In September, Adult DVD will be releasing their self-titled debut LP on Fat Possum Records. The Leeds-based sextet have become one of the most talked-about live bands in the UK over the last couple of years, playing festivals like Glastonbury, Green Man, End Of The Road, on the strength of their early EPs. Their momentum has continued gathering behind the band since the announce of their signing to Fat Possum, with the band making their US debut at SXSW earlier this year where they were hailed as one of the best bands of the festival. The band followed that up by touring Japan where they were greeted by fans in homemade Adult DVD merch, played a series of sold-out shows and saw posts about their performances go viral with millions of views.
The band announced their record with the single “Cowboy On Aisle Three” last month, that Stereogum described as “a deranged banger….[that] explodes with DFA-indebted infectiousness.” Today, Adult DVD are back to share a new preview of the album, a track called “Rolling Face,” an acid house exploration of a wild night out that ends with its main character out of his mind.
Singer Harry Hanson says of the track: “A job in a suit can only get you so far, which is what the character from rolling face soon realizes, he’s at the deep end of a pretty ugly night out, which ends in him losing his mind and money.”
In the making of their exhilarating debut album, vocalist Harry Hanson and synth-player Greg Lonsdale, alongside Danny Blackburn (guitar/synth), Jake Williams (synth), Jonathan Newell (drums), and George Manson (bass), went harder on what was already working for them: witty observational songwriting based in real-life characters and a pulsating synth-punk sound perfect for both the rave and the mosh pit. Fusing together an intense musical workout with depictions of a motley crew of figures ranging from 5G conspiracy theorists to an existential cowboy, Adult DVD is the electrifying sound of a band exceeding their own expectations while going just as hard, if not harder than their adrenaline-fueled live shows.
Produced by the band at The Nave Studios Leeds , the general theme of the album is to let go and take life a little less seriously. Simmering with boredom, wasted time, scams and a preoccupation with death and sex, the Adult DVD universe is a place to escape to and also get lost. These are songs that untangle the complicated ways in which people find themselves living, mining both laughter and energy from thinking. “There isn’t that much down time on the album,” Hanson says in reference to its pulsating energy and high BPM count. “It’s got harder in both directions. It’s like the EPs but on steroids.”
MAQUINA. (João Cavalhiero – guitars and effects, Halison Peres – drums and vocals, and José “Mendy” Rego – bass) took more time to craft their second album, Body Transmission, than their debut album (Prata, which more more focused on improvisation), but that only means they had plenty of opportunities to make sure it would be relentless.
The opening riffs and beats of “dança” (with Dame Area helping on vocals) are your passcode to the dance floor and also the lock on the door as it closes behind you, because you won’t be leaving for a while. “4-to-the-floor” has Cavalhiero chugging out near-metal riffs while Peres’ vocals take on gritty, distorted, growling menace.
Already feeling tired from the dancing? No worries, because “collapsing” will keep you from doing just that with its wild vocals, chainsaw guitars, and driving bass line. Rego’s bass on “agony” is designed to push you through the aches and dehydration of all the dance floor aerobics…because we’re not even halfway through the album. Cavalhiero’s guitar work on “bizarro” sounds like a sawmill full of hornets.
The short instrumental “valve” gives you just enough time to chug a small bottle of water before the great-for-grinding (either hunks of metal on a stone or bodies on bodies) “simulation.” Then, is it just me or do the opening drums of “step on me” reveal Peres’ love of ZZ Top‘s Billy Beard? Rego’s bass on it is perhaps his grooviest of the whole album.
Peres shouts / roars his vocals through “out of fear” to encourage us to shake off our fears through action (in this case, dancing). The album ends with “pressure / pleasure,” a sweaty, sizzling, throbbing dance-punk track to leave you exhausted and a bit euphoric.
Body Transmission is another winner from MAQUINA. The album’s title fits, as the songs feel like they’re being directly transmitted to and through your body from them. The way it makes you move transmits signals from your body to others, which repeats the process throughout the room, club, bus station, or wherever you are.
Keep your mind open.
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Following a single launch show at Paris Fashion Week last night, today Pol release their new single “Sex Machines”.
Pol is a band made up of Dutch brothers Ruben and Matthijs Pol. They bring a unique fusion of sound, image, and performance that reimagines New Wave not as nostalgia but as a living language of today.
