FEELS Sign To Wichita + Announce New Album
Los Angeles, CA’s FEELS today announced their second album Post Earth will be released on February 22nd 2019 via Wichita Recordings. Stereogum today premiered the Gina Clyne-directed video for album opener “Car” as an early preview of the LP, calling out the track’s “rebellious attitude. It’s hard and blunt and playful, and Geronimo’s opening line -- ‘My friends come with me to Candyland -- invites adventure.” Watch the “Car” video now HERE. “‘Car’ is a tongue-in-cheek guided tour around a twisted political landscape where everything's a lie and ignorance is bliss,” explains the band. “For the video, we chose to use collaged footage that one of our best friends captured while on tour with us, being very real and very aware of every mile crossed, and loving it. Escape from madness, Band on the Run style. The album follows their Ty Segall-produced 2016 eponymous debut – which earned the band press attention from outlets including The FADER, SPIN, and The Los Angeles Times – and is now available for pre-order on all formats HERE.
Produced by Tim Green (the former guitarist of punk iconoclasts Nation of Ulysses, who has worked with Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, Joanna Newsom, and Jawbreaker, among others), Post Earth is a call to arms, interspersed with frustration and hope.
“It wasn’t intentional to write a politically charged record,” says bassist Amy Allen, who constitutes FEELS with Laena Geronimo (guitar/vocals), Shannon Lay (guitar/vocals), and Michael Perry Rudes (drums). “But the way the world is functioning right now made it impossible to write about anything else. We all need to figure it out; we’re running out of time. The golden age is over.” Maybe FEELS did not start their second album with a conceptual agenda, but they definitely intended to speak out: “If you have any kind of platform, you should use it for good,” Lay states. Geronimo continues, “If our wildest dreams came true, the album would sound exciting to people while also inspiring awareness and action against hate, prejudice, greed, the destruction of our environment…apathy's not cool and toppling oppression could be fun if we do it together!"
With a steadfast proportion of heavy and light, Post Earth never completely wallows in despair: disillusionment is met with a heady helping of defiance; hard work battles against apathy; and there are even references to The Simpsons, courtesy of superfan Lay. FEELS also strike a perfect balance musically between noise and energy, breath and space with a mix of angular, interweaving guitars, lush vocal harmonies, heavy bass and pummeling drums — at times hearty and loud, and at others stunningly harmonic and calm. These newly emphasized dynamics highlight the subtler, weirder, and sonically interesting elements of Post Earth, and allowed the four friends (who have played intermittently in bands together since high school) room for experimentation.
The Gina Clyne-directed video for album opener Car was today premiered on Stereogum. The “QUOTE” clip can also now be seen HERE.
“Car is a tongue-in-cheek guided tour around a twisted political landscape where everything's a lie and ignorance is bliss,” explains the band. “For the video, we chose to use collaged footage that one of our best friends captured while on tour with us, being very real and very aware of every mile crossed, and loving it. Escape from madness, Band on the Run style.”
FEELS will head back out on a U.S. tour next month, for a run of shows in Brooklyn, DC, and Durham, NC before traveling back to LA for a hometown show mid-month. The band will also celebrate the release of Post Earth at LA’s The Echo on February 19th. FEELS recently headlined the Getty in Los Angeles in addition to performing at the Music Tastes Good festival in Long Beach, CA. Earlier this year, they played throughout the west coast as part of the Burger-A-Go-Go tour alongside Death Valley Girls, The Coathangers, and The Flytraps. A current itinerary is below.
Post Earth track listing:
- Car
- Awful Need
- Deconstructed
- Find A Way
- W.F.L.
- Sour
- Last Chance
- Post Earth
- Tollbooth
- Anyways
- Flowers
FEELS tour dates:
12/1 Brooklyn, NY @ Alphaville 12/2 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool 12/4 Washington, DC @ Black Cat* 12/6 Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall** 12/11 Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers (Wichita Holiday Party) 2/19 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo (Record release show) TICKETS * with Gauche ** with Charly Bliss