I’d read that the King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard / ORB / Stonefield show at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom was on the verge of selling out. I’m pretty sure it did, judging by the line to get into the venue.
The line was so long that the Aragon had to put an employee (guy in white shirt behind car) in a parking lot two blocks away to manage it.People were laughing in disbelief when they reached this corner and saw the line went on for another block and a half.
The top photo there is from the back of the line, which was over two blocks from the Aragon’s front door. The second photo shows the line along the Red Line El track wall on the west side of the Aragon. I’ve never seen a line this long to get into the Aragon. As one guy put it as he walked past me to get to the end of the line, “Take that all of you who say ‘Who?’ whenever I mention this band!”
The line was so long that, unfortunately, I missed Stonefield’s set. They were so loud, however, that you could hear them outside the venue when a Red Line train wasn’t passing by. I might get to see Stonefield at this year’s Levitation Austin festival, so it could still work out okay for me.
ORB, who have added a guitarist since I last saw them, put on a solid set of stoner-psych that included a lot of fuzz, metal riffs, and avalanche drumming.
ORB
I knew King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s set was going to be nuts when people were already chanting, clapping, and cheering during the soundcheck. Plus, KGATLW’s new album, Infest the Rat’s Nest, is a thrash metal record, and I was sure songs from it were going to cause a frenzied mosh pit.
Sure enough, they opened with “Self Immolate” and “Mars for the Rich” off the new record and the crowd immediately compressed by about thirty percent as two pits broke out – one on each side of the stage. I figured they wouldn’t play too much off the new record, as thrash metal is hard to play and they had an entire show to do that would probably cover everything from psychedelic hippie music to blues.
They proved me right by following the metal with the swing of “Plastic Boogie” off the first album they released this year, Fishing for Fishies, which is a blues record. Three cuts off Polygondwanaland followed – “Inner Cell,” “Loyalty,” and “Horology.”
KGATLW
“We’re gonna play an old one,” lead singer Stu Mackenzie said. “How old?” said the guy behind me. “Old for them is like an album from last year.” True, considering KGATLW put out five albums in 2018. The “oldies” turned out to be “I’m in Your Mind” and “I’m Not in Your Mind” from 2014’s I’m in Your Mind Fuzz. “The Balrog” from Murder of the Universe got everyone jumping again, and I was in the pit by the time they got to “Evil Death Roll” from Nonagon Infinity. The whole crowd was jumping during “Rattlesnake,” which lead to other cuts from Flying Microtonal Banana including “Sleep Drifter” and “Billabong Valley.”
Nonagon Infinity opens the door for infinite lizards.
They swung back into a boogie set with more cuts off Fishing for Fishies and even threw in their synth-single “Cyboogie” before ending the night with a wall of death-inducing “Planet B” and “Hell” from Infest the Rat’s Nest. They began the night with metal and ended the night with metal, leaving everyone sweaty and giddy.
“Cyboogie”
“Thanks for coming. Thanks for getting crazy. You guys are fucking crazy. It’s great,” Mackenzie said at one point. It was a crazy crowd, probably the craziest I’ve been in since I saw Thee Oh Sees in Austin last year. The mosh pit was friendly, too. Twice the pit I was in stopped so people could turn on cell phone lights to look for, find, and hold up dropped stuff like someone’s glasses and a wallet. A woman walked by me wearing a shirt that read, “They only walls be build are walls of death.” on the back.
That’s metal, all right, as was this show.
Keep your mind open.
[Boogie on over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
“Black Belt Eagle Scout…is one of my favorite indiepop songwriters of late, in the vein of Palehound or Jay Som—tight, soft vocals placed high in the mix, competing with and complimenting an anxious guitar riff.” – Jezebel
“[At The Party With My Brown Friends] highlight Paul’s vocals more than they do her guitar work—she still knows how to shred, but there’s a pronounced confidence in vocal-forward tracks” – The AV Club
“[‘My Heart Dreams’] features Paul’s signature delicate vocals, fervent guitar playing and romantic, poignant lyricism.” – Paste
Black Belt Eagle Scout – the recording project of multi-instrumentalist Katherine Paul – presents a video for “Run It to Ya,” the final pre-release single from her new album, At the Party With My Brown Friends. Following “My Heart Dreams” and “At the Party,” “Run It to Ya” is about the gentleness of love and how wondrous it can feel at times from the point of view of a queer Indigenous womxn. The video was directed by Evan James Benally Atwood.