The new track “Sex Machines” explores the bleeding of a lovers’ shared promise, where intimacy transforms into a cold, repetitive performance. A state where past-lovers operate as machines, using lust to shield themselves from an uninhabitable reality. Built on twitching beats, serrated guitars and clipped vocals, the track’s robotic chant of “we are sex machines” cuts through an atmosphere of mounting tension and nocturnal menace.
In 2023, Pol released their self-titled debut EP, which introduced their analogue-driven edge. This was followed by the singles ‘Masks’ and ‘The Chameleon’, which embraced a more theatrical, New Romantic tone.
The duo have since built an independent universe from the ground up, designing all visuals, videos, merch, and a fanzine themselves. Their first zine, a reflection on their West European tour, is sold at cult bookshop Librairie 1909 in Paris. Their multidisciplinary approach has also led to sound design collaborations with Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu and more.
In early 2026, Pol performed sold-out shows in London, Lille and Paris opening for Lebanon Hanover. Now they prepare for the next chapter, opening with new single “Sex Machines”.
Cor de Lux, who recently announced their signing to Ipecac Recordings, release their label debut, Year Of The Horse, on Sept. 18.
A preview of the nine-song album arrives today with “The Cringe” and its accompanying video (https://youtu.be/GL1308BBhKI). The snarling single charges forward at full blast before veering into an atmospheric passage where the intertwined guitars of Dawn Moraga and Tim Lusk drift into haunting territory.
Moraga says of the track: “Living in a developing country really engraved in my heart about knowing what is important and what is not,” referencing her time abroad in Nicaragua. “Materialism fades like bad jeans. The exploitation of the poor to make the rich richer makes my blood boil.”
Bass player John Bliven adds: “’The Cringe’ explains our disdain of the billionaire ‘elite’ and the system that keeps them rapidly gaining. ‘I make a dollar a day’ refers to CEOs giving themselves a tiny salary while obtaining massive share value. Those shares aren’t taxed unless sold, and even then, that tax rate is less than the income tax everyone else pays.”
Produced by J. Robbins (War on Women, Mary Timony), Year Of The Horse captures Cor de Lux’s competing impulses: abrasion and melody. Atmosphere and momentum, chaos and control. Across nine songs, the Kill Devil Hills quartet balances post-hardcore urgency, shoegaze bliss, and guitar-driven catharsis. Recorded with Robbins, the album preserves the raw chemistry that defines the band while pushing their songwriting into sharper, more immediate territory.
Year Of The Horse is available for pre-order now with the album available on multiple limited vinyl variants (including a hyper-limited Bandcamp exclusive swirl vinyl and Ipecac/Cor de Lux orange effect vinyl), standard black vinyl, cassette, CD, and digitally: https://cordelux.lnk.to/horse.
The band ventures out on a brief tour this Fall, joining SLIFT for a handful of dates:
Preeminent prophets of societal decline Protomartyr announce their new album, Hotel Usona, out September 25th via Domino, and release the lead single/video, “Sounds We Cannot Hear.” Recorded with legendary producer Dave Fridmann (Sleater-Kinney, MGMT, The Flaming Lips) at his own Tarbox Road Studios in western New York, Hotel Usona is an effort that finds the Detroit post-punk outfit reckoning with the horrors of our current moment. It is not easy listening. It’s essential.
Over the last two decades, Protomartyr—vocalist Joe Casey, drummer Alex Leonard, bassist Scott Davidson, and multi-instrumentalist and co-producer Greg Ahee—have built one of the most rewarding and often exhilarating bodies of work in recent memory by veering in and out of darkness, grappling with what most frightens us, saddens us, disgusts us, embarrasses and enrages us, and with a gallows humor for the ages, gives a sense of the comedy inherent in so much that we encounter. Essentially, the stuff that makes us human.
Casey has imagined his country as an aging hotel here, each song a room haunted by its own troublesome guest, as on today’s “Sounds We Cannot Hear,” which arrives with a video starring Nate Varrone (Maddie’s Secret and “The Bear”). The song finds Casey examining the slow paralysis of modern life: “The scroll deforms the day // Poet screamed, “Goodbye everybody!” // Leaping from the liner Orizaba // As it traversed the Caribbean Sea // A new vulgar company is targeting me.”
Musically, Ahee has built worlds within a world, drawing new influence from the Middle East and ‘50s exotica, finding common ground between dread and joy, a speciality. All of it—Leonard’s drumming in particular—is rendered more tangible and terrifying by Fridmann, whose son, Jon, contributes horns. You can feel the stakes in every song, feel the band levitating to meet them. They’ve never sounded more powerful. Take it from someone who knows: Iggy Pop.
