New Orleans no-wave punks Special Interest have released a final single and video ‘Cherry Blue Intention’ before their new album Endure, dropped today Friday, November 4th, 2022 on Rough Trade .
Stream / Purchase Endure at your favourite local retailer or here: https://specialinterest.ffm.to/endure
‘Cherry Blue Intention’ follows earlier Endure singles ‘Foul’, ‘Midnight Legend (feat. Mykki Blanco)’ and ‘(Herman’s) House’.
‘Cherry Blue Intention’ comes with a video that was compiled from Hi-8 footage shot by the band on their summer tours in Europe, the UK and the US, and edited by Perry Hohlstein. “Hey bitch! Let’s ride. ‘Cherry Blue Intention’ takes you on a twisted odyssey through fast friendships and humid nights. How could something that tastes so red be so blue?” Special Interest says of the video. There’s also an in-depth interview with the band on the making of the video up today at Rolling Stone, for those curious about the footage they’re seeing.
Endure was self-produced and recorded at HighTower in New Orleans with engineering by James Whitten, mixed by Collin Dupuis (Angel Olsen, Yves Tumor, Lana Del Rey) and mastered by Matt Colton in London at Metropolis.
On every level, Special Interest is uncompromising: in their adventurous sound, their high-energy live performances, and their convictions. Dance music and punk culture have flirted in the warehouse before, but Special Interest’s desire to dismantle genre is informed by a larger abolitionist worldview that resists constraint, category, and conformity. Their music is a soundtrack to dancing the pain away as much as raging against the machine.
Brought together by New Orleans’ inventive DIY scene, Special Interest finds a new way of defining the “rock band,” a true collective unit rather than the dictated vision of a single member. Their sound is ever-fluid and continues to evolve — Special Interest actually began as the duo of Alli logout and Maria Elena with guitar, drum machine, and a power drill, before Nathan Cassiani and Ruth Mascelli filled out its current line-up.
Special Interest describes the experience of recording Endure as “inverted,” since the pandemic obviously stunted the possibilities of live performance, resulting in a new period of experimentation and sonic exploration in which old rules were cast out. Everything the group writes springs from the same source — a hard-hitting drum machine beat — but the possibilities are endless and the outcome always unpredictable. Ruth Mascelli’s work on drum machines and synthesisers provides a foundation, as varying beats lead the group into different directions: rave-ready drum and bass or ballroom-like house on the more dancefloor-friendly cuts, and marching kicks on No Wave-inflected tracks like ‘Foul’. ‘Cherry Blue Intention‘ brings together a sturdy post-punk bassline, shrieking guitar effects, and a jungle breakbeat into a driving anthem of an opening track.
“A dance-punk masterclass” – Rolling Stone
“A crescendo of gnashing guitar noise and thumping, clattering drum-machine beats…Righteous”
– New York Times
“Danceable punk music that borrow from the angular, jittery rhythms of 80s bands, with frenzied songs that carry a highly political bent” – NPR Music
“If you’ve been paying attention in the past few months, then you’ve seen Special Interest really hitting their stride” – Stereogum
“If anyone can make an anti-capitalism call and response sound legitimately dangerous in 2022, it’s Special Interest” – FADER
Pre-Order Endure: https://specialinterest.ffm.to/endure
Special Interest – Endure
1. Cherry Blue Intention
2. (Herman’s) House
3. Foul
4. Midnight Legend
5. Love Scene
6. Kurdish Radio
7. My Displeasure
8. Impulse Control
9. Concerning Peace
10. Interlude
11. LA Blues
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