🥤 SIPSMAN COMMUNIQUE: November 2023
Animal Hospital • Katie von Schleicher • North Americans • Truth Club
I would love it if you kept these LPs in mind for your end-of-year roundups and for presents around the holiday season! A reminder that international shipping rates are newly cheaper for Sipsman releases courtesy of Melodic in UK/EU/etc and Summer Cool in Canada :}
Very lucky to work on all these projects with such wonderful people! 🥤🦦
A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night has been out for a little under two weeks now; pick up an LP via Bandcamp or tell your favorite independent record shop to order a copy for ya via Redeye. It was Album of the Week for Brooklyn Vegan’s Bill Pearis, Linnie Greene praised its “steady builds and decrescendos that juxtapose joy with the comedown” for Pitchfork, and Jon Dolan at Rolling Stone writes “The Brooklyn-based artist brings to mind highbrow Seventies pop like Nilsson’s with her mix of easeful melodies, rich orchestrations, and sharp, offhanded irony.” There is so much more critical praise for this album that cannot be contained here, but trust that I am grateful for all of it. Watch the music video for album highlight “Cranked” and buy tickets to her December 9th release show at Public Records with an expanded band, Joe Pera, and Thanya Iyer.
New album Shelf Life was digitally released yesterday, LPs arrive in stores tomorrow; preorders are shipping out now from Bandcamp, and you can also tell your favorite record shop to order you a copy via Redeye. Side A of the album was already out, beginning in August with the bombastic opening cut “Fuselage,” followed in September by the gently unfolding “Awful Beast” (and later, a performance video). “His Amazing Friends,” which encompasses nearly all of Shelf Life’s backside, plays out like a marching band slowly but furiously careening off the rails. At 16+ minutes it’s fucking relentless and I mean that in the best way possible. “As Always” functions as the album’s coda, a gentle counterpoint to everything heard on Shelf Life. Head over to Boston’s NPR affiliate WBUR for an interview with Micka while you listen.
Running From the Chase is out on LP and CD from Double Double Whammy and on cassette from Rope Bridge. For Paste, Eric Bennett accurately claims Truth Club “have built an album that feels like a nihilistic Trojan Horse. These songs create an impending sense of doom while also getting stuck in your head.” Pitchfork’s Stuart Berman raves “The band’s imposing, precarious new album cements them in a history of North Carolina bands making thrilling indie rock” while Dillon Riley writes about how Truth Club “triumphantly meets the moment with the casual confidence of a band much further into their discography” for Flood. TC just wrapped up a tour with Squirrel Flower, where they returned to some cities and played some new ones. They celebrate Running From the Chase with a hometown release show tomorrow at Kings with Exercise and Saturnalias, and you should get tickets before it sells out.
Opening for comedian Petey, North Americans embark on their first tour ever (!), starting tomorrow at Atlanta’s Terminal West. Supporting April’s Long Cool World—described by Relix as "If the hazy state between dreaming and waking had a score, then it would sound like North Americans"—the duo will find themselves playing their first shows in NYC and more east coast spots before returning to the west for a December date at LA’s Fonda Theatre. All dates feature guitarist and North Americans principal Patrick McDermott with guest player Joel Williams on synths and guitars. Tickets are on sale now, with many dates sold out, so jump on that!