Early next year, Chicago’s Lifeguard will release a new 7” maxi single, ‘Ultra Violence’ / ‘Appetite.’ Recorded at the band’s rehearsal space / studio, the music continues the unstable ethos of this year’s much-loved debut album Ripped and Torn – alternating high-velocity punk-energies with surreal dub-inflected interludes. Listen to ‘Ultra Violence’ below
Lifeguard- ‘Ultra Violence’ (Official Video)
The physical 7” is available to pre-order via Matador Direct through Tuesday, January 13th. A digital release will follow in the spring.
Lifeguard on ‘Ultra Violence’ / ‘Appetite’:
Recorded in Lifeguard’s Stulogulo, newly equipped with actually terrifying faces and friendly heroine carpet, plugged straight into the 8-track machine with the aid of the Dub soldiers, dirty mixing pots and Echoplexes, Lifeguard deliver these 11 tracks in under 15 minutes; 7 inches of LP-oriented fast and automatic music free from lingering, processing, over-thinking, or otherwise staving off release. The fully deterritorialized Ripped and Torn; the ripping and tearing of the band-aid.
This dub-abrasion Maxi-single is Lithographed for the new generation of cylinders. A thin Round wax prism carries that 30-second-torch of what shan’t be considered afterthoughts, rather deliberate bursts scaffolding: ULTRA VIOLENCE and APPETITE.
This week, the trio – Asher Case, Isaac Lowenstein, and Kai Slater – will continue a tour supporting labelmates bar italia.
Out now on Matador Records, Ripped and Torn is Lifeguard’s eagerly awaited debut album. The trio have now been making music together since they were in high school, nearly a quarter of their lives. Noisy and immediate, cryptic but heartfelt, they draw inspiration from punk, dub, power-pop and experimental sounds, and bring them all together in explosive cacophony.
DEBUT LP RIPPED AND TORN OUT NOW
PRAISE FOR ‘RIPPED AND TORN’
“Shouty declarations of love and resistance, as ragged as they wanna be.” – Bandcamp
“Lifeguard’s debut album bristles with the energy of a teenage band whose sprawling taste has zeroed in on a single, explosive nexus.” – Pitchfork
“Phenomenal three-minute slabs of punk that emanate a roaring radiant electricity.” – Post Trash
“Some of the year’s tightest, catchiest rock songs, full of hooks that will ricochet around your head all summer.” – Rolling Stone (“Artist You Need to Know”)
“This is music that clangs and scrapes like a guitar dragged across a metal table, held together with duct tape and enthusiasm.” – Stereogum
“Lifeguard’s corrosive noise is at the darker end of the scale, but is an addictive thrill. They’re indebted to the terse turbo-jangle of the Feelies, Sonic Youth’s angularity and unconventional guitar-play, post-punk’s austerity and focus on groove.” – Mojo ****
“Dense, engaging and dazzlingly confident.” – So Young
“Taut and fraught, marshalled mayhem, the band walks the line between brutal intensity and mournful tuneage.” Uncut 8/10
“Ripped and Torn shows a mastery of the damaged rock form.” – Nina Protocol
‘ULTRA VIOLENCE’ / ‘APPETITE’
TRACK LIST
- Ultra Violence
- Cuneiform
- 500K Foot Drum
- Blatant Dub I
- Manhunt I
- Appetite
- Manhunt II (Vogue A Go Go)
- Blatant Dub II
- Cuneiform II
- Manhunt III
- Steal Everything
LIFEGUARD
