Brooklyn, NY’s Big Ups have shared the stream for their anticipated new album, Two Parts Together. Noisey, who premiered the stream today is saying “Two Parts Together is the Brooklyn band’s most streamlined batch of songs and their most transparent… offering sharp, observational humor as loud as possible.” Two Parts Together is available for pre-order now and due out on May 18th via Exploding In Sound.
Additionally, Big Ups have expanded their US summer tour, are touring Europe this spring and playing a record release show at Brooklyn’s Secret Project Robot this week. 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
5/31 – Ljubljana, SI @ Gala Hala
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
6/9 – Hilvarenbeek, NL @ Best Kept Secret
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
8/8 – Buffalo, NY @ Deep Space 8 ~
8/9 – Detroit, MI @ Marble Bar ~
8/10 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen ~
8/12 – Nashville, TN @ The East Room ~
8/13 – Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight
8/14 – Charlottesville, VA @ TwistedBrand Tea Bazaar ~
8/15 – Baltimore, MD @ EMP Collective ~
^ Record Release Show w/ LVL UP, Human People and Water From Your Eyes
* w/ Melkbelly
~ w/ Maneka
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
Twitter @wearebigups | Instagram @wearebigups
