Photo Credit: Montana Elliot
Brooklyn, NY’s Big Ups have shared a video for “Fear,” the latest from their new album, Two Parts Together. Stereogum, who premiered the video comprised of live footage today are saying “no one does cathartic quite like Big Ups; their tension-filled songs tend to build menacingly until they combust into razor-sharp riffs and erratic vocals.” Two Parts Together is available for pre-order now and due out on May 18th via Exploding In Sound.
Of the song and video, singer Joe Galarraga says: “A lot of this album focuses on liminality and takes place in liminal spaces. ‘Fear’ talks about the unknown and turns it into anxiety – dealing with uncertainties before going to sleep and the difficulty of navigating a new day when confronted with the harshness of reality. This was an interesting song to write because the second verse mirrors the first in such a way that attempts to make the anxieties of the morning and night indistinguishable. The video for ‘Fear’ was pieced together by Brendan using clips he found on YouTube, as well as videos that all of us have taken of our shows and tours over the years. Some of the video dates back as early as 2010; there is footage from our very first show included! It was a fun way to catalog and highlight some of our favorite shows, venues, tours, videographers, and memories, and we hope others can enjoy it, too.”
Additionally, Big Ups have announced a west coast summer tour, a record release show at Brooklyn’s Secret Project Robot and a late spring tour in Europe. All dates below.
TOUR DATES:
5/17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Secret Project Robot ^
5/23 – Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang
5/24 – Dresden, DE @ Groovestation
5/25 – Berlin, DE @ Urban Spree
5/27 – Krakow, PL @ Green Zoo Festival
5/29 – Prague, CZ @ Underdogs Ballroom *
5/30 – Budapest, HU @ Dürer Kert
6/2 – Amsterdam, NL @ CineTol
6/3 – Utrecht, NL @ Culturele Zondagen
6/3 – Rotterdam, NL @ V11
6/4 – Groningen, NL @ Vera
6/5 – Brussels, BE @ Magasin 4
6/7 – Paris, FR @ The Olympic Cafe
6/8 – Poiters, FR @ Conforte Moderne
6/10 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social CLub
6/11 – Newport, UK @ Le Pub
6/13 – Brighton, UK @ The Green Door Store
6/14 – London, UK @ Birthdays
7/11 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
7/12 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Smell
7/13 – Tijuana, MX @ Moustache Bar
7/15 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
7/16 – Arcata, CA @ Outer Space
7/18 – Portland, OR @ Black Water
7/19 – Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project
7/20 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux
7/21 – Reno, NV @ The Holland Project
^ Record Release Show w/ LVL UP, Human People and Water From Your Eyes
* w/ Melkbelly
ABOUT BIG UPS:
On May 18th, 2018, Brooklyn’s Big Ups return with their third full-length via Exploding in Sound Records. After forming eight years ago, the band comprised of Brendan Finn (drums), Joe Galarraga (vocals), Amar Lal (guitar), and Carlos Salguero Jr. (bass) continue to tackle dualities in the aptly named Two Parts Together. If 2014’s Eighteen Hours of Static was a brash screed about faith versus science, and 2016’s Before A Million Universes an introspective look at the individual against society, then Two Parts Together lies in the liminal, attempting to make sense of unknowable and basking in uncertainty.
The album’s title track finds vocalist Galarraga searching for meaning in ritual through the examples of a wedding and a funeral. “I just wanted to feel/just how it would be,” he states, hoping for some sort of self-discovery through these human institutions. This emotional inquisition is echoed throughout the album, often in opposition to the omnipresent “lake” mentioned in several songs. What rests below its surface, or bubbles up from the bottom? Throughout Two Parts Together, Big Ups wrestles with the power of mystery both tangibly and metaphysically.
And the band does so often through its signature dynamics. Lal’s biting guitar work is bolstered by Finn’s crashing and Salguero’s booming, and together they can tightly settle into a lull. But Big Ups is not simply employing its old tricks; Two Parts Together sees the quartet utilizing the studio more than ever. Their normal sonic palette has been supplemented with additional strings, harmonium, field recordings, piano, and more. The album is paced through thoughtful instrumentals and interludes, as if to offer the listener a breath of fresh air or – perhaps – a walk around the lake.
BIG UPS
TWO PARTS TOGETHER
EXPLODING IN SOUND
MAY 18, 2018
1. Two Parts Together
2. In The Shade
3. Trying To Love
4. PPP
5. Tenmile
6. Fear
7. Tell Them
8. Imaginary Dog Walker
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