Iceage release new album ‘Beyondless’, Scala show – Tuesday, May 8th
ICEAGE RELEASE NEW ALBUM BEYONDLESS,
LISTEN HERE
LONDON HEADLINE SHOW @ SCALA – MAY 8TH
+ AUTUMN UK, EUROPEAN AND FESTIVAL DATES
Praise for Beyondless:
“… an album that shows just how ambitious, fresh and vital-sounding guitar music can still be” – Q ****
“The young Danes bolster their usual post-punk party with parping horns, Stonesy swagger and even woozy New Orleans blues: the retool suits them” – The Guardian ****
“… unhinged, but poetic, assured, direct and deviously loveable” – NME ****
“…may turn out to be their masterpiece” – i-D
“Iceage continue to be one of the most exciting bands in music” – The Skinny *****
“Beautiful, emotional, and cinematic” – DIY ****
“… it fucking swaggers” – Loud & Quiet (8/10, ‘Album Of The Month’)
“Beyondless’ is both unhinged and anthemic” – Crack
“Once precocious Danish punk sensations hit their stride” – Uncut (8/10)
“… their finest work to date” – The Quietus
“Beyondless is a giant album, its sonic scope looming tall above the band’s previous releases” – Noisey
Photo Credit: Kristian Emdal
Iceage today release their fourth album Beyondless, which is available to listen to HERE. Marking the release, the band will play a headline show at Scala in London on May 8. Having recently expanded into a six-piece live, with the addition of a violinist and saxophonist, the date will be the first UK unveiling of the immersive and cinematic latest incarnation of this ever-exploratory group.
Previewed by singles ‘Catch It’ (Pitchfork ‘Best New Music’), ‘Pain Killer’ feat. Sky Ferreira (“They’ve finally sold out, and it’s marvellous” – Guardian Guide), ‘Take It All’, and ‘The day the music dies’, with its sauna and Masonic Temple-visiting video, Beyondless is the culmination of Iceage’s output so far, finding a knowing yet untamed band creating the most thoughtful, dramatic and visceral music out there. It boasts an earthy and hypnotic sound that pays tribute to American music, from country honk brawls to sleazy soul revues to cocaine blues. Echoes of The Waterboys to Exile-period Stones to John Cale are laced with a ubiquitous air of ecstatic abandon and channelled via masterful songwriting. Throughout their career, the band’s charm has rested in their running ahead of themselves with blind confidence; on Beyondless, they are treading with a disarming assurance, but no loss of charm.
Iceage continue to North America for a seven-week tour beginning May 10th, and will return for further UK, European and festival tour dates for Autumn 2018. All dates can be found below.
Read Richard Hell’s essay on Beyondless below.
THE NEW ICEAGE
by Richard Hell
I can totally imagine myself as a kid lying in my closed-door room in the dark, listening to this band and getting what I need, the way a band can make a person feel seen and bring confidence, sometimes even represent an ideal. Or maybe I’m already all defiant and self-certain, and I identify with Iceage because they are too, and they’re who I want to represent me in music. It’s a weird combination of qualities that a rock and roll band and their recordings presents to their young crowd, imparts to them. The music being pure emotion, the strong emotions of youth—anger, sadness, contempt, longing—as well as energy and sex, and the band’s demonstration that it gracefully owns and provides those things, consoling their followers in all the confusion.
What is it that Iceage in particular brings? A large number of extraordinary things. (Poetry! But more about that later.) The band members were childhood friends, which is always good news. They’re like a small urban gang, faithful to each other, suspicious of outsiders (of which music journalists like me are the most suspect examples). At the same time, they seem mature and competent, which is almost too much to hope for. They not only play and compose well, but the production of their records, from the very beginning, and at the music’s most chaotic, is impeccable. Their presentation is as hardcore anarchic as any, but much better played, mixed, and recorded than most.
And then there’s the poetry and the intelligence. The members of Iceage are not only smart but hyper literate. Interviews with E. Rønnenfelt, the lead singer and lyricist of the band, find him mentioning Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter; Georges Bataille, Story of the Eye; Peter Shaffer’s Equus; Mishima, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea; Genet’s Thief’s Journal and Miracle of the Rose; The Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau; Henry Miller on Writing; and James Agee’s A Death in the Family, and that’s in a total of four interviews. It’s not that he flaunts it; he’s simply honest and naturally acknowledges it.
The lyrics of Iceage songs have the most sophisticated vocabulary I can remember finding in rock music. Here’s a favorite example, from “Pain Killer” on the new album:
Praying at the altar of your legs and feet
Your saliva is a drug so bittersweet
I’ll arrogate what’s there to take
In an evanescent embrace
…“Arrogate”??? I half know the word, but I had to look it up to be certain. It means “to claim or seize without justification.” It’s funny because its Latin root also underlies the word “arrogant,” which one might be tempted to apply to Rønnenfelt for the contempt he shows for people who try to understand him. But I sympathize. It is extremely annoying to be characterized by other people. And the shading of meaning of the word “arrogate” brings a subtlety to those lyrics of his that “take” or “seize” or “claim” wouldn’t. Frankly, though, what I really like about those lines is the concept of praying to his lover’s feet. That’s good. It makes me think of a similar instance in another poet, Charles Baudelaire, who wrote in his “Hymn to Beauty”:
Who cares if you come from paradise or hell,
appalling Beauty, artless and monstrous scourge,
if only your eyes, your smile or your foot reveal
the infinite I love and have never known?
