News
Bullies (LP) by Acid Tongue out March 13
Pre-order Bullies on 12” limited-edition milky/pink vinyl from the Freakout Records online store—out March 13—HERE
Pre-order Bullies on 12” limited-edition milky/pink vinyl from the Freakout Records online store—out March 13.
Acid Tongue - Humpty Dumpty: NYLON Premiere
'Humpty Dumpty,' the second single from Acid Tongue's forthcoming album 'Babies' (10/13), premiered today on NYOLON: https://nylon.com/articles/acid-tongue-humpty-dumpty-song
'Humpty Dumpty,' the second single from Acid Tongue's forthcoming album 'Babies' (10/13), premiered today on NYOLON: https://nylon.com/articles/acid-tongue-humpty-dumpty-song
On the concept of the song, singer Guy Keltner says...
"Sometimes love is a rock, and sometimes love is an egg. We criticize, whine, cheat, yell and nag until we have our partner sizzling on high heat over an open flame. I think most couples have this vision of growing old side-by-side and being all things to one another. The truth is, we're all Tinder-loving, wine gurgling, lonesome, depressed animals chasing what flees. We buy the first car that fits us, run the thing into the ground, and sell it off to the nearest teenager with a learner's permit. Oh, to be young and in love!"
Babies comes out October 13 via Freakout Records. Pre-order the album on CD or vinyl HERE.
Acid Tongue Announces 'Babies' Debut LP - Single Released for "If I Really Loved Her"
Acid Tongue have released the first single from their forthcoming full-length, Babies. All Things Go premiered "If I Really Loved Her," saying, "Catchy to the core, 'If I Really Loved Her' is the perfect cut from the dreamlike, almost sci-fi masterpiece."
Acid Tongue have released the first single from their forthcoming full-length, Babies. All Things Go premiered "If I Really Loved Her," saying, "Catchy to the core, 'If I Really Loved Her' is the perfect cut from the dreamlike, almost sci-fi masterpiece."
The Brooklyn-by-way-of-Seattle project blends fuzzing garage with buzzing psychedelia to create irresistible indie rock. Lyrically, Acid Tongue confront the overwhelming senselessness, resulting confusion and more recently realized doom associated with an "American condition." Acid Tongue will release their debut album Babies on October 13 via Freakout Records.
STREAM "IF I REALLY LOVED HER"
Guy Keltner, songwriter and frontman for Acid Tongue, said of the song, ""I wrote 'If I Really Loved Her' in one sitting, on a patio in the woods outside of Spokane, WA. I was in the process of uprooting my life in Seattle and moving to Brooklyn. I lost my job, I lost a lot of my friends, and I was flat broke. I'm still flat broke. But I was with someone who believed in what I was doing and stuck it out with me during a really difficult period of my life. This song is a love note to that kind of loyalty. We don't choose who we love, but we do choose who we stick with when things get rough."
Acid Tongue have released two EPs up to this point, the second of which charted on CMJ's Top 100 and earned critical enthusiasm. The band will kick off tour with a string of East Coast dates, before heading to Europe. They'll return to the US in November, to play festivals such as Off Beat in Reno and Freakout in Seattle. Dates are listed below. More to be announced.
"[Acid Tongue] find the sweet spot between psych-rock and garage, and ride that wave as far as they can take it ... a smooth journey that sometimes dips into heaviness, indicating that Acid Tongue could pull off being a doom band if they wanted to take it there." - CLRVYNT
"Sweltering and hazy-as-hell, Acid Tongue’s scorched indie-pop sounds plucked straight from a desert’s watering hole." - DIY Mag
"Woozy but never falling down, 'Beautiful Disaster’ sounds like an escape but is eager to stick around. Luckily the hypnotic hooks (which would make The Cribs proud) aren’t going to be leaving your head anytime soon." - DORK
Smokey Brights - "Hot Candy" available Oct 21
Seattle band Smokey Brights will be releasing their sophomore full-length "Hot Candy" on 12" vinyl via Freakout Records on October 21, 2016.
