HELLMODE IS COMING SEPTEMBER 1ST AND OTHER THINGS I FORGOT TO E-MAIL TO YOU ON ANNOUNCE DAY
WHAT’S UP NEWSLETTER NATION!!!!!!!! LET’S GET RIGHT TO IT. WE’VE GOT A NEW RECORD COMING OUT SEPTEMBER 1ST AND IT IS CALLED HELLMODE AND FORGIVE ME FOR REVEALING TOO MUCH ABOUT IT BUT IT’S REAL GOOD! YOU CAN PRE-ORDER IT HERE, including a limited to 1,000 pressing exclusive for our little internet corner.
It’s got 11 tracks, and it’s one second shorter than our last record. It’s got illustrations by Dave Alegre! I’ve been asked by several people trying to help me market this record, “Hey Jeff, so what’s the theme of this record?” and it always sends my head spinning. And maybe the head-spinning is the theme - not the chaos itself, but living through the chaos, trying to survive it emotionally and dodge the barrage (yea it rhyme so what) long enough to maybe find yourself a minute or two of something like inner peace until the phone buzzes or the screen goes ding ding ding and you get dragged back.
We recorded it at East West Studios in Los Angeles which was cool for a bunch of reasons. A lot of crazy shit has been recorded in that room (Whitney!? Neil Young?!) including Toxicity by System of a Down, a record Jack Shirley and I often talk about when working on music together (only when we’re on the clock). Do you know that record? You ever notice that there’s no effects, reverbs, delays, etc etc on that record? How cool is that! And it sounds awesome! So we set all our shit up in that room, played not only fast and loud but sometimes quiet and delicate! The duality of life ain’t that just the way, man?
Anyway, we’re really excited about it, I think it goes deeper in all directions than we ever have and if you got a problem with that, well, I guess it’s been a tricky few years and my only option is to empathize with you.
HEY HAVE YOU SEEN THE VIDEO FOR DOUBT YET? It’s a new song on that record I was talking about a little bit ago up there (HELLMODE!!!) I always feel lucky to make stuff with buds who also work on the two-time Emmy nominated and recently canceled-by-a-billionaire perfect animation series Craig of the Creek. We all dug into the things we like about anime, cartoons and stories and I think it turned out really sick. I’ve always wanted to make a video like this! Watch it, won’t you? You won’t? I guess, yeah, it’s been a hard few years and my only option is to empathize with you.
What’s up freaks, still readin’? Sick! We made a whole bunch of stuff that we think is cool! BUY IT ALL HERE!!! That white shirt up there? Those colors only show up when you’re in sunlight! That nailpolish (an idea I FULLY stole from Palehound whose new record is exceptional and would you look at that available from the same Polyvinyl our record is available from)? It changes color when it’s cold! Twice! That fuckin’ purple shirt?! It’s changes color when your sweaty hot grubby little paw touches it! Paw not grubby? It still changes!! HOLY HECK!! That one’s got a picture of a get ski crashed into the woods on it…
…and the black shirt was designed by another Creek Kid Charmaine Verhagen! And it’s fuckin’ sick! Check it out!
Then we also have a puzzle which is 666-pieces and double-sided so it’s really hard to solve. First person who solves it and figures out how to send the proof to us wins a prize. And FINALLY A NICE SMELLING TRAVEL CANDLE THAT’S JUST THE COLOR OF THE ALBUM COVER look we just wanted to have a nice thing in here.
Did you need several sentences describing these items to you? Maybe not! But you got it! If you buy some of this stuff it’ll be good for us money-wise, but our music will always be free and I totally understand if you can’t by anything it’s been a difficult couple of years my only option is to empathize.
In a few incredibly mere months we are going to hop back into a van, drive around to different buildings, take everything out of the van, eat dinner somewhere, and then finally take the stage and play a whole bunch of songs with everything we’ve got! Then, if you were curious, we will wait for everyone to leave the building, take everything, put it back in the van, get to a bed around 2 AM and wake up bright and early to do it again!
YOU SHOULD BUY A TICKET TO THIS TOUR!!! It’s gonna be a good one, it’s been almost two years since our last headlining run in a lot of these places and we hope to see every one of you back again here with us to hear us play these new songs and some old songs we think you like still, but if you just don’t wanna go because you’re all tuckered out and lame now and it’s been such an exhausting couple of years I have no choice other than to empathize.
WELL!! That’s kinda the end of this newsletter, but below I’m just gonna drop some videos by a few friends who have put music out over the past couple of months that I think are really great. I hope you enjoy them but most importantly I hope you enjoy yourself it’s been a trying few years you deserve it IEXMPATHITXZEZEE!!!!!
— Jeff
I'm v excited for this record! It sounds amazing so far. Sad ya'll aren't coming to Cleveland tho but you know what I get it I wouldn't come here either.