“It felt natural for the ‘Run It to Ya’ music video to star queer indigenous womxn and show their love story unfold. The setting is a queer Indigenous prom, a space where we can truly be ourselves without the ridicules of white settler colonialism. It’s a realm where we can reimagine what our lives look like as queer Indigenous people; what is normally a heteronormative space turns into a magical place where people have the freedom to safely love how they choose.
“Throughout my work, I intend to show the thriving lives of Indigenous people, and how we are often excluded from mainstream rock music and the media. This exclusion is detrimental to our health and our existence. I am trying to show what my life is like so that other people can see how we have the right to thrive in this world and have the ability to decolonize.”
Where her 2018 debut, Mother of My Children, was a snapshot of loss and landscape and of Paul’s standing as a radical Indigenous queer feminist, this new chapter finds its power in love, desire and friendship. At the Party With My Brown Friends is a profound and understated forward step. The squalling guitar anthems that shaped its predecessor are replaced by delicate vocals and soft keys, sentiments spoken and unspoken, presenting something shadowy and unsettling; a stirring of the waters. The end result presents a captivating about-face that redefines Paul’s beautifully singular artistic vision.
Black Belt Eagle Scout was named a favorite new artist of 2018 by NPR Music, Stereogum, Paste and Under The Radar, and Pitchfork named her debut a Best Rock Album of 2018. She will continue to tour extensively, playing headline dates this fall before supporting Devendra Banhart later this year.
Watch Black Belt Eagle Scout’s “Run It to Ya” video – https://bbes.ffm.to/atpwmbf
Listen to “At the Party” – https://youtu.be/gk3FLRe4tAM
Watch “My Heart Dreams” video https://youtu.be/cmGP7WZO4Pw
Pre-orderAt the Party With My Brown Friends https://bbes.ffm.to/atpwmbf
Black Belt Eagle Scout tour dates: Sat. Sept. 7 – Sun. Sept. 8 – Portland, OR @ XOXO Fest Mon. Oct. 21 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios Thu. Oct. 24 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern Wed. Oct. 30 – Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater * Fri. Nov. 1 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown * Sat. Nov. 2 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater * Sun. Nov. 3 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall * Tue. Nov. 5 – Memphis, TN @ The Hi-Tone * Wed. Nov. 6 – St. Louis, MO @ Foam Thu. Nov. 7 – Lawrence, KS @ White Schoolhouse Fri. Nov. 8 – Fort Collins, CO @ Surfside 7 Sat. Nov. 9 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Diabolical Records Sun. Nov. 10 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux Thu. Nov. 12 – Reno, NV @ Holland Project Wed. Nov. 13 – San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord Thu. Nov. 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Bar Fri. Nov. 15 – San Diego, CA @ Ché Café Sat. Nov. 16 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress Sun. Nov. 17 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Bunkhouse Saloon Tue. Nov. 19 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile Wed. Nov. 20 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Fri. Nov. 22 – Austin, TX @ Barracuda Sat. Nov. 23 – Dallas, TX @ The Foundry Sun. Nov. 24 – Houston, TX @ Satellite Tue. Nov. 26 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge Wed. Nov. 27 – Nashville, TN @ DRKMTTR Sat. Nov. 30 – Detroit, MI @ Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit * Sun. Dec. 1 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall * Tue. Dec. 3 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia * Wed. Dec. 4 – Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre * Thu. Dec. 5 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel * Sat. Dec. 7 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club * Sun. Dec. 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer * *= w/ Devendra Banhart
Keep your mind open.
[Run over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
“…the music shares some of the ache and inscrutability of Fairport Convention and Incredible String Band. Everything—from the swirling cello of ‘Criminals’ to the pulsing motorik throbs of ‘Footsteps’ and ‘Seance’—is held together by Cooper’s quiet voice and his sweet yearning for a different plane.” – Pitchfork
Modern Nature presents the video for “Nature” taken from their debut album, How To Live, out now on Bella Union and announces their first-ever North America tour in early 2020.
“‘Nature’ plays a part in the album and has a point of view that isn’t necessarily what I believe (not all the time), but is generally a sort of fatalistic version of what I think about modern nature (behavior),” says Jack Cooper. “The outlook is really to provide some shade to the light and optimism of the last song ‘Devotee’. It’s hard watching the news or navigating life in a city not to get awfully despondent but often when your despair is at its peak, people can amaze you… I think it’s a sort of romantic nihilism.”
