Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The Growlers ready their new album, Chinese Fountain, for release on Everloving Records on September 23rd, 2014! Hear the lead single, Big Toe, now...


The Growlers ready their brand new album, Chinese Fountain, for release on Everloving Records on September 23rd, 2014!

Hear and share the album's lead single: "Big Toe"


 
The music of The Growlers is unmistakable.
Sure, you can hone in on some influences baked into the work of this California-bred band. Heck, even they’d cop to a few, like Ricky Nelson and The Clash. But once those same RIYL tags have been filtered through the minds and hands and voices of this five-piece, there’s simply nothing else like it.
The Growlers took the phrase “Beach Goth” as an apt descriptor of their music. Sunburned and salty, that term perfectly describes their distinctive melding of reverb heavy surf guitar and Bakersfield-style honky tonk with ‘80s post-punk.
This is especially true of Chinese Fountain, The Growlers’ fifth full-length set to be released on September 23rd via Everloving Records. The 11 songs found on it are some of the strongest that they’ve committed to tape yet; a byproduct not only of eight years in the trenches together, but finely honing their gypsy folk dirges and psychedelic sea shanties to fans at close to 150 shows each year. The connection between vocalist Brooks Nielsen and guitarist Matt Taylor (the principal songwriters of the group) has only grown deeper.
“The band played better than they’ve ever played,” says Nielsen. “We’ve got the process down now. There’s less screwing around to get the songs laid out and we weren’t waiting around for take after take. We knew it and we played without much time to spare.”
That confidence bleeds through every track on Chinese Fountain, with the band assured enough to layer in shades of many new influences: the loping ska beat of “Dull Boy” and “Going Gets Tuff,” the playful disco beat behind the title track, or the Teardrop Explodes-like agitation of “Good Advice.”
Not that the band left themselves much room to second-guess anything. The five spent about three weeks writing the tracks, and about half that time in the studio recording them. That may sound rushed, but it’s not as if you can hear any strain on the finished product; Chinese Fountain is as rock solid and watertight as anything in their still-growing discography.
There’s evolution to be heard in Chinese Fountain as well, courtesy of some of Nielsen’s most pointed and poignant lyrics to date. He takes our obsession with the online world to task on the funky title track. When he drops the bomb that obliterates that most famous of Beatles’ claims with “The internet is bigger than Jesus or John Lennon” he re-contextualizes Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” in the same breath. He urges positivity no matter the obstacles (“Going Gets Tuff”). Too, he reveals a tattered heart to the world on tracks like “Rare Hearts” and “Love Test.”
“This is my chance to let it all out,” Nielsen says of these songs. “I kind of bottle things up and don’t really get emotional. But I think if I don’t open up, I’d be a really stale person.”

Tour Dates:
07/11 - San Diego, CA - North Park Theatre
07/12 - Pioneer Town, CA - Pappy & Harriets
 
08/01 - Luxembourg - Carre Rotondes @ Conges Annules Festival
08/02 - Liege, BE - Espace 251 Nord @ Micro Festival
08/03 - Aulnoye Aymeries, FR - Les Nuits Secretes
08/04 - Bremen, GE - MS Treue
08/06 - Oslo, NO - John Dee @ Oyanatt
08/08 - Goteborg, SE - Way Out West
08/09 - Malaga, ES - Canelaparty
08/12 - Erlangen, GE - E Werk
08/13 - Stuttgart, GE - Schocken
08/14 - Wiesbaden, GE - Schlachthof Weisbaden
08/15 - Biddinhuizen, NL - Lowlands Festival
08/16 - London, UK - Oslo
08/17 - Bristol, UK - Fleece
08/18 - Liverpool, UK - Kazimier
08/19 - Brighton, UK - Concorde 2
08/20 - Rotterdam, NL - Rotown
08/21 - Deventer, NL - Burgerweeshuis
08/22 - Groningen, NL - Noorderzen Festival
08/23 - Paredes de Coura, PT- Paredes de Coura Festival
10/18 - 19 - San Francisco, CA - Treasure Island Music Festival

 
Love for last November's release, Gilded Pleasures:
"2013 will be remembered as the year the Growlers and their Costa Mesa surf team made waves of beach blues and songs to wash out the bummers from our jaded hearts." IMPOSE
"...combines pastoral folk-rock with a shambolic, overdriven dark side that threatens to blow an amplifier, or worse." Esquire
"Their upbeat melodies and dynamic instrumentals infuse a certain sense of youthful charm, hell-bent on making your body move right along to the 'good vibrations.'" Interview Magazine
"If a crate-digging mate played you The Growlers’ latest EP and said it was the work of a long-lost gang of groovy longhairs from Topanga Canyon in California circa 1969, you’d be forgiven for being fooled." NME
"The Growlers are a pretty chill band that sing songs about pretty chill stuff." VICE
"Think the Black Angels righteously stoned on the Meat Puppets’ seminal Up on the Sun and you start to get the idea." The Straight
"Led by singer Brooks Nielsen, The Growlers’ sound heavily owes to the psychedelic 1960s freak-out scene centered along LA’s Sunset Strip mixed with  Beach Blanket Bingo surf rock, ’50s Chicano rock à la “La Bamba,” and a dash of “Monster Mash” macabre." MTV
"If you haven’t been paying attention to The Growlers, it’s time to start." SLUG Magazine

"The Growlers call it Beach Goth. And while it’s true their brand of psych-mottled surf rock defies genre, whatever you call it, it’s pure fun." UTNE Reader
"...despite their knockabout image, The Growlers are a band who take the art of being a band incredibly seriously." Clash Music
"There’s a youthful exuberance to the record that’ll have you yearning for the coast – but judging by the band’s packed gigs, their 70s camper van is going to be full." The Line Of Best Fit

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