PRE-ORDER HERE: http://www.freakoutrec.com/store/smokey-brights-hot-candy
Seattle band Smokey Brights will be releasing their sophomore full-length "Hot Candy" on 12" vinyl via Freakout Records on October 21, 2016.
PRE-ORDER HERE: http://www.freakoutrec.com/store/smokey-brights-hot-candy
Read more about the album from CityArts' Jonathan Zwickel:
Hot damn, Hot Candy! Modern rock n roll never sounds this fresh. The second album from Smokey Brights is both a rebirth and a milestone, a head trip and a body high, meticulously crafted but natural as daylight. The music taps into history and stretches out a kind of visionary rock that rolls relentlessly forward while recombining iconic sounds—prog, funk, Bowie, Styx, Wilco, Flaming Lips—into something urgent and fun and utterly surprising.
Seriously: If you're not already listening to Hot Candy, you're losing precious seconds.
What else do you need to know? Two singers (married), a guitar hero some call Keanu J. Fox, and a crack rhythm section with veteran status. Since their 2014 debut Taste for Blood, Smokey Brights have amassed a rabid base of fans across the West Coast, gaining momentum with every show. They are a self-started, self-sustaining rock n roll machine that generates maximum joy through musical communion.
The members of Smokey Brights have been singing and playing together in various incarnations across Seattle for more than 15 years. Ryan Devlin and Kim West—the married singers—write the bones for most of the songs in their North Seattle living room. The mind-meld between drummer Nick Krivchenia and bassist Jim Vermillion leads to unpredictable, shape-shifting groove. Mike Kalnoky—the guitar hero—tops it all off with counterpoint melodies and soaring solos. Coming together at Wizard House, their hand-me-down rehearsal space, the band bursts with life and love and an offbeat energy that's infectious. Hot Candy is an album made by a company of pros finding their finest voice in collective effort.
Listening yet?
Start the album from the beginning and dig it all the way through. Every song is a discreet, complex world unto itself that rewards patient listening. Right from the start Hot Candy evokes a rock n roll fantasy, born from a whoosh of noise to coalesce into the hard-driving opener—and lead single—"In Demand." Is this a fist-pumping rock anthem or a brazen indictment of Internet-driven overconsumption? Yes and yes.
Kim steps to the mic for song two, the sinuous, sultry "Desiree," outro-ing with full flange and four-four stomp. "Not Enough Time" is simultaneously beautiful, foreboding, complex and catchy—a swirl of emotions that might be Smokey Brights' signature cocktail. As Kalnoky unleashes one of the album's most luscious guitar hooks, Ryan sings, "You’ve got to stand some in the rain to get lightening struck/And that’s just how it is."
Four songs in, "Malibu Musk" slows down and slithers into a sinister, twilit foreboding that foreshadows the album's latter half. The band describes the next track, "Baby Bigshot," as a lullaby for the Baby Boom generation, Ryan singing, "We're waiting for the trickle down!" No, that isn't a Theremin’s weird coo on "Start Wearing Black"—that's Kim's natural singing voice, which goes on to boost a stunning finale and one of the album's finest, freakiest moments. "Ugly Evergreen" features achingly lovely vocal interplay between Ryan and Kim as the band builds to another monumental climax. Closer "Stickman" is a sweet, sad coda, acoustic-strummed and fingersnapped like a tender farewell.
To make Hot Candy, Smokey Brights decamped for a week at the end of 2015 to the Rock n Roll BnB, a live-in recording studio on Sauvie Island, a verdant refuge surrounded by the Columbia River a few miles from Portland, Oregon. The digs were throwback, but the gear was impeccable, as was the ear of host/producer/engineer Sean Flora. The result is simply one of the most refreshing records you'll hear all year. Trust.
Now get yourself to the nearest sound system and do the damn thing!