The Bobby Lees are thrilled to share their brand new full-length, Bellevue, available via Ipecac Recordings. The band have also shared the video for title track, which you can view below.
The Bobby Lees recently wrapped up a European tour that included the Woodstock, N.Y-based band’s first stint in the UK. The four-piece band have several shows coming over the next few months including a 9th October performance at Aftershock 2022.
The Bobby Lees tour dates:
October 9 Sacramento, CA Aftershock 2022
October 25 Brooklyn, NY Baby’s All Right
October 28 Woodstock, NY Colony
November 5 Tulsa, OK Cain’s Ballroom
The 13-song album, which was recorded live in-studio, was produced by Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton, The Raconteurs).
Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, Henry Rollins…these are just a few of the punk icons who have shown support for Woodstock, NY based band The Bobby Lees. Sam Quartin [vocals, guitar], Macky Bowman [drums], Nick Casa [guitar], and Kendall Wind [bass] — make music that is punk in spirit and soul; unfettered and resolutely honest. To say their sound is wild and untethered is an understatement. It’s the kind of aural exorcism any listener can tap into, something that struck a chord with Henry Rollins who brought them to Ipecac Recordings where Mike Patton and Greg Werckman signed them.
KEN mode has released harrowing new single, ‘Unresponsive,’ from its upcoming eighth album, NULL, out on 23rd September.
A relentless dirge, ‘Unresponsive’ features frontman Jesse Matthewson unleashing a tormented soliloquy that hits like Henry Rollins at his most confessional. "Forgotten, erased, unresponsive, replaced, abandoned," he chants.
Matthewson recalls the origins of the song: "At this phase of the pandemic I had begun having dreams about my partner leaving me and my family dying, probably five nights a week, for several months. I sat there, writing the lyrics to this one while listening to a rolling storm come in, that never seemed to actually reach a crescendo. It all felt too apt for the way everything had been feeling for the last year at that point."
The track’s sparse, machine-like pulse, peppered by hints of cello and clanking percussion, points to early industrial and No Wave influences, beyond the metallic hardcore and noise-rock for which KEN mode is known. Matthewson credits the COVID-19 pandemic with pushing the band to take new chances and explore new ground: "We felt like there was really no reason to do anything at all unless we were trying to push this into something new," he states. Recorded and mixed by Andrew Schneider (Cave In, Unsane), NULL is the first KEN mode release to feature collaborator Kathryn Kerr (saxophone, synth, piano, percussion, backing vocals) as a full-fledged member of the band.
Check the video here:
Founded by Matthewson and his brother Shane, KEN mode has come to define intensity and dedication, via tours with Russian Circles, Torche, and Full of Hell, and releases produced by the likes of Steve Albini, Kurt Ballou, and Matt Bayles. Upcoming new album NULL sees this warhorse of a band emerge from the darkest of times with new energy, evolved and ready to carry on into its next chapter.
The band embarks on a US tour in October, with support from Frail Body (Deathwish Inc).
Oct 20 – St Paul, MN @ Turf Club
Oct 21 – Davenport, IA @ Raccoon Motel
Oct 22 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
Oct 23 – Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle Brewing Co.
They’ve had records produced by Jon Spencer. Henry Rollins and Debbie Harry are fans. The Bobby Lees are HOT.
Un-tempered, no frills rock ‘n’ roll comes from The Bobby Lees as they release the video for the riotous new track ‘Dig Your Hips’, taken from the upcoming four-song Hollywood Junkyard EP on June 17th. The band are also set to tour throughout June and July, which will mark the band’s first shows in the UK and Ireland.
On the song, Sam (vocals) says "This song’s about a psychotic episode I had while partying in the desert, and the feeling of wanting to set fire to your life and run away from it with someone you barely know."
Drummer Macky adds, "this song is about exactly what it sounds like. With most things but most notably art there’s no such thing as objectivity, pretty ironic considering how objects are viewed as a pretty ubiquitous medium for artistic expression. Anyway, the way we relate with an object, surprisingly, has a lot to do with our own spacial and conceptual relationship to it. All that is to say that it’d feel a little too self indulgent to give a personal overview of the song as at the end of the day I’d just be forcing you to watch the movie, my movie, before you read the book, so to speak… That being said, this song is about exactly what it sounds like. I really hope you like it!"
The video, directed by John Swab, was shot in an abandoned factory whilst the band were on tour in Tulsa, Oklahoma in March. Watch the video here:
Aural Aggravation 