Artwork
Track List
1. Hurrah
2. Pain Killer
3. Under the sun
5. Plead the fifth
6. Catch it
7. Thieves like us
8. Take it all
9. Showtime
10. Beyondless
Iceage Tour Dates:
Wed. May 2 – Copenhagen, DE @ Hotel Cecil (SOLD OUT)
Fri. May 4 – Berlin, DE @ Privat Club (SOLD OUT)
Sat. May 5 – Amsterdam, NE @ Bitterzoet
Sun. May 6 – Brussels, BE @ Les Nuits Botanique
Mon. May 7 – Paris, FR @ Petit Bain
Tue. May 8 – London, UK @ Scala
Thu. May 10 – Seattle, WA @ Nordic Museum
Wed. May 16 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Thu. May 17 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
Fri. May 18 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
Sat. May 19 – Richmond, VA @ The Camel
Sun. May 20 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Mon. May 21 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge
Tue. May 22 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
Wed. May 23 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
Thu. May 24 – New Orleans, LA @ Santos
Fri. May 25 – Houston, TX @ Rockefeller’s
Sat. May 26 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
Sun. May 27 – Austin, TX @ Barracuda
Tue. June 5 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah *
Wed. June 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater *
Thu. June 7 – Felton, CA @ Don Quixote’s International Music Hall *
Fri. June 8 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall *
Sat. June 9 – Sonoma, CA @ Huichica Music Festival *
Mon. June 11 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios *
Tue. June 12 – Vancouver, BC @ The Astoria *
Thu. June 14 – Spokane, WA @ The Bartlett *
Fri. June 15 – Bozeman, MT @ The Rialto *
Sat. June 16 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court *
Sun. June 17 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater *
Mon. June 18 – Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room *
Tue. June 19 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry *
Wed June 20 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club *
Fri. June 22 – Detroit, MI @ El Club *
Sat. June 23 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace *
Sun. June 24 – Ottawa, ON @ The 27 Club *
Mon. June 25 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa *
Tue. June 26 – Portsmouth, NH @ 3S Artspace *
Wed. June 27 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair *
The. June. 28 – New York, NY @ Market Hotel *
Fri. July 6 – Valle D’tria, IT @ Viva Festival
Sat. July. 7 – Kutna Hora CZ @ Creepy Teepee Festival.
Thu. July 12 – Lake Bank, HU @ Bankito Festival
Sat. July 14 – Anykščiai, LT @ Devilstone Festival
Thu. Aug. 30 – Gdansk, PL @ Sounddrive Festival
Fri. Aug. 31 – Hamburg, DE @ Off The Radar Festival
Aug 30-Sep 2 – Tollard Royal, UK @ End Of The Road Festival
Mon. Sep. 3 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare And Hounds
Tue. Sep. 4 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Thu. Sep. 6 – Glasgow, UK @ The Great Eastern
Fri. Sep. 7 – Dublin, IE @ Workmans Club
Sat. Sep. 8 – Cardiff, UK @ Clwb iFor Bach
Sun. Sep. 9 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
Mon. Sep. 10 – Brighton, UK @ The Haunt
Tue. Sep. 11 – Rotterdamn, NL @ Rotown
Wed. Sep. 12 – Cologne, DE @ Blue Shell
Thu. Sep. 13 – Heidelberg, DE @ Karlstorbahnhof
Fri. Sep. 14 – Leffinge, BE @ Leffingeleuren Festival
Sat. Sep. 15 – Berlin, DE @ Bi Nuu
Thu. Sep. 20 – Århus, DK @ Tape (SOLD OUT)
Fri. Sep. 21 – Ålborg, DK @ Studenterhuset
Thu. Sep. 22 – Århus, DK @ Tape (ekstra show)
Mon. Sep. 24 – Helsinki, FI @ Tavastia
Tue. Sep. 25 – Oslo, NO @ John Dee
Wed. Sep. 26 – Stockholm, SE @ Debaser
Thu. Sep. 27 – Göteborg, SE @ Pustervik
Fri. Sep. 28 – Odense, DK @ Kansas City
Fri. Oct. 26 – Porto, PT @ Hard Club
Sat. Oct. 27 – Lisbon, PT @ Jameson Urban Routes Festival
Sun. Oct. 28 – Sevilla, ES @ Sala X
Mon. Oct. 29 – Madrid, ES @ El Sol
Tue. Oct. 30 – Barcelona, ES @ Le [2]
Fri. Nov. 3 – Zurich, CH @ Rote Fabrik
* = with Mary Lattimore
ICEAGE
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