Dry Cleaning Announce New Single, New London Shows

Dry Cleaning share a new single/video, ‘No Decent Shoes for Rain’ from their upcoming album, Stumpwork, out 21 October. Following the recently released ‘Gary Ashby’, the group take a more sombre turn on ‘No Decent Shoes for Rain’. It begins with Florence Shaw’s vocals coiled tightly over woozy guitar and minimal percussion: “my poor heart is breaking.” Shaw says about the track, “’No Decent Shoes for Rain’ is inspired by grief; grief over past relationships, grief for loved ones who have died, and all the things that come with that; loneliness, numbness, yearning, ruminating about the past.” It shows Dry Cleaning in a more pared back state, not seen in their previous discography. The video is made of footage of the band in the studio at Rockfield and on tour.

Check out ‘No Decent Shoes for Rain’ HERE or watch the official video in the player below. 

To celebrate Stumpwork, Dry Cleaning will play two intimate London shows during release week. The band will kick off with a homecoming gig at Peckham Audio on the eve of Stumpwork’s launch, followed by a Banquet outstore at Kingston’s Pryzm on 25 October. For ticket information head to the band’s website. The quartet’s worldwide headline tour can be found below. 

Stumpwork was made in the aftermath of the death of two very important people to the band; bassist Lewis Maynard’s mother, and guitarist Tom Dowse’s grandfather. Both were instrumental in the band’s development, both in encouragement and, in the case of Maynard’s mother, literally providing the band with a place to rehearse. Shaw’s lyrics explore not only loss and detachment but all the twists and turns, simple joys and minor gripes of human experience too. Ultimately, what emerges from it all is a subtle but assertive optimism, and a lesson in the value of curiosity. Stumpwork is a heady mix that is entirely the band’s own, distinguishing it from anything produced by their contemporaries.

Stumpwork, the follow-up to 2021 debut New Long Leg will be released on 21 October and includes the singles ‘Don’t Press Me’, ‘Anna Calls From The Arctic’ and ‘Gary Ashby’. Stumpwork will be available digitally and on CD, cassette, standard white vinyl and limited-edition black eco vinyl. For more information and to pre-order, head to drycleaning.ffm.to/stumpwork. A transparent vinyl edition of Stumpwork, hand-numbered to order and limited to 1,500 copies, is available from the Blood Records website.

DRY CLEANING TOUR DATES
2022
20 October – LONDON, UK, Peckham Audio
25 October – KINGSTON, UK, Pryzm (Banquet Outstore)
8 November – PARIS, FRANCE, Le Trabendo
9 November – COLOGNE, GERMANY, Club Volta
11 November – UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS, Le Guess Who? Festival
12 November – KORTRIJK, BELGIUM, Sonic City
30 November – TOKYO, JAPAN, Liquid Room
1 December – OSAKA, JAPAN, Club Quattro
6 December – AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, The Tuning Fork
7 December – WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, San Fran
9 December – BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, The Brightside
10 December – MEREDITH, AUSTRALIA, Meredith Festival
12 December – MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, The Corner Hotel
13 December – MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, The Corner Hotel
14 December – SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, Manning Bar
16 December – PERTH, AUSTRALIA, Rosemount Hotel