What is a Protomartyr? I don’t really know, but I imagine it may refer to an earthly being who wants a little more than the usual shit out of life. A person or persons who want to be part of something beautiful and interesting, with the understanding that you may pay a price for that, and that others who come after will have an easier time. Kind of like Jesus.
So then there is Protomartyr the band. Four guys who are very, very skilled musicians and creators who I suspect would be totally fucked without the intervention of their talents, which are considerable. They are, to put it crudely, a kind of rock band out of Detroit. That’s a subject I know something about. And they’ve made a new album. It is highly themed and symphonic in its reach. I could call it a kind of drive-through Sgt. Peppers, but that would miss the mark. This record is Wagnerian, it reminds me very much of the Opera Tristan and Isolde (by Richard Wagner). Musically, it sounds modal, and kind of chromatic, like I imagine Celtic war horns might sound in some forgotten battle. The singer, Joe Casey, is blessed with a beautiful voice that you want to listen to, but he stays perverse enough to keep things interesting when he wants to get petulant or a little bitchy.
One of my favorite moments on the record is when he simply announces, all alone, “We got a bad review.” Which presides a furious outpouring from the entire group. Wow! I wish I thought of that! And in today’s world, how relatable! Who hasn’t gotten a bad review? Plumbers, shoe salesmen, etc etc etc. right up to Influencers. All is reviewed… I’m trying hard not to let this attempt at biography turn into a review, but hey, I’ve been listening to these guys for quite a while now and I get the feeling that they are a slow growth item, something that is gaining followers, listeners, and respect little by little, over the long haul. There’s a lot of content here. The four of them can shift rhythms and harmonics very, very smoothly in a way that seems effortless. It’s the mark of fine arts in a popular group. — Iggy Pop
This fall, Protomartyr will embark on a world tour, making stops in major cities throughout the United States, EU/UK, and Canada. Tickets are now available here. Protomartyr will also support The Jesus and Mary Chain in Austin. A full list of tour dates is below.
Hotel Usona Tracklist 1. The Old Hotel 2. Sounds We Cannot Hear 3. Converts 4. Exalted Eagles 5. The Knife Dream 6. Feed the Sewer 7. Lavender – Gospel 8. Third Country 9. Checking Out
Protomartyr Tour Dates: Mon. Oct. 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom * Tue. Oct. 20 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah * Thu. Oct. 22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Regent * Fri. Oct. 23 – San Jose, CA @ the Ritz * Sat. Oct. 24 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall * Tue. Oct. 27 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos * Wed. Oct. 28 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl * Thu. Oct. 29 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin * Sat. Oct. 31 – Austin, TX @ Far Out Lounge ^ Sat. Nov. 7 – Toronto, ON @ Concert Hall # Sun. Nov. 8 – Montreal, QC @ Les Foufounes Électriques # Tue. Nov. 10 – Boston, MA @ Crystal Ballroom # Wed. Nov. 11 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church Thu. Nov. 12 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall # Fri. Nov. 13 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat # Sat. Nov. 14 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle # Sun. Nov. 15 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy # Tue. Nov. 17 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East # Wed. Nov. 18 – St. Louis, MO @ Duck Room # Thu. Nov. 19 – Chicago @ Metro # Fri. Dec. 4 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Thu. Feb. 11 – Leeds, UK @ Irish Center Fri. Feb. 12 – Glasgow, UK @ The Garage Sat. Feb. 13 – Manchester, UK @ Band on the Wall Mon. Feb. 15 – Bristol, UK @ The Lantern Tue. Feb. 16 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton Thu. Feb. 18 – Lille, FR @ L’Aeronef Fri. Feb. 19 – Paris, FR @ Le Trabendo Sat. Feb. 20 – Brussels, BE @ Le Botanique Mon. Feb. 22 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Tue. Feb. 23 – Hamburg, DE @ Bahnhof Pauli Wed. Feb. 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset Fri. Feb. 26 – Berlin, DE @ Bi Nuu Club Sat. Feb. 27 – Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz Sun. Feb. 28 – Prague, CZ @ Meet Factory
* w/ Accessory ^ w/ the Jesus and Mary Chain # w/ J.R.C.G
Last month, Fat Dog announced second album Cancel Me (I’m Tired). The follow up to their breakout 2024 debut album WOOF., the album is due out October 2nd via Domino.
