Submitted for listener’s approval, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead present their eleventh album, BLEED HERE NOW…in historic quadraphonic surround sound, giving listeners an immersive listening experience that will take them through a listening journey from one track to the next. Forced into a pandemic-necessitated cancellation of their 2020/2021 tours, the band retreated to lengthy period of doing nothing. After a lengthy period of doing nothing, the band decided to make an album in a way that hasn’t really been done since the 70s - in quadrophonic sound. From the opening bombast of “Our Epic Attempts” to the alternative drive of “Penny Candle” to the thunderous 11-minute opus “Taken By The Hand” this album is unlike anything the band has produced before, equal parts experimental and ambitious, yet still sounding honest and true to what the band is. XI: BLEED HERE NOW was produced by engineer Charles Godfrey alongside Trail’s own Conrad Keely, who also created, directed, edited and produced all of the album’s artwork again.

TRACK LISTING

1. Our Epic Attempts
2. Long Distance Hell
3. Field Songs
4. Penny Candle
5. No Confidence
6. Sting Theme
7. Kill Everyone
8. Growing Divide
9. Pigments
10. Golden Sail
11. A Life Less Melancholy
12. Taken By The Hand
13. Contra Mundum
14. Darkness Into Light
15. Water Tower
16. Sounds Of Horror
17. Protest Streets
18. The Widening Gyre
19. Millennium Actress
20. Salt In Your Eyes
21. English Magic
22. Calm As The Valley

The week that guitarists Grace Repasky and Maggie Geeslin turned old enough to drive, Lunar Vacation was officially formed.

Repasky and Geeslin met in the eighth grade and began exchanging musical efforts almost immediately, but that blessed autonomy of first cars meant they could conquer Atlanta’s sprawling suburbs and play to their adolescent hearts’ desire. The pair forged a cluster of demos — just enough to fill a set — and took to as many stages as Atlanta could offer them. Local momentum building, they added classmates Matteo DeLurgio on synth and Connor Dowd on drums to sonically match their songs’ increasingly rambunctious spirit.

Upon high school’s end, Lunar Vacation released a pair of well-received EPs, Swell and Artificial Flavors, and landed support runs for the likes of Remo Drive, Sidney Gish, and SALES. The band nabbed infatuated fans across the US while racking up millions of streams on their independently released music. In more than one sense, Lunar Vacation had graduated.

Back in Atlanta, Geeslin was working in a record store (Criminal Records) when Daniel Gleason of the band Grouplove came in. Following a quick connection and hours of conversation, the members of Lunar Vacation felt Gleason could be one to color in the sound they’d been honing live — melodious guitars swirling atop propulsive, often psychedelic rhythm — and capture it in the studio. The band recorded "Unlucky" with Gleason and released it in early 2020, the song drawing attention as “swoon-worthy” from The FADER, “shimmering … wistful, sun-kissed indie-pop” from American Songwriter, and “equal parts Mac DeMarco and Snail Mail” from Paste Magazine. Lunar Vacation continued recording with Gleason in the producer’s chair.

The band released the first song of the batch in June 2021. “Shrug” garnered praise from the likes of Paste, Brooklyn Vegan, Stereogum, Under The Radar, and NYLON who called it “a jangly guitar song with a very shoutable chorus.” Songwriter Repasky shared, “I look back now and realize that this song was a pivotal moment in delving into self-identity and ultimately identifying as a non-binary person." The melody is buoyant though agitated, its guitars warbling like question marks and lyrics ringing distinctly relatable. Lines like This isn’t how I want to be / I didn't know I could care that much and Invited but I’ll never show / Sit at home playing too much Wilco cut into a listener’s mind and vibrate there, like thoughts of one’s own. There’s a carefree sense of triumph in Repasky’s refrain: Why don't you just shrug it off?

Lunar Vacation will release their highly anticipated debut album ‘Inside Every Fig Is A Dead Wasp’ October 29 on Keeled Scales. Throughout the album, this band boasts a celebratory sound, a reckless sense of ecstasy specific to fluid youth and rock solid friendship. In spite of life’s bits that inspire these songs — some darker than others — Repasky, Geeslin, DeLurgio, and Dowd reliably find the light in the thing. Drawing from early influences like Rilo Kiley and Tame Impala, and landing a little closer to contemporary favorites like Alvvays and Slow Pulp, Lunar Vacation make bright music replete with bliss.

Repasky suggested the band name Lunar Vacation to Geeslin at a show, leaning over at a loud moment to say it. It’s easy to imagine others finding out about the band in this same way.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Purple Dreams No. 4
2. Peddler
3. Shrug
4. Where Is Everyone?
5. Making Lunch (Not Right Now)
6.Cutting Corners

SIDE B:
7. The Waiting Game
8. Mold
9. Gears
10. Anemone
11. But Maybe

Five years on from the release of their previous record, Austin’s beloved art-rock heroes … And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead return with their tenth album – X: The Godless Void and Other Stories. Expansive yet concise, this album nods to the band’s traditional touchstones – the feral scree of Sonic Youth, Rush’s symphonic anthems, the textured bliss of My Bloody Valentine – while morphing effortlessly into newer forms. The synth-orchestral swell of curtain-raiser “Opening Crescendoes” recalls Hans Zimmer and Tangerine Dream, before “All Who Wander” descends from guitar-soaked high drama into simmering, murky psych. Next up, “Something Like This” offers nods to the ethereal songcraft that defined the sound of the legendary 4AD label, before everything kicks in at full pelt with “Into The Godless Void”, as noisy and thrilling an existential anthem as the band have ever put their name to. And this is just the first four songs… Work on X: The Godless Void and Other Stories began in earnest in 2018, after Keely returned to the band’s hometown of Austin following five years in Cambodia. With a new line-up having recently toured the 20th anniversary of their Madonna album, they’re also reverted to the live format of their earlier years, with Reece and Keely alternating between drums and frontman duties – a musical partnership that dates back to their high school days. Appropriately, it all feels fresh.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Opening Crescendo
2. All Who Wander
3. Something Like This
4. Into The Godless Void
5. Don't Look Down
6. Gone
7. Children Of The Sky
8. Who Haunts The Haunter
9. Eyes Of The Overworld
10. Gravity
11. Blade Of Wind
12. Through The Sunlit Door

Dead Inside have an utterly inappropriate name for there is nothing cold, dead or soulless about this band. Their real beauty is the ability to mix the screamo vocals of ex-Hard To Swallow vocalist Bloody Kev with guitarists Paul and Scott's more keen ear for melody from their days in pop-punk bands like Broccoli and Annalise. Imagine the ferocity of Black Flag combined with the discordant guitar abuse of Fugazi and you're still not close. Quite simply, this is the best new hardcore band in the UK.