BRISBANE’S FINEST THRASH PARTY BAND ANNOUNCE SECOND LP ‘BLACK RAT’ AND REVEAL NEW SINGLE ‘GINA WORKS AT HEARTS’ + ANNOUNCE US & UK TOURING DATES
It’s never easy to write a second record, it’s even harder to write a second record when your first received critical acclaim from tastemakers such as Pitchfork, Zane Lowe, and NME etc, and also won you an ARIA. This is the task that DZ Deathrays have spent the last 18 months battling, tinkering and honing their craft until things were just as they should be. With that in mind, today it is with great pleasure that we announce DZ Deathrays will be releasing their highly anticipated sophomore LP ‘Black Rat’ on the 2nd of May, 2014 + also reveal the visceral single ‘Gina Works At Hearts’.
After touring the world circuit constantly for 2 years (with acts like Foo Fighters, Crystal Castles, Ratatat, Sleigh Bells + festivals such as Reading & Leeds, The Great Escape, Laneway Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Big Day Out etc), in early 2013 Shane Parsons and Simon Ridley decided to bunker down in the remote location of Yass in country NSW to begin writing DZ Deathrays’ second record. As ideas began to flow the duo left Yass, however continued to write and push the boundaries of their sound over the year, tracking demos in a friend’s Brisbane nightclub during the day. Once comfortable with the collection of songs they had drummed up, the band entered The Grove studio with producer Burke Reid (of Gerling – credits include MSTRKRFT, The Drones, Seekae, The Mess Hall) for six weeks, during which they completely pulled apart the tracks, reassembled them, tracked them in the early hours of the morning and mixed them in the very depths of the night. “It was intense, but great,” recalls Shane. “We’d come up with stuff at 3.30 in the morning that we wouldn’t have thought of otherwise; we’d be a bit delirious and that helped us let our guard down.”
What the band surfaced with after 16hr days over those six weeks, is 11 tracks and 39 minutes of music that makes up ‘Black Rat’, an album remaining true to all of the best parts of DZ Deathrays while also showcasing a truly amazing progression in the band’s sound.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/Hzs-de_SztQ[/youtube]With the above exciting announcement, we’re also happy to reveal the next single to be taken from ‘Black Rat’ (the first being ‘Northern Lights’ which received praise from sources such as BBC1, Spin Magazine, NME, The Fly, XFM, Triple J, Entertainment Weekly LA) in the form of an absolute screamer called ‘Gina Works At Hearts’, which will have fans hooked from the very opening riff as it barrels through your speakers and kicks you squarely in the stomach. Based around the seedy strip clubs of LA, Parsons takes listeners on a ferocious journey through the streets of LA, while Ridley supplies a driving backbone for the trip around West Hollywood.
With this news now revealed to the word, DZ Deathrays will be heading to SXSW and then on to the UK where they will be supporting Blood Red Shoes in front of packed out rooms. For all the info – head to www.dzdeathrays.com
Perhaps a little more on OZ touring soon…
Wanting bigger, badder and better, DZ Deathrays have definitely delivered. Black Rat — aptly named for the scurrying ghosts of nights past — is not only bigger, badder and better, it’s also the sound of a band finding themselves comfortable with the darkness, and deciding to go deeper. That’s where the best parties happen.
“It’s definitely a nighttime record,” Shane figures. “After 9pm; that’s where it finds its place.”
Fans can pre-order ‘Black Rat’ now from www.dzdeathrays.com
‘GINA WORKS AT HEARTS’ IS AVAILABLE VIA ITUNES NOW – TAKEN FROM DZ DEATHRAYS’ SOPHOMORE LP ‘BLACK RAT’, OUT MAY 2, 2014 THROUGH I OH YOU