Manchester Punk Festival Releases 37th Compilation
Manchester Punk Festival have released the 37th volume of their compilation series ahead of this year’s festival. Manchester Punk Festival Vol. 37 is…
Following a string of riotous UK dates with The Lemonheads & inciting a mosh pit at Rough Trade East last month, today Bass Drum Of Death share another new track from their forthcoming album, Say I Won’t, which is set to be released on January 27th via Fat Possum Records. After the mid-tempo bruiser Say Your Prayers, which featured Royal Blood‘s Mike Kerr, and the high-octane Find It, today they nod to the classic rock greats with the Zepplin-esque Head Change. Bass Drum Of Death will also be touring the US in December, playing headline shows and further tour dates with The Lemonheads.
Say I Won’t, the band’s fifth record, comes at a time of massive change for frontman John Barrett, having relocated from New York to his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi during the pandemic. The record is also a homecoming of a different sort, with the band rejoining the ranks of Fat Possum Records, also in Oxford, the label that released their first record, GB City, in 2011.
“Moving back to Oxford was a much-needed reset. When I started, I just wanted to play in a punk band and drink beers and travel around. I didn’t really think much past that. And I got really burned out. When I moved back home, I started writing songs again, just for fun. I realized I wanted this record to have more of a hometown feel. The switch back to Fat Possum was easy. It’s much better working with people I know and love and love everything they do.” (frontman John Barrett)
Say I Won’t is the first Bass Drum of Death album written, demoed, and recorded with the touring band instead of Barrett doing everything on his own. He found a freedom in working with collaborators that wasn’t available to him before, opening different aspects of the songwriting. It was a process of live recording, layering on different parts and overdubs, and then stripping it all back to the bones of the song, keeping the raw wild heart of the music intact.
The band recorded the new record with Patrick Carney (The Black Keys) at Audio Eagle Studios in Nashville and the result is a groove-oriented, 1970’s-indebted collection of rock songs, with tempos set for cruising and scuzzy guitars galore. There’s an energy and vitality to the music that feels in line with the best of the Bass Drum Of Death songs, but with an added boost that comes from new bandmates and a new perspective. It’s a throwback by way of moving forward, sporting a maturity and swagger that comes from a decade of playing music on the road and surviving to tell about it.