s Kaser and Connor Kleitz, the album reportedly sees the band refining Hex Dealer‘s chaos into a focused, fully locked-in statement. Driven by the forceful rhythmic assault of two drummers, a lightning-struck sampler and Kaser’s paranoid-preacher-like delivery, the album features colliding club rhythms and hardcore breakdowns into a sound continually torn apart and resold.
“Talon,” Theft World‘s penultimate pre-release single is a woozy, nauseating lurching churn evoking the relentlessly unceasing and seemingly inevitable horror and brutality of a world in which you’re constantly connected to banal, mind-rotting entertainment and soul-numbing atrocities. Scroll past the influencers, memes, dances and challenges to images of fights at a McDonald’s, senseless murder, genocide and others crimes against humanity and then back — every single day. “Talon” captures the paralysis and Kafkaesque hell of overexposure and what it all does to our hearts and souls.
“‘Talon’ is a song about scrolling through hell,” the band explains. “Traversing an absurd and violent world at 1000 mph in a go-kart your friend’s dad modded based off a YouTube video.”
Directed by Colter Fellows, the accompanying video for “Talon” is a mix of digital glitch and slick, hyper modern editing and camera work and drones that captures the lurching paranoia, unease and violence of our moment.
They’ve rolled out the music and the album in a way that mirrors the album’s world. Last month they launched their multi-part NYC residency presented by Perfectly Imperfect with a show inside a Brooklyn laundromat and a basement bar.
The band will be bringing the final chapter of their sold-out Theft Saga residency to a local boxing ring, Frost Street Boxing Ring tonight, turning the release into a full-contact spectacle, seemingly informed by Ali vs. Frazier, Ali vs. Foreman, Mike Tyson and the like.
Lip Critic will be supporting the new album with a headlining tour across the States that includes stops in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin and more. Recently, they opened for Machine Girl and will open for Mannequin Pussy this fall, building on a run of shared stages with IDLES, Screaming Females and Geese, as well as an appearance at Pitchfork Festival Paris. As always, tour dates are below, y’all.
Tour Dates
April 9: 2026: Theft Saga @ 148 Frost St Boxing Ring – Brooklyn, NY #
May 25, 2026: No Fun – Troy, NY % &
May 26, 2026: The Rockwell – Boston, MA % &
May 27, 2026: La Sala Rossa – Montreal, QC % &
May 28, 2026: The Garrison – Toronto, ON % &
May 29, 2026: The Sanctuary – Detroit, MI % &
May 30, 2026: Beat Kitchen – Chicago, IL % &
June 2, 2026: Hi-Dive – Denver, CO % &
June 4, 2026: Kilby Court – Salt Lake City, UT % &
June 5, 2026: Holland Project – Reno, NV % &
June 7, 2026: Barboza – Seattle, WA % &
June 8, 2026: Wise Hall – Vancouver, BC % &
June 9, 2026: Polaris Hall – Portland, OR % &
June 11, 2026: Cafe Colonial – Sacramento, CA % &
June 12, 2026: Bottom of the Hill – San Francisco, CA % &
June 13, 2026: Zebulon – Los Angeles, CA % &
June 14, 2026: Valley Bar – Phoenix, AZ % &
June 17, 2026: 29th Street Ballroom – Austin, TX % &
June 18, 2026: Dada – Dallas, TX % &
June 19, 2026: Fat Cat – Hattiesburg, MS % &
June 20, 2026: Masquerade (Altar) – Atlanta, GA % &
June 21, 2026: Pinhook – Durham, NC % &
June 23, 2026: Little Giant @ Bottlerocket Social Hall – Pittsburgh, PA % &
June 24, 2026: PhilaMOCA – Philadelphia, PA % &
June 29, 2026: Bristol, UK – The Louisiana
July 1, 2026: Glasgow, UK – Glad Cafe
July 2, 2026: Leeds, UK – Headrow House
July 3, 2026: UK – The George Tavern
# support from mx lonely
% support from Bejalvin
& support from Flatwounds
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