Announced with its title track last month, the album is an exhilarating, swaggering, panoramic, inventive, re-inventive, re-re-inventive electro-punk-art-pop-rock’n’roll-space-country triumph that deserves all the adjectives. Over ten mind-bending and melodic tracks, it blends electro-pop anthems, cascading rave bangers, bombastic strings, cowboy-tinged pitstops and swirling psychedelia.
Today, fresh off a run of stadium shows supporting Foo Fighters, Fat Dog are back to share another preview of the new album, a single called “Shit Love.” All stabbing synths, manic vocals and a beat that sounds like a rollercoaster trying to shake itself off the tracks, the track is, according to frontman Joe Love, about “two fucking insane people who argue constantly and they are world-enders every time.”
CEREMONY—the seminal California-based punk band of Ross Farrar, Anthony Anzaldo, Andy Nelson, Justin Davis, and Jake Casarotti—release the new single/video, “Dark Summer” from their seventh album, Tell Me Your Dream, out August 7th via Relapse. Following “Death Destruction Mayhem,” which Consequence says “tak[es] the band’s developed and matured post-punk sound and reappl[ies] it to the hardcore and punk rock that motivated their earliest work,” “Dark Summer” is a jet-black post-punk rumination.
On the track, Farrar says: “In Rock ‘n Roll music, feedback occurs when a guitar is purposely moved too close to an amplifier – like a dark summer – when dread finds you amid brilliant sunshine, it feels disorienting, confusing, and chaotic. What you’re left with is malaise, doldrums of sorts that are both beautiful and terrifying.”
Tell Me Your Dream reunites CEREMONY with producer John Reis, a punk lifer whose eclectic noisemaking in Rocket from the Crypt, Hot Snakes and other legendary bands runs in parallel to CEREMONY’s multitudes. After working on CEREMONY’s acclaimed 2015 album, The L-Shaped Man, Reis maintains a unique perspective on the quintet — as a hardcore punk band, as participants in the greater California rock-and-roll tradition, and as friends. “John sort of joined the band on this one,” says guitarist-keyboardist Anzaldo. “We could not respect him more as a guitarist, as a singer, as a songwriter. He understands what it’s like to be in every position. So we really gave him the keys.”
Tell Me Your Dream is a reflection of the enduring sense of trust forged within the band. This is no surprise considering CEREMONY’s roots date all the way back to a grade-school friendship between Anzaldo and Farrar. “We’re bound together like family,” says Anzaldo. “Our relationships are beyond the band. CEREMONY is going to live no matter what. We’ve shifted into this dynamic where the choice isn’t ours anymore.”
Deep connections in a shallow world. A clear sense of purpose in uncertain times. These are the reasons CEREMONY continues to grow, to expand, to adapt, to endure. This band can’t stop. And it won’t. To meet the moment, you have to be there for it.
On the heels of back to back weekends playing Coachella earlier this year, CEREMONY’s North American tour will kick off September9th inMontreal and includes stops in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and more throughout the fall. Tickets are now available here.
CEREMONY Tour Dates Wed. Sept. 9 – Montréal, QC @ Les Foufounes Électriques Thu. Sept. 10 – Toronto, ON @ East End United Basement Fri, Sept 11 – Detroit, MI @ Russell Industrial Center Lot (Supporting Turnstile) Sat. Sept. 12 – Chicago, IL @ Metro Sun. Sept. 13 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Thu. Sept. 24 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom Sat. Sept. 26 – Vancouver, BC @ The American Thu. Oct. 1 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair Fri. Oct. 2 – New York, NY @ Warsaw Sat. Oct. 3 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer Sun. Oct. 4 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat Fri. Oct. 16 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade – Hell Sat. Oct. 17 – Orlando, FL @ The Abbey Sun. Oct. 18 – Miami, FL @ Churchill’s Thu. Oct. 22 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Thu. Nov. 5 -San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger Fri. Nov. 6 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk Sat. Nov. 7 – Dallas, TX @ Trees Fri. Nov. 13 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore Fri. Nov. 20 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo
Keep your mind open.
[It will feel like a dark summer if you don’t subscribe.]
Today, Fat Dog are announcing their second album Cancel Me (I’m Tired). The album is the follow up to their celebrated debut album WOOF., which was released in 2024 and saw them become one of the UK’s most exciting breakthrough bands in the process.