“I’d been out filming Brighton Day of Dance earlier in the year, where Morris Teams from all over the country come and spend the day dancing and drinking outside various pubs in Brighton,” says the director Conan Roberts. “It was more out of curiosity of this slightly bizzare British tradition than anything else. Jack saw some of the footage and thought it could be a great accompaniment to one of the tracks from the album. I cut the Morris footage and then independently cut the landscape footage before compositing the two. It was more an experiment in how the two images may or may not work together, exploring the synergy of the dancers movements alongside the shapes of nature.”
Watch “Nature” Video – https://youtu.be/h7Hc5hakErY
Modern Nature tour dates: Fri. Sept. 13 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club Sat. Sept. 14 – Flintshire, UK @ Good Life Experience Sun. Sept. 15 – Glasgow, UK @ Freakender Festival Tue. Sept. 17 – Manchester, UK @ YES Wed. Sept. 18 – Liverpool, UK @ The Shipping Forecast Thu. Sept. 19 – London, UK @ The Courtyard Theatre Fri. Sept. 20 – Margate, UK @ Elsewhere Sat. Sept. 21 – Bristol, UK @ Louisiana Thu. Jan. 9 – Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong Fri. Jan. 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle Sat. Jan. 11 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade Sun. Jan. 12 – Boston, MA @ The Lilypad Mon. Jan. 13 – Burlington, VT @ The Monkey House Tue. Jan. 14 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le ‘Ritz’ P.D.B. Wed. Jan. 15 – Toronto, ON @ The Monarch Thu. Jan. 16 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx Sat. Jan. 18 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry Mon. Jan. 20 – Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
Canadian rock duo Partner have announced a huge tour for this autumn spanning the globe from their home country to Czechoslovakia. The U.S. tour even teams them with Titus Andronicus. All the shows are sure to be a good time. Partner alone are killer live.
As if a new tour isn’t enough, Partner released their cover of Rush‘s “Limelight.” It’s great.
“We watched a documentary about RUSH and we fell in love with the band. They seem like such nice guys. It caused us to hear the music in a new way, with a much deeper appreciation. By doing the cover, we hoped to pay tribute to our newfound appreciation and to expand our horizons as musicians by learning these unique and complex arrangements.” – Partner
Partner’s cover of “Limelight” is available to watch on YouTube and stream on SoundCloud.
Skull Practitioners make post-punk that I can best describe with one word – immediacy. Their first EP in five years, Death Buy, is a wild record of squawking guitars, urgent drums, and wall-shaking bass.
Take the the title track, for instance. Jason Victor‘s guitars on it threaten to blow out your speakers almost as soon as he begins playing. He lets you finally breathe close to the four-minute mark, but Kenneth Levine‘s bass never lets you relax. “Grey No More” is a pedal-to-the-metal garage rocker with lyrics like “Last stop to nowhere, dreams are dead and gone, lost in the ether.” to remind you not to look back as you run down zombies in a desert wasteland with your spike-covered Mack truck.
“I was born into a head of confusion,” Victor sings at the beginning of “The Beacon” – a song about the baffling nature of identity in modern culture. Drummer Alex Baker puts down seriously hot chops throughout it, and Victor’s guitar roars like a jet engine. It’s over before you have time to lace up your running shoes and lock the door behind you.
Levine’s bass groove and Baker’s snappy beats are a great foundation for “Miami” – a ten minute-plus instrumental track that has Victor upping the reverb on his guitar. Victor experiments with different soundscapes while Levine and Baker never miss a beat and keep us and Victor from floating out of orbit. The breakdown and then the comeback around the six-minute mark is outstanding.
It’s a great EP, one of the best I’ve heard in 2019.
Marcos Garcia, the founder / vocalist / guitarist / multi-instrumentalist of Here Lies Man says his band is “…very conscious of how the rhythms service the riffs.” That principle is indeed the driving force the HLM’s new album – No Ground to Walk Upon.
The album opens with the fuzzy, funky “Clad in Silver,” which has Garcia singing spiritual lyrics over a groove that might induce a trance in you (so be careful if you’re operating heavy machinery while listening, especially to the last third of it). “Swinging from the Trees” has wicked hand percussion throughout it, taking lead even from the strong bass riffs and 1970’s action movie guitars.
