New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Satirical art-punk band LICE last month announce It All Worked Out Great, a two-part 'early years' collection re-recorded and to be released as two EP's and as an LP collecting both together.
In frontman Alastair Shuttleworth's own words "it could not have been made by perfect people, and does not expect any to be listening."
You can pre-order the collection HERE: https://balleyrecords.bigcartel.com
Outside of their release of IDLES' own "Brutalism", LICE were the first signing to Joe Talbot's Balley Records and further strengthens IDLES relationship with both LICE and what is becoming a burgeoning, powerful scene in their hometown of Bristol.
Joe says the following about LICE:
"As we watch the world seemingly burn; solace is found in the boundless passions of our peers and the hard workings born from that. LICE are a force beyond the rabble. We are in love. Up the open-minded and up the open-hearted."
Following the support slot for IDLES' recent sold out tour, the band have released a second video from the collection, for the brooding "Little John Waynes".
"The track is a crazed, furious offering, threatening to fall apart at the seams and being all the more thrilling for it." - DIY
Further info on LICE and the release:
Drawing sounds and aesthetics from an abrasive clutch of early-eighties post-punk groups (particularly The Fall, The Pop Group and The Birthday Party), together with elements of noise-rock and warped country & western, IAWOG is a sharp, provocative and unpredictable monument to the burgeoning age of misanthropy. With a fevered imagination, it returns again and again to the palette of human hatred: misogyny, racism, and (most prominently) the hatred we direct at ourselves, both as flawed members of a parasitic race and as products of a destructive empire.
Through dramatic monologues, darkly-humorous short stories and bizarre characters, the lyrics are designed to confront listeners with their own hateful biases, impulses and vices; the instrumentation around them churns with spindly, searing guitar-work, progressive rhythms and thunderous basslines. The songs were all originally written in 2016, with early versions of four having appeared on NUTMILK: The Basement Demos; over two years and two recording sessions, they have been changed, honed and finally completed. With this release, LICE finally cements and seals-up a moment in their sound with a declarative final scream, as they prepare to explore new sounds, aesthetics and subjects.
This is reflected in the artwork for the two covers. The Vol.1 cover depicts the one-armed farmer from 'Stammering Bill' (created in the likeness of the cowboy from 'The Human Parasite' single cover) stood in the band's former basement practice space, where the songs were written and (in some cases) originally recorded for NUTMILK. The Vol.2 cover depicts the horse from the NUTMILK cover lying dead on the floor of The Malthouse Studio, where the songs were honed and completed. With this double EP, these songs and the other releases that came out this moment in the band's sound are finally 'finished off', as the group prepare for the next chapter.
Volume 1 opens with lead single 'Stammering Bill'; over rolling toms peppered with blasts of industrial noise, the song is comprised of three tragicomic short stories in which a character has their life destroyed by a different neurotic obsession. 'Voyeur Picture Salesman' is a warping of
George Formby's 'When I'm Cleaning Windows' in which a window cleaner sells photographs he has taken on his round of unsuspecting women, leading to clashes with a distressed client and a rival photographer. The subdued, lounge-esque 'Ted's Dead' (featuring a cornet solo from local no-wave jazz hero Iceman Furniss), tells the story of a recent divorcee who- after being diagnosed terminally ill- murders his ex-wife in what he believes to be his final weeks alive; when he turns out to have been misdiagnosed, he is caught and sent to live out the entirety of his life in prison. 'Love Your Island' is a monologue attacking English people as governed by complacency, fear and hostility; the English are painted as an innately-destructive race of liars, resorting to cruel, cynical humour to disguise their failure to produce an authentic culture of their own. In this, LICE reflect on national guilt, but also self-deprecatingly hint at how these flaws have found their place in this record; it could not have been made by perfect people, and does not expect any to be listening.
The band play two of their own headline launch shows in Bristol & London in support of the release:
Tour dates:
May 24th Bristol Loco Klub
May 25th London Sebright Arms