The South London seven-piece Fat Dog have a good reason to be tired. They’ve spent the period since WOOF.’s release spreading their raucous, infectious and irresistible bark around the world. But if Fat Dog are tired with the world, the world is not tired of them. In fact, the world can’t get enough of them. Wherever they went on the tour to support WOOF., new diehards emerged out of the carnage. “Show of the weekend,” raved The Times after they played four shows in 27 hours at Glastonbury last year. “Unserious, unhinged and sensational,” marvelled NME. Their message spread far and wide.
Due out on October 2nd, with Cancel Me (I’m Tired)Fat Dog have created an exhilarating, swaggering, panoramic, inventive, re-inventive, re-re-inventive electro-punk-art-pop-rock’n’roll-space-country triumph that deserves all the adjectives. Over ten mind-bending and melodic tracks, it blends electro-pop anthems, cascading rave bangers, bombastic strings, cowboy-tinged pitstops and swirling psychedelia.
The lead single was inspired by John Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep” combined with frontman/songwriter Joe Love imagining what Anatolian rock experimentalists Altın Gün would sound like if they were under siege from a thumping club beat. The title track begins with a riotous declaration. “If you wanna cancel me/Then go ahead and do it please,” It’s the sound of what happens when people push your buttons and your buttons start pushing back.
The video shot with director James Winstanley on the hottest day of the year, sees Fat Dog trying to avoid getting cancelled on an actual night out in London’s Soho.
“Cancel Me (I’m Tired)” follows the release of propulsive, jubilant electro-pop single “Go Fuck Urself” in May and the band’s storming support for Kneecap’s Crystal Palace gig last weekend – the only English band on the bill no less. This week, Fat Dog join Foo Fighters on a run of stadium shows and ahead of their headline UK & European tour starting late October.
When it was time to think about album 2, the band’s ringleader threw himself into recording sessions a day after landing home from a chaotic US tour in which each member of the band took turns in unravelling. “At some point on that tour, everyone had a small breakdown of some sort,” says Chris, who remembers losing his mind in LA, bashing his head against a wall whilst wearing an American Football helmet.
It wasn’t all nervous meltdowns. Romance was also in the air and, midway through the trek, Fat Dog’s frontman got married in Vegas after proposing to his girlfriend in San Francisco. “We played a gig to two people in Vegas,” Joe recalls, “and then the next day I got married.”
And so, it was with depressed Elvis ringing in his ears that Joe got home and began work on the second Fat Dog album. On their debut, Love had left the lyrics until last, letting the heady momentum of the music lead the way, but this time he felt he had much more to say. Into its lyrical orbit, the record pulls mentions of addiction, family ties, love, AI, ancestry, extra-terrestrials, Chris Tarrant, S&M, B&M, H&M and M&Ms. Cancel Me (I’m Tired) possesses all the rabid frenzy and electrifying excitement of their debut but now delivered on a grand and glorious scale. Big, big things are ahead. Fat Dog are only just getting going.
Cancel Me (I’m Tired) is available on DomMart exclusive picture disc vinyl in PVC sleeve, deluxe translucent green coloured vinyl, standard LP, CD and digitally. Pre-order: Fat Dog’s store | Digital
Today, Adult DVD are announcing their hugely anticipated self-titled debut album which will be released September 25th on Fat Possum Records. The Leeds-based sextet have carved a niche as one of the most talked-about live bands in the country and an irreverent new voice existing in the space between electronic euphoria and spiky hardcore energy.
Both unique in their approach and thrilling in impact, the band’s music has been shown love by Stereogum, Rolling Stone and The Line of Best Fit among others. Their breakout moment came with the single “Bill Murray,” an incessantly catchy distillation of people on the internet believing Tom Hanks and Bill Murray are the same person. More recently, the glitchy and anthemic “Real Tree Lee” was an A-list record at BBC 6Music and had support from BBC Radio 1.
At both Brighton’s The Great Escape and SXSW in Austin this year the band were championed as one of the buzziest acts of the festival with snaking queues of people waiting hours to see them perform . A relentless touring schedule in 2025 saw them hone their status as festival headliners in waiting, picking up a global army of new fans and playing to huge crowds at Glastonbury, Green Man, End Of The Road and more. The band recently toured Japan where they were greeted by fans in homemade Adult DVD merch, played a series of sold-out shows and saw posts about their performances go viral with millions of views.