“Long Legs (Look Away)” immediately makes you feel like a bad ass in one of those above-mentioned action movies. The groove is inescapable and will have you feeling invincible. The drum work on “Washing Bones” is just as good, with a harder rock feel than previous tracks.
The Santana influences on “Get Ahold of Yourself” cannot be denied. Listen to those congas and “no need to rush” guitar licks if you don’t believe me. “Iron Rattles” rattles and rolls with a spooky feel to it that curls up next to you in the dark. The album ends with “Man Falls Down,” the title of which reflects a common theme in HLM’s work – nature will always win. Man can strut around all he likes, but in the end, nature will have the final say. Man falls down, gets up, continues on, but nature always waits to reclaim us.
Every song on this album ends by drifting into instrumental experiments, and the last one sends us away wondering what’s to come next from Here Lies Man, and for us all. There is no ground to walk upon when we are floating in a dream or away from our corporeal bodies through meditation or, yes, death. Nature is nothing to fear, as are death, truth, and disillusionment. This album reminds us of that.
Keep your mind open.
[Walk over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
“Firebreather veer towards roaring, High On Fire-esque sludge, and they’ve got the chops and the grit to pull this kind of thing off.” — Brooklyn Vegan
Swedish trio Firebreather share a new track from their forthcoming debut on RidingEasy Records, Under a Blood Moon. Hear and share “Closed Gate” via YouTube.
Brooklyn Vegan previously hosted the lead single “Dancing Flames” HERE.
Fire is what happens when a carbon based object is consumed by oxygen. That chemical reaction is fitting to the sound of Firebreather: The riffs are suffocating, the rhythms fast moving and all-consuming. It’s so blindingly and deafeningly monolithic, don’t be surprised to find yourself gasping for air while listening. The Gothenburg, Sweden trio has a streamlined focus on driving, symphonic riffs in the vein of High on Fire, Inter Arma and their tour- and label-mates Monolord. The guitar and bass tones are, quite simply, entrancing. Like watching flames engulf a forest, the billowing guitar tones are simultaneously beautiful and destructive, while the rhythms sway and lunge with vicious precision.
“It’s riff based, heavy as fuck, but with a groove to it,” explains vocalist/guitarist Mattias Nööjd, formerly of popular Swedish doom merchants Galvano. “We had gotten off a tour with Monolord in February of 2018 and by that time we had the song ‘Firebreather’ done,” but soon thereafter new drummer Axel Wittbeck joined the fold. “Once Axel had joined, it was like the flood gates opened,” says bassist Kyle Pitcher. “The rest of the album just came together.”
Under a Blood Moon was recorded at Elementstudion in Gothenburg with engineer Oskar Karlsson, who also recorded the band’s lauded 2017 self-titled debut on Suicide Records.
Album opener “Dancing Flames” sets the stage for the onslaught to come with a slinking, serpentine riff over slow churning rhythms. Nööjd’s hushed, gravelly vocals sink into the mix, more like a baritone guitar than a human voice. “Our Souls, They Burn” nicely exemplifies the band’s furious grind that makes even faster tempo songs sound impossibly heavy, like a slow motion stampede. Elsewhere, “We Bleed” perfectly sums up the band’s focus on the riff and groove, honing in on the power of hypnotic attrition. Closing epic, “The Siren” opens with lugubrious, slightly swinging drums and rumbling bass building tension over delay- and phaser-soaked guitar harmonics, until a massive, sliding riff crashes headlong into the proceedings. The song seems to cleverly shape shift across several harmonic and rhythmic parts, without losing the core groove underneath. A short pause for breath, then it’s off to the races with a galloping crescendo for succinct closure.
Under a Blood Moon will be available on LP, CD and download September 27th, 2019 via RidingEasy Records. Preorders are available HERE.
