Upchuck release new single "Tired" ahead of forthcoming Ty Segall produced album

Upchuck

Release new single “Tired” – stream here
Taken from forthcoming new album I'm Nice Now out Oct 3rd - produced by Ty Segall
Touring UK November including Pitchfork London and Simple Things

“Absolute mayhem… like punk Beastie Boys” NPR
“A sonic cannon, set to maximum destruction” Rolling Stone
“The band’s incendiary live shows are already the stuff of legend” Clash
 
Today Atlanta’s Upchuck - vocalist KT, guitarists Mikey Durham and Hoff, bassist Ausar Ward, and drummer/vocalist Chris Salado - share their newest single “Tired,” the ferocious opening track of their forthcoming new album I’m Nice Now (due out October 3rd). The track finds KT desperately trying to keep her feelings of hopelessness at bay. Alongside a thunderous beat and scalding guitar riffs, she confronts the constant spectacle of social injustice that has become a daily drudgery for her generation: “How many times I gotta tell ‘em that our pockets cryin’?... How many people you gon’ lie to and say you’re not lyin’?” Her vicious vocal performance spirals over and over like the endless depressing news cycle, but it’s not a signal of defeat; it’s a sharp critique, maybe even a threat, to the powers that be: “And I’m tired of the darker news / And I’ve tried warning you / It feels right scaring you.”
 
Stream “Tired” here.
Watch the visualiser for “Tired” here.
 
I’m Nice Now was produced and mixed by Ty Segall at Sonic Ranch Studio and mastered by Heba Kadry and includes the previously released singles “Plastic,” “Forgotten Token,” and “Un Momento.” The album is available to pre-order on limited-edition Silver vinyl, standard Black vinyl, CD and digitally. All physical formats come with a foldout poster. Pre-order here: DomMart | Digital
 
Following two searing performances at Green Man Festival as well as two London shows earlier this month, Upchuck will head out on a headline tour in the States in September before returning to the UK & Europe in November.
 
More on I'm Nice Now:
 
As KT puts it, there’s never been a moment when she didn’t have rage. As the singer of Upchuck, the Georgia punk band whose music is as sharp as a scythe, KT has felt fierce energy inside her well before she had the band as an outlet through which to channel it. As a Black woman in America, rage has been the tint on the window through which she’s had to view the world. The experience of listening to Upchuck – KT plus drummer/vocalist Chris Salgado, guitarists Mikey Durham and Hoff, and bassist Ausar Ward - is to feel a distillation of that existence, all of its pain, sorrow, anger, and fear translated through raw punk music.
 
Upchuck’s Domino debut is I’m Nice Now. But don’t mistake newfound niceness for weakness. It’s self-preservation. “In this world of constant distractions and stressors it’s important to keep your mind, body, and spirit sane and sound enough to continue through this seemingly never-ending fight,” she says. “Being a POC, by default, you’re gonna have that rage." But she hits a note of optimism, too, if a wry one. “You're gonna have that desire for change, and that desire for the fuckery to end.” With I’m Nice Now, Upchuck channels their feverishness into an album that, yes, is filled with rage. But in addition to being a continuation of their musical exorcism, the album delivers a sharp critique of the powers that be, lamenting why they still have to be those in power.
 
The album was recorded at Sonic Ranch Studio, a residential studio in the desert in Texas, with Ty Segall as producer. The band was influenced heavily by the Stooges and, after becoming so tight from the road, recorded live to tape. There are minimal overdubs. They kept it going until they got it as right as it needed to be. Also adding vocals on the spot was the band’s drummer Chris, who the band encouraged to write lyrics in his native Spanish and duet with KT on a couple songs, something he’d not done before on an album. He aimed to blend the sound of the cumbia music he was raised on with Upchuck’s traditional punk to fuse something unique. 
 
To upchuck is a violent act, but it’s one of rejection of a foreign body. It’s about autonomy. It’s about negation, about a refusal to be subjugated. Upchuck is the right name for this band, all of whose members have freedom on their minds in the nascent days of the second Trump administration. “We can't just keep letting these people control us,” Chris says. “We need freedom.” So, of course the music has rage in it. But that rage was given to them, a side effect of racism, sexism, classism baked into the American way. Rage is an unwanted birthright. They don’t want that rage. So they are getting it out in the songs. “Now, I feel like I can take a breath in a way, but it's the same dirty air,” KT says. “But at least I can breathe.” They’re nice now. Nice because they were able to do this band, to make this album. The songs are working. Yeah, without that outlet, they weren’t nice before. But who can blame them?
 
Upcoming live dates
Thurs 28th – Fri 30th August - Muddy Roots Festival, Cookeville, TN

Fri 26th September – Palmer Events Center, Austin, TX
Sun 28th September - Levitation, Austin, TX
Mon 29th September - Ruins, Dallas, TX
 
Wed 1st October - Launchpad, Alburquerque, NM
Thurs 2nd October - The Underground (Nile), Mesa, AZ
Fri 3rd October - The Whistle Stop, San Diego, CA
Sat 4th October - Sardine, San Pedro, CA
Sun 5th October - The Echo, Los Angeles, CA
Mon 6th October - Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco, CA
Wed 8th October - Star Theater, Portland, OR
Thurs 9th October - Black Lodge, Seattle, WA
Fri 10th October - Shrine Social Club Basement, Boise, ID
Sat 11th October - The DLC at Quarters, Salt Lake City, UT
Mon 13th October - Moe’s Original BBQ & Bowl, Denver, CO
Wed 15th October - Subterranean, Chicago, IL
Thurs 16th October - Third Man Records, Detroit, MI
Fri 17th October - Bottlerocket Social Hall, Pittsburgh, PA
Sat 18th October - Elsewhere (Zone One), Brooklyn, NY
Mon 20th October - Foto Club, Philadelphia, PA
Tues 21st October - DC9, Washington, DC
Wed 22nd October - Static Age, Asheville, NC
Fri 31st October - Goat Farm, Atlanta, GA

Tues 4th November - Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, UK
Weds 5th November - Pitchfork Festival @ Village Underground, London, UK
Thurs 6th November - Wharf Chambers, Leeds, UK
Sat 8th November - Simple Things Festival, Bristol, UK
Sun 9th November - YES, Manchester, UK
Tues 11th November - Brussels Botanique, Brussels, BE
Wed 12th November - Point Ephemere, Paris, FR
Thurs 13th November - Skate Cafe, Amsterdam, NL
Fri 14th November - Hafenklang, Hamburg, DE
Sat 15th November - Copenhagen Loppen, Copenhagen, DK
Sun 16th November - Berghain Kantine, Berlin, DE
Tues 18th November - Bumann & Sohn, Cologne, DE
Wed 19th November - Bad Bon, Dudingen, CH
 
Upchuck Online:
Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube