Currently comprised of Kevin Starrs, Itamar Rubinger, Yotam Rubinger and Vaughn Stokes, the Cambridge, UK-based quartet, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats have developed a reputation for material that bears a sonic and thematic resemblance to The Black Angels — heavy, psyche rock that talks about madness, murder and death. In fact, according to the band, their breakthrough effort, 2011’s Blood Lust was a homage to British Hammer and folk horror films of the 70s, while 2013’s Mind Control paid homage to cult of personalities such as Charles Manson and Jim Jones while drawing influences from Blue Oyster Cult, B-movie biker movies, Watergate, war and TV evangelists.
Recorded at Toe Rag Studios in early 2015 with engineer Liam Watson, who has worked with White Stripes, Tame Impala and Electric Wizard, the band’s soon-to-be released effort, The Night Creeper is slated for a September 4 release through Rise Above Records. And as the band’s frontman Kevin Starrs describes the concept behind the album, “The idea is that this album could have started life as an old cheap, grime-covered 25 cent pulp paperback like the type sold at newsstands outside train stations. But then perhaps it is adapted into a film noir, which itself is then re-made twenty years later as an ultraviolent, slasher Italian Giallo film. The album follows this aesthetic lineage as it descends from trash to noir to something discernibly darker…”
The album’s second single “Melody Lane” consists of dense, scorching, grungy angular guitar chords, persistent drumming, chugging bass and a persistent rhythm paired with eerie, somewhat nasal harmonies to craft a song that sounds as though it owed a debt to Dirt-era Alice in Chains. Certainly, for a band that’s long been known to specialize in dark thematic subjects, it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that their latest single sounds claustrophobic, uneasy and volatile, as though it’s burrowed into the dark recesses of the mind of a murderous madman.
The recently released official video for the song is comprised of slickly edited clips from classic B and exploitation films, and creates the sensation of delving into the dark, fucked up and paranoid thoughts of a mass murderer.
The band will be embarking on what will be their longest North American tour to date, check out the tour dates below:
9/9 at Center Stage in Atlanta, GA
9/11 at Baltimore Sound Stage in Baltimore, MD
9/12 at Webster Hall in New York, NY
9/13 at Union Transfer in Philadelphia, PA
9/14 at Royale in Boston, MA
9/16 at Corona Theater in Montreal, QC
9/17 at Phoenix Theater in Toronto, ON
9/18 at Mr. Smalls in Pittsburgh, PA
9/19 at Metro in Chicago, IL
9/20 at Mill city Nights in Minneapolis, MN
9/22 at Summit Theater in Denver, CO
9/23 at Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City, UT
9/25 at Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC
9/26 at El Corazon in Seattle, WA
9/27 at Wonder Ballroom in Portland, OR
9/29 at Slims in San Francisco, CA
9/30 at Slims in San Francisco, CA
10/1 at The Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, CA
10/2 at The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA
