Hello there!
Brilliant news…
Oakland, CA’s No Babies are back in
business with a brand new album entitled ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’. Upset The
Rhythm will be releasing the LP next month on March 9th on red/blue
marbled vinyl. ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ follows on from the band’s 2011 debut
and its fleet of successive empowering/imploding 7”s. Here’s an exclusive track
to check out called ‘The Weight’, featuring Victoria M. Ruiz (of Downtown Boys)
on backing vocals.
"Oakland, CA’s No Babies return with their second
LP, another furiously ecstatic exploration of the overlapping margins of punk,
hardcore, and no wave. The pieces we’ve come to expect are all here: Jasmine
Watson’s invectives against capitalism, binaries, police; Ricky Martyr’s
inimitable and always surprising stop-start guitar; horns of all stripes
breaking through the noise (Misha Poleschuck on tenor sax, clarinet); a nimble
and powerful jazz-influenced rhythm section (Laura DeVeber on bass, Sean Nieves
on drums). Their particular brand of composed/improvised noise/music has never
been chaos at all (they’ve always known exactly what they’re doing), and this
time around the band seems more at one than ever, aided by the crispness and
brightness of Jack Shirley’s able production. These are walls of sound,
something like a runaway train, or a writhing sea serpent, and we are along for
the ride. This is music that feels necessary. These are songs that sound vital
to survival. We must play them or we will explode. We must play them in
order to explode. California in 2018 is a place that feels difficult to
survive in. Our friends and neighbours are murdered by the state and its
negligence; our homes could crumble or be stolen from us at a moment’s notice;
capital is bearing down in new and even more unimaginably cruel ways. The land
itself is telling us that we shouldn’t be here: fire, mudslides, earthquakes. ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ is a
reminder of the twin powers of sorrow and strength, noise and melody, anger and
joy. “Joy / Joy / Joy / Joy / Joy / Joy / Joy / Joy” Watson screams at the end
of the album-closing titular song. Joy may be the only way out of this fresh
hell—No Babies make joyful noise and for that we should all be grateful."
- Grace Ambrose
‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ is released through Upset
The Rhythm on March 9th, available on 180g blue/red marbled vinyl and
digitally. ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ follows on from the band’s debut LP of
2011 and its successive fleet of empowering/impoding 7”s and EPs. Victoria M.
Ruiz (of Downtown Boys) provides backup vocals on ‘The Weight’ and
‘Internalized’, whilst ‘Hazia’ features a quote from Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The
Farthest Shore’.
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