2023
10 January – MONTREAL, CANADA, La Tulipe
11 January – TORONTO, CANADA, Phoenix
13 January – CHICAGO, IL, USA, Thalia Hall
14 January – MINNEAPOLIS, MN, USA, Fine Line
17 January – VANCOUVER, CANADA, Rickshaw
18 January – SEATTLE, WA, USA, Neptune
19 January – PORTLAND, OR, USA, Crystal Ballroom
21 January – SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, August Hall
22 January – LOS ANGELES, CA, USA, The Belasco
23 January – PHOENIX, AZ, USA, Crescent Ballroom
24 January – TUCSON, AZ, USA, Congress Plaza
26 January – DALLAS, TX, USA, Texas Theatre
27 January – AUSTIN, TX, USA, Mohawk
28 January – NEW ORLEANS, LA, USA, Toulouse Theatre
29 January – ATLANTA, GA, USA, Terminal West
31 January – WASHINGTON, DC, USA, The Howard West
1 February – PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA, Union Transfer
2 February – BROOKLYN, NY, USA, Pioneer Works
14 February – DUBLIN, IRELAND, Vicar Street
15 February – BELFAST, UK, Mandela Hall
17 February – GLASGOW, UK, Barrowlands
18 February – LEEDS, UK, O2 Academy
20 February – LIVERPOOL, UK, Invisible Wind Factory
21 February – NOTTINGHAM, UK, Rock City
22 February – SHEFFIELD, UK, O2 Academy
24 February – MANCHESTER, UK, Albert Hall
25 February – BIRMINGHAM, UK, O2 Institute
26 February – BRISTOL, UK, O2 Academy
28 February – CARDIFF, UK, Tramshed
1 March – BRIGHTON, UK, Chalk
3 March – LONDON, UK, O2 Brixton Academy
13 March – COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, VEGA
15 March – STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, Debaser Strand
16 March – OSLO, NORWAY, Parkteatret
18 March – HAMBURG, GERMANY, Knust
19 March – GRONINGEN, NETHERLANDS, Vera
20 March – AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, Paradiso
22 March – OFFENBACH, GERMANY, Hafen2
23 March – MUNICH, GERMANY, Strom
24 March – VIENNA, AUSTRIA, Flex
25 March – PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, Futurum
27 March – WARSAW, POLAND, Hybrydy
28 March – LEIPZIG, GERMANY, UT Connewitz
29 March – BERLIN, GERMANY, Festsaal Kreuzberg
31 March – ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, Maassilo
1 April – ANTWERP, BELGIUM, Trix

ABOUT STUMPWORK
Having already started writing their second record before New Long Leg was released, Nick Buxton, Tom Dowse, Lewis Maynard and Florence Shaw returned to Rockfield Studios with producer John Parish with the plan to spend twice as much time on the follow-up. Vocalist Shaw demonstrated increased spontaneity in the studio, improvising many of her lyrics straight on to the album. The lyrics are almost entirely observational. There is one quote from the artist Maggi Hambling on the woozy title track, text from an old Macintosh computer virus on ‘Don’t Press Me’, and snippets from the press cuttings library of archivist Edda Tasiemka scattered throughout, but the use of ‘found lyrics’ employed in the band’s early years is now far in the past. “I wrote about the things that preoccupied me over this period, like loss, masculinity, feminism, my mum, being separated from my partner for little stretches in the lockdown, lust,” she continues, preoccupations from which wider political and social commentary emerges. “I think if you make something observational, which I think I do, it’s political,” Shaw says. “There were two murders of women in London that were extensively covered on the news, and the specific details of one of those murders were reported on whilst we were at Rockfield. That coverage influenced some of my writing and my state of mind.” The band’s instrumentation, too, may well reflect our increasingly bleak socio-political landscape, the way it can pick up intense and urgent momentum, or zone out into icy detachment.

Stumpwork was made in the aftermath of the death of two very important people to the band as well, bassist Lewis Maynard’s mother, and guitarist Tom Dowse’s grandfather. Both were instrumental in the band’s development, in encouragement and, in the case of Maynard’s mother, literally providing the band with a place to rehearse. “It’s of course devastating to lose close family members but their legacy in Dry Cleaning is wholly positive,” says Dowse. “The moments in the songs which are upbeat and joyful made me think of them both the most.”

The breadth of influences on Stumpwork is dizzying, a definitive rebuke to those who might reduce Dry Cleaning as a post-punk band. Their music is bolder and more expansive, Shaw’s lyrics explore not only loss and detachment but all the twists and turns, simple joys and minor gripes of human experience too. Ultimately, what emerges from it all is a subtle but assertive optimism, and a lesson in the value of curiosity. As Shaw sings on ‘Kwenchy Kups’, “Things are shit, but they’re gonna be OK.”

DRY CLEANING ONLINE
Official Site | Merch Store | Bandcamp
@DryCleaningBand