Avail are an iconic punk rock band from Richmond, Virginia. They were initially active from 1987 to 2007, releasing six full-length albums and a variety of EPs and live releases through that time. They came out of semi-retirement in 2019 and continue to play shows periodically.
Bacchae have announced that they will be releasing a new album. It is called Next Time and will be out on July 5 via Get Better Records. The album was recorded with J. Robbins and features 10 tracks including their single “Cooler Talk” which was released last month. The band has also released the title track. Bacchae released their album Pleasure Vision in 2020. Check out the song and tracklist below.
Bad Astronaut’s new album, Untethered, is set for release on November 8th, offering a fresh perspective on the band’s classics. These reworked versions strip the songs down to their core, relying only on cello, piano, and vocals to highlight the raw emotion and songwriting behind each track. The band aims to showcase the essence of the music by removing most of the original instrumentation, allowing fans to connect with the heart of each song in a more intimate setting.
Bad Chemicals formed in West Hollywood sometime in mid-to-late-1980. Tragically, the band vanished before taking off. However, some of their recordings were discovered at a studio in Chicago.
Bad Cop Bad Cop has done angry. The band’s 2017 full-length, Warriors, was recorded in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election. The Los Angeles quartet’s new full-length, The Ride (Fat Wreck Chords, June 19th), shows what happens when you come out the other side of that anger.
“It’s not that I am just stoked or blind to suffering,” says singer-guitarist Jennie Cotterill. “I think anger is a legitimate and understandable reaction to injustice and wrongdoing. It’s just that for myself, I am trying to move past ‘reaction’ into productive ‘response.’”
The message BCBC is sending this time around is less about wagging your finger at others, or giving the middle one to the Man, than it is about self-love and acceptance. As Cotterill puts it, “Love is a more powerful truth than anger.” That positivity fuels many of The Ride’s tracks: “Originators,” “Simple Girl,” “Community,” “I Choose,” “Perpetual Motion Machine,” and “The Mirage” exude confidence, gratitude, and compassion. In 2020, such things qualify as contrarian.
“These are political statements—self-love is a huge fucking statement,” affirms singer-guitarist Stacey Dee. “Self-love means putting a fix on the problems at home before trying to fix everything in the world. It’s asking people to find it in themselves to create the life that they really want to have so they’re not in turmoil, so they’re not in a place of stress and sickness.”
Dee speaks from experience. In 2018 she was hospitalized twice for different ailments, then discovered she had stage one breast cancer at the end of the year. Fortunately it was highly treatable, but the experience was life-altering. Dee captures it with brutal frankness on “Breastless,” whose bright melodies belie the struggle described in the lyrics.
“Certain Kind of Monster” and “Pursuit of Liberty”—both written and sung by bassist Linh Le—are blistering repudiations of the current administration’s treatment of immigrants.
The former is an imagined conversation with an ICE agent, and the latter juxtaposes her family’s immigration to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1975 to current events, something she’s never explored musically.
The perspective behind The Ride lends it an undeniable maturity, without losing its power. Recorded throughout much of 2018 and 2019 by Johnny Carey and Fat Mike of production team the D-Composers, the album boasts all of the elements of BCBC’s sound: big guitars, lock-step bass and drums (the latter by powerhouse drummer Myra Gallarza), intricate vocal harmonies, and plenty of attitude.
It’s just that this time, the attitude is encouraging, not raging. Nowhere is that more apparent than lilting album closer “Sing With Me.” Built around acoustic guitar, piano, and Cotterill’s voice, it’s an exhortation to “sing with me / or sing your own song / I don’t mind, just as long as you find / a voice.”
Dee adds, “If people are listening to our songs and they’re going to sing along to them, they’re going to start owning some of those words. And in owning some of those words that gives them some strength and power going forward. That’s really the biggest gift that I could give to anybody.”
“Stronger in every way” aptly describes Bad Cop Bad Cop in 2020. The anger may have taken a back seat on The Ride, but what’s taken its place is even more powerful.
Just in time for a US tour in direct support for none other than Royal Blood, UK’s Bad Nerves are back with a new single entitled “USA.” Here’s what the band’s lyricist/frontman Bobby Bird had to say about the track:
“It’s strangely satisfying yelling ‘United States of America’ over and over. You can feel it stick to the back of your throat. The unparalleled superpower of the West. Yosemite and the green mountains of BlackRock! The American dream and the mighty Super Bowl! But perhaps it’s just the phonetics. After all, Papua New Guinea didn’t have quite the same ring, although it did look beautiful through my computer screen”
You can check out the video for “USA” below, and keep scrolling for the rundown on the Royal Blood/Bad Nerves tour dates!
Sep 18 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore
Sep 19 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre
Sep 22 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
Sep 23 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
Sep 25 – Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Sep 26 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
Sep 27 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner
Sep 29 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
Sep 30 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore
Oct 2 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
Oct 3 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