FIREBREATHER LIVE 2019: Sep 20 Gothenburg, SE @ Musikens Hus w/ Halshug Oct 01 Utrecht, NL @ De Helling * Oct 02 Brussels, BE @ Magasin 4 * Oct 03 Pratteln, CH @ Up In Smoke Festival * Oct 04 Reims, FR @ La Cartonnerie * Oct 05 Paris, FR @ Saturday Mud Fever Festival * Oct 07 Dortmund, DE @ Junkyard * Oct 08 Nuremberg, DE @ Z-Bau * Oct 09 Cologne, DE @ Helios 37 * Oct 10 Mainz, DE @ Schon Schon * Oct 11 Hamburg, DE @ Molotow * Oct 16 Oslo, NO @ John Dee * Oct 17 Gothenburg, SE @ Sticky Fingers * Oct 18 Malmo, SE @ Babel * Oct 23 Linkoping, SE @ The Crypt * Oct 24 Stockholm, SE @ Close Up Baten * Oct 25 Tampere, FI @ Olympia * Oct 26 Helsinki, FI @ Nosturi * * w/ Monolord
Northern California duo Beehive share a new track from their forthcoming debut EP Depressed + Distressed via Spill Magazine. Hear and share “Don’t Try” HERE.
The Big Takeover recently shared lead single “When Can I See You Again?” HERE.
It’s the simple things that matter, right? Beehive know this well. The Northern California duo writes short, deceptively simple rock songs in the vein of early Wire, Suicide, The Spits and Television Personalities. Each song seems laser focused on a desperately repeated vocal phrase and repeatedly hammered riff splayed out over the emotional indifference of a Hammond Auto-Vari 64 drum machine.
Vocalist/guitarist Jake Sprecher — who also played in Terry Malts (SF), Smokescreens (LA) and Business of Dreams (LA), all part of Slumberland Records family – urgently yelps and howls desperate and angry lyrics like a man with no time to waste. Bassist Bud Amenti (also of Shutups) fills in any gaps with subtle walks and fills while holding down the band’s monolithic sound. Beehive never stop the drum machine during their live set, there are no breaks, which adds to the intensity.
Beehive came into existence at the beginning of 2019, but in that short time has been hitting venues hard up and down the West Coast to set up their 7-song debut EP Depressed + Distressed for release in early Fall. The EP was recorded live in the studio in one take to 1/2″ tape. No messing around.
Depressed + Distressed opens with a short intro (“Tick Tock”) leading into the mantra-like wail of “Get Off My Back,” as the duo holds and pummels an A-major chord, as Sprecher chants over the top. Elsewhere, “90’s Trash” sarcastically rips up nostalgia for music of our youth and disposable culture. “When Can I See You Again?” seethes with desperation and obsession we’ve all experienced at some point, the guitars clattering and clawing, perhaps trying in vain to stop the incessant drum machine. “Wasting Our Time” wastes no time getting to the point: Our time, our lives, as a measure of existence, is only wasted by ourselves and each other. Kind of heady and deep, but utterly simple.
Depressed + Distressed will be available on 10″ EP and download on September 6th, 2019 via Jester Records.
BEEHIVE LIVE 2019: 09/14 San Francisco, CA @ Knockout 10/09 Portland, OR @ Valentine’s 10/10 Seattle, WA @ Cha Cha Lounge 10/11 Eugene, OR @ Spectrum 10/17 Oakland, CA @ Golden Bull
Southern California trio Warish share a new track from their forthcoming full length debut Down In Flames on RidingEasy Records. Hear and share “You’ll Abide” via YouTube and Bandcamp.
Loudwire recently premiered the first single “Healter Skelter” HERE.
Warish hit the road this fall in support of the album with San Francisco stoner rock progenitors Acid King, who will also reissue their legendary Busse Woods album on RidingEasy on August 30th. Please see all dates below.
Imagine if early, weird Aberdeen Nirvana were crossed with low budget horror-obsessed garage-punks. You’d have sinister vibes with a visceral, twisted weirdness and bludgeoning riffs. Some might call it nightmarish, we call it Warish.
Warish is a very newly minted SoCal trio formed in early 2018 that has wasted no time making its presence known. The band formed when guitarist/vocalist and pro-skater Riley Hawk (son of skating legend Tony Hawk) and drummer Nick (Broose) McDonnell decided they wanted to try their hand at something more distinct than they’d done previously. “We wanted to do simpler riffs and a fun live show,” Riley explains. “A little more punk, a little bit of grunge… a little evil-ish.” Their sound takes cues from a variety of cool underground sounds and twists it all into an energetic and exciting fist to the face of dark fury. Hawk’s effect-laden vocals hearken to 90s industrial monsters Ministry and David Yow’s tortured caterwaul in Scratch Acid. The guitars are heavy and powerful, though decidedly not straightforward cookie cutter punk; more like Cobain’s and Buzz Osbourne’s wiry contortions. The rhythms bash and pummel right through it all with aggressive force ensuring that nothing gets overly complicated and the horrors keep coming throughout the band’s uh, warlike assault.
