BULLY DEBUTS MUSIC VIDEO FOR “RUNNING” SOPHOMORE ALBUM LOSING OUT NOW ON SUB POP
Bully released their sophomore album, Losing via Sub Pop Records this past fall to critical acclaim with UPROXX naming it one of the best rock albums of 2017. Today, they are debuting their new music video for single “Running.” The video, which was shot in Nashville and directed by Alan Del Rio Ortiz, is a stylized take on early 90’s videos. Without being too on the nose, the imagery explores how we run away from our feelings and how the media portrays millennials and youth.
Bully has been on the road all non-stop since the release of Losing, playing to packed rooms across North America. The band will play three hometown shows at Nashville’s Mercy Lounge before taking a short break and embarking on a UK tour this Spring, with an extension of their US dates announced as well. A full rundown can be found below.
Losing was recorded in Chicago at Electrical Audio, recorded and engineered by lead-singer Alicia Bognanno and is available for purchase here. Losing is the follow up to Bully’s critically acclaimed debut Feels Like. Bully is made up of founding members Reece Lazarus, Clayton Parker and Bognanno.
“The bass hops around nervously in nearly constant eighth notes, with drums syncopated against it à la the Police; a guitar on the left offers a neat new-wave hook while another one on the right grumbles occasionally with dissonant, distorted squawks. And as those tensions flare into multiple little crescendos, the singer Alicia Bognanno gets herself more and more worked up.” –New York Times
“Instead of recreating the Rorschach blot scream-a-thons of the ’90s, Bully choose to inflate that decade’s raw timbre with words that feel intimate and necessary.”
-Pitchfork
“Alicia Bognanno has the loveliest snarl this side of Nirvana’s Live at Reading. That it’s in a pop-punk setting, with lyrics reckoning with adulthood, only strengthens its power.” –New York Magazine
“full of tough-earned wisdom and egalitarian rage, Losing is a high-energy, high-impact emotional workout for everyone involved.” –Wired
“Expect lots more of Bognanno’s sharp, cynical emotional insights and impassioned yells, all backed by Bully’s gnawing, ’90s-inspired sound.” -SPIN
“The record once again faces down youthful angst, but with a notable growth in Bognanno’s maturity” –Consequence of Sound
“Alicia Bognanno has a way of channeling her inner struggles into tightly-constructed and toiled-over rock songs with a classic touch.” –Stereogum
“Losing is another blast of raw, Singles-era guitar rock that captures what made the debut so appealing.” Under the Radar
“Bognanno explores a lot of loss, diving headfirst into the complicated emotions associated with death, heartbreak, isolation and more. The result is an especially personal effort, a batch of songs that are blistering and angst-ridden, but which still boast a wink toward playful pop. Bognanno’s not wrong when she says it tops Feels Like.” –Nashville Scene
Tour Dates:
12/13/17 – Terminal West – Atlanta GA
12/14/17 – Mercy Lounge – Nashville TN
12/15/17 – Mercy Lounge – Nashville TN SOLD OUT
12/16/17 – Mercy Lounge – Nashville, TN
2/16/18 – The Opolis – Norman, OK
2/17/18 – Meow Wolf – Santa Fe, NM
2/18/18 – Valley Bar – Phoenix, AZ
2/24/18 – Hi-Fi Music Lounge – Eugene, OR
2/26/18 – Biltmore Cabaret – Vancouver, BC
2/28/18 – Neumos – Seattle, WA
3/1/18 – The Bartlett – Spokane, WA
3/2/18 – Neurolux – Boise, ID
3/3/18 – Kilby Court – Salt Lake City, UT
3/5/18 – Denver CO – Larimer Lounge
3/6/18 – Kansas City MO – Record Bar
4/24/18 – The Open Chord – Knoxville, TN
4/25/18 – Musica – Akron, OH
4/26/18 – Ace of Cups – Columbus, OH
4/27/18 – The Woodward Theater – Cincinnati, OH
4/28/18 – Snug Harbor – Charlotte, NC
5/9/18 – The Sunflower Lounge – Birmingham, UK
5/10/18 – Picture House Social- Sheffield, UK
5/11/18 – Buyers Club – Liverpool, UK
5/14/18 – The Cookie – Leicester, UK
5/15/18 – The Portland Arms – Cambridge, UK
5/20/18 – Gold Sounds – Leeds, UK
5/21/18 – Hug and Pint – Glasgow, UK
5/22/18 – Sneaky Pete’s – Edinburgh, UK
5/24/18 – Think Tank? – Newcastle, UK
5/29/18 – The Boileroom – Guildford, UK
5/30/18 – The Moth Club – London, UK
BULLY – LOSING
BY PATTY SCHEMEL
In rock – as in life – change is unavoidable, often painful, but ultimately necessary, and Alicia Bognanno and her band Bully have dealt with a lot of it since their debut record
Feels Like hit in 2015. Now with a new label and another couple years worth of life experience, the 12 new songs on Losing feel like perfect anthems for a generation still learning to harness the power of resistance. With a vocal style that is as pretty as it is powerful, and emotionally resonant lyrics, Alicia channels the loss of innocence and reveals a raw honesty in songs that are distinctly hers.
I love Bully the way I love Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr and the Breeders. Their sound takes me back to the stripped down and thoughtfully engineered songs that haunt me long after they’re gone and never get old. Another good reason to be with Sub Pop, who have always been associated with music that is built to last.
I feel like all my best work has been born of heartbreak and upheaval; maybe most musicians feel that way. “The title of the record –Losing – kind of says it all,” Alicia says. “After being on the road so long and coming back to Nashville we all had a lot of changes going on in our personal lives that we were trying to deal with / adjust to and that was really the motivation for this one.”
“Feel the Same” is about being stuck in the claustrophobia of a manic state of mind. It’s Alicia’s favorite song to scream. “Seeing It,” she says, is about the unique anxiety and vigilance about personal safety that comes with being a woman: “Such a blurring place to be / stuck in your own body.” Lately Alicia has been lending her voice as an advocate for gun control, women’s rights and speaking out in support of animal rights. In some ways my generation were in a bubble in the 90s; I never gave any thought to what Bill Clinton was up to, for instance – but in 2017, Losing sounds like a personal and necessary call to arms to me; we need rock n roll now more than ever.