To announce their debut, the band are sharing a new single entitled “Cowboy On Aisle Three.”
In the making of their exhilarating debut album, vocalist Harry Hanson and synth-player Greg Lonsdale, alongside Danny Blackburn (guitar/synth), Jake Williams (synth), Jonathan Newell (drums), and George Manson (bass), went harder on what was already working for them: witty observational songwriting based in real-life characters and a pulsating synth-punk sound perfect for both the rave and the mosh pit. Fusing together an intense musical workout with depictions of a motley crew of figures ranging from 5G conspiracy theorists to an existential cowboy, Adult DVD is the electrifying sound of a band exceeding their own expectations while going just as hard, if not harder than their adrenaline-fuelled live shows.
On Adult DVD Hanson and Lonsdale continue to take a screenwriter’s approach to songwriting, filling their lyrics with stories pulled from the outskirts of society yet painting a vivid and comic picture of modern Britain. “We don’t take things too seriously,” Lonsdale explains. “The lyrics have got sillier, the songs have got sillier. We make music for people to enjoy, so let them have a laugh.”
Produced by the band at The Nave Studios Leeds , the general theme of the album is to let go and take life a little less seriously. “Cowboy On Aisle Three” conjures an image of a wrangler swapping the rodeo for a supermarket over a swaggering synth riff . It’s an EQ-pushing beast that merges an existential crisis with the band’s playful spirit and relentless pursuit of bangers.
Speaking on the new single, the band’s frontman Harry Hanson says:
“I came up with the idea when I was in Lidl. I’m sure everyone has thought, ‘Imagine if I just went nuts now,’ to get out of doing the big shop.”
Leeds quartet Yard Act announce their new album, You’re Gonna Need A Little Music, out July 17th via Republic Records and release the lead single, “Redeemer.” You’re Gonna Need A Little Music follows the band’s UK Top 5 charting Where’s My Utopia? (2024) and their Mercury Prize nominated debut, The Overload (2022). Recorded between Leeds and Los Angeles with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, Beck, St. Vincent), You’re Gonna Need A Little Music rings with the chemistry and energy of a band absolutely locked in. It’s simultaneously the most dynamic, collaborative, energized work they’ve laid to tape, but also contains some of the darkest, most cynical and truly questioning moments they’ve concocted too, picking up their tale and examining the findings more unsparingly than ever.
For a band so associated with incendiary live shows and constant touring, Yard Act’s third album marks the first time that the quartet—frontman and vocalist James Smith, bassist Ryan Needham, guitarist Sam Shjipstone, and drummer Jay Russell—have ever made an album together, as a live band in the same room. “The first two records were both laptop records essentially,” says Smith. The Overload was written alongside Needham before the band had fully formed; its follow-up, Where’s My Utopia?, was carved out in snatches of time on tour buses and hotel rooms. For the first time in a long time, Yard Act were able to settle into an “uninterrupted five month period” of creativity, crafting “40 or 50 songs” and allowing themselves to follow their ideas with no external pressure. “It felt like freedom,” says Smith. “It felt like everything I’d wanted from being in a band.”
Each track on You’re Gonna Need A Little Music has its own distinct character. The ominous guttural ferocity of today’s single, “Redeemer,” sits amongst a sleazy disco odyssey, fizzing indie, and loose, cerebral, meditations. Yard Act may have thrown the kitchen sink, or at least its cookware, at the track, with Meldal-Johnsen concocting a brittle, metallic texture out of a day of rattling pots and pans, but the result is direct, visceral and exciting.
No whimsical walk through suburban England, You’re Gonna Need A Little Music seeks to work through some of the most complicated facets of life. Intentionally, in some ways, it is a step away from Smith’s venerated vignettes and character studies; a move towards something more “impressionistic” and up for interpretation. “I think the album is about multiple realities and how individualism has led us, in the modern world, to question if there even is a shared reality anymore because everyone just believes what they want now,” Smith suggests. The questions are deep, but the spirit of You’re Gonna Need A Little Music is boundless – not for nothing does its title point to the power of art and creativity to rescue us from the mire.
Last month, Yard Act announced a summer North American tour including stops throughout the West Coast, East Coast and Canada. This marks the band’s first North American run since 2024. Tickets are now on sale and available here. Yard Act will also make several festival appearances across Europe in June and embark on an extensive UK and EU tour in the fall. A full list of tour dates is below.