Down In Flames will be available on LP, CD and download on September 13th, 2019 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.
WARISH LIVE 2019: 08/30 San Diego, CA @ The Casbah 09/20 Portland, OR @ Star Theater – Hesh Fest * 09/21 Seattle, WA @ Highline * 09/23 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater * 09/24 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown * 09/25 Chicago, IL @ Reggies * 09/26 Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle * 09/27 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop * 09/28 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place * 09/29 Boston, MA @ Sonia * 09/30 New York, NY @ Knitting Factory * 10/01 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s * 10/02 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall * 10/03 Raleigh, NC @ Kings * 10/04 Asheville, NC @ Mothlight * 10/05 Atlanta, GA @ The 529 * 10/06 New Orleans, LA @ One Eye Jack’s * 10/07 Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey * 10/09 Albuquerque, NM @ Sister * 10/10 Mesa, AZ @ Club Red * 10/11 Los Angeles, CA @ Satellite * 10/12 San Francisco, CA @ Chapel * 11/09 Austin, TX @ Levitation Fest * w/ Acid King
Keep your mind open.
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“[Bethlehem Steel] pair hooky choruses with an illegal-basement-show energy.” Rolling Stone
“A fantastic guitar rock trio…Party Naked Forever is a much deeper and thoughtful record than that title might imply…I love this whole record.” Robin Hilton, NPR’s All Songs Considered
“[Becca Ryskalczyk] captures a sort of Rust Belt malaise in her music that makes everything feel rundown and past its prime…the album, largely operates in a full-speed-ahead stumble, towering songs that rush to keep apace with Ryskalczyk’s cavernous voice.” Stereogum
“Becca Ryskalczyk’s truly soaring voice makes Bethlehem Steel truly stand out.” BrooklynVegan
“[Bethlehem Steel] fucking rule.” The FADER
WATCH: Bethlehem Steel’s “Bad Girl” video on Stereogum // YouTube
Bethlehem Steel have announced their sophomore album with the premiere of its lead single “Bad Girl.” The self-titled album is the follow up to the band’s 2017 debut, Party Naked Forever, itself a heavily anticipated release owing to the band’s sterling reputation built sharing stages in Brooklyn DIY scene with bands like Spirit of The Beehive, Pile, Big Ups, Guerrilla Toss, Strange Ranger and Stove, that earned acclaim from Rolling Stone, NPR, Billboard, FADER and Stereogum, among others.
This album is the band’s first since they evolved from a trio to a four piece with the addition of guitarist Christina Puerto, who has also become a major part of the band’s songwriting process, and contributes lead vocals to several songs on the record. Her close relationship with guitarist/vocalist Becca Ryskalcyzk was central to the album’s development, a relationship dramatized in the video for the album’s lead single, a slightly tongue in cheek track penned by Ryskalcyzk that foregrounds the pairs’ rhythmic guitar interplay, building towards a nearly two-minute instrumental outro, as drums, bass and guitar add layer upon layer before the song reaches its apex with a sharp guitar and saxophone duel.
Ryskalcyzk expands on the songs background in conversation with Stereogum: “‘Bad Girl’ is about all the nights that my brain keeps me awake. Irrationally telling me I’m a terrible person. Going over and over and over all of the things I might have done to upset or inconvenience another human. Singing the line ‘Am I a bad girl?’ to my bandmates or even just out loud to myself was definitely embarrassing. I wasn’t sure if I should even keep it as a lyric until I decided to just lean into it. I send my mom everything I’m working on and when I sent her the demos with place holder titles she was like ‘Bad Girl? Now THATS how you name a song!’ so naturally it had to stay.” In support of the release the band are announcing an extensive US tour that includes dates with their Exploding In Sound label mates Kal Marks. Full details can be found below.
The album was written and recorded over a two year period by Ryskalczyk while splitting time between her brother’s house in Florida and Vermont, before fleshing out the arrangements with her bandmates back in Brooklyn. The songs were often intensely personal, and the solitary exercise of writing them left Ryskalczyk seeking a more collaborative writing process, one she found with the addition of a new member to the band, guitarist Christina Puerto, who joined Bethlehem Steel while they were touring in support of their debut. A close bond quickly formed between the pair, and that relationship has brought forth a new chapter for the band, with Ryskalczyk and Puerto’s collaborative energy providing the animating force behind their self-titled sophomore album (out September 13th via Exploding In Sound) – a release that serves as guide, of sorts, for those reaching towards self-empowerment, and an illustration of the transformative power of female friendship as a force in overcoming trauma.
“A lot of the lyrical content on this album is uncomfortable,” Ryskalczyk says. “It’s about men, and being taken advantage of, or abandoned or fucked over. I’ve been playing with the boys in the band for many years and they have always been sympathetic to my experiences, but there are certain things about what women experience that they will never understand, and having another woman as part of the band brought a different comfort and a sense of solidarity. Based on what’s happening in my life, I would still probably have sung about these things, but I don’t know what it would have been like without Christina. It wouldn’t have felt as powerful.”
The bulk of Bethlehem Steel is a stark look at toxic relationships and their effect on mental health, and its songs derive power from their unflinching approach to difficult topics. The pulsing, string-abetted “Couches,” which simmers for over half its runtime before exploding into a tangle of lead guitar parts, is a cutting appraisal of the worst parts of a suddenly absent family member, while the almost entirely spoken word track “Not Lotion” is a cathartic and rawly emotive expression of anger in the face of restrictive societal expectations. The single “Gov’t Cheese,” which is centered around Ryskalczk’s repetition of the mantra “I must take care of myself,” confronts a history of complicated friendships with men, with Ryskalczk and Puerto’s surprisingly sweet vocal harmonies belying the song’s frank reckoning with the vulnerabilities that are preyed upon in many of these negative relationships.
“When I wrote this I was looking back on a lot of toxic and abusive male relationships that I’ve had,” Ryskalczyk says. “A lot of them made me smaller and were holding me back from becoming a stronger woman. Sometimes you can still feel like you’re emotionally held hostage by them while trying to find a way to be there but at a distance.”
While the album’s lyrical depth and immediacy are readily apparent over Bethlehem Steel’s 10 tracks, the overall song construction and instrumentation is where Puerto and Ryskalcyzk’s rare chemistry is most apparent, and perhaps where the album’s greatest strength lies. Similarly, “Empty Room,” one of three songs on the album (along with “Read The Room” and “Sheryl”) which debuts Puerto as a second writer in the band, presents a sense of cognitive distortion, with unpredictable percussion patterns, guitar licks and melodies that mirror the chaos that can ensue from mental health issues debilitating your regularly scheduled programming.
It’s an exhilarating listen, and with the transition from a trio to a four piece, the sound of a band finding another gear as they change shape and mature as songwriters and musicians. Taking stock of your experiences and your emotional health in solitude, can be an empowering task, but enlisting the assistance of allies certainly never hurts, and Bethlehem Steel’s sophomore album is a testament to value of togetherness in difficult times.
“It’s important that this record is something that we did together and that we grew within, and I think the album artwork by Nicole Rifkin shows that” says Ryskalcyzk. “Christina and I met at a time when we were both processing painful things in our personal lives, and through writing together we were able to provide each other with strength and support, while also turning those feelings into something more cathartic. Hopefully in sharing the record we can connect with people, and they can connect with that strength.”
Bethlehem Steel will be released via Exploding In Sound on September 13th. It is available for purchase here.
Tour dates: 9/13 NYC release show @ Trans Pecos w/ Cat Cohen and Shark Muffin 9/14 Buffalo, NY release show @ Mohawk Place 9/15 Albany, NY @ Buddie’s Basement 9/16 Rollinsford, NH @ Sue’s 9/25 Boston, MA @ O’Briens * 9/26 Northampton, MA @ Red Cross * 9/27 Rochester, NY @ The Bug Jar * 9/28 Toronto @ Duffy’s * 9/29 Kalamazoo, MI @ Candy Cane Lane * 9/30 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean downstairs * 10/1 St Louis, MO @ Nu Craig * 10/2 Fayetteville, AR @ Backspace * 10/3 Denton, TX @ J&Js * 10/4 Austin, TX @ Mohawk * 10/5 New Orleans, LA @ Bank St Bar * 10/6 Nashville, TN @ Drrkmttr * 10/8 Asheville, NC @ Static Age * 10/9 Raleigh, NC @ TBA * 10/10 DC @ Rhizome * 10/11 Philadelphia, PA @ Dumpster Out Back * 10/12 NYC @ Chili’s * *= w/ Kal Marks
