SPILL NEW MUSIC: HOLY FUCK TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM CONGRATS ON MAY 27th + ANNOUNCE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

Holy Fuck To Release New Album Congrats On May 27th + Announce American Tour

Last Gang Records

Holy Fuck might have taken 6 years to release their new record but make no mistake, this is a band that does not mess around. The Canadian 4-piece’s new LP, Congrats, will be released via Last Gang Records on May 27^th. Today, the band dropped a new track from Congrats, with Zane Lowe premiering Xed Eyes on his show this morning. The track is everything we’ve come to love and expect from the band and pulses relentlessly, inspiring memories of New York bands like The Rapture, but carrying a darkness and production qualities that sit firmly in 2016. Holy Fuck have also announced their first run of North American dates for 2016. This is a band famous for their live show and is not to be missed.

Holy Fuck took the world by surprise around 2005 because there was just nothing like them – a hardcore thrift-store found-object punk band with a relentless commitment to rhythm and a sense for atmosphere better matched to a close encounter of the third kind than a simple rock concert. Think Einstürzende Neubauten re-inspired by Fela Kuti with Brian Eno working as keyboard tech and every channel on the mixer set to max power. It was the best ride out there while it lasted, up to and including their 2010 full-length, Latin; recorded largely in too-brief breaks while on the road. That album cemented Holy Fuck’s sound and reputation for unapologetic instrumental noise, but at the end of yet another insane touring cycle, it was time to take a break … which turned into a hiatus … which turned into a chance to explore other projects and production work (like the bands Lids, Dusted and Etiquette, or production for Metz, Alvvays and Viet Cong).

In 2016 Holy Fuck suddenly announced the release of Congrats; a surprise full-length two years in the making that is by any scientific measure their holiest fuckiest release ever: “When you’re sitting still in a van and staring out the windows, you start to dream about all the other things you want to do,” says founder and noisemaster Brian Borcherdt. “This album is exactly what we couldn’t do then.” 

Checking into a “proper” studio, rather than the barn in rural Ontario where most of Holy Fuck’s records were made, Congrats was recorded by the same lineup that recorded Latin: Borcherdt, Graham Walsh, Matt “Punchy” McQuaid, and Matt Schulz. As they worked, they discovered that Congrats was a process of refining things, Walsh says-both physically and philosophically. Their ad hoc arsenal of low-budget hi-tech toys has been streamlined down to what he calls the nervous system of the band: “What gets run through our system is the seed of the idea for our music, and the system is what we play. This record is almost a beginning-the first stage of a new way for us.” 

Now they’re heavier, wilder, leaner, sharper, more daring and more unpredictable than ever before – on fire with the power of inspired outsiders like Suicide, Silver Apples, Can, Mission of Burma or the Monks or even Sun Ra, says Borcherdt, whose pursuit of his own kind of musical purity is exactly what Holy Fuck is after. Yes, it took them a few years, which in 2016 is supposed to be the career suicide, but they took that time to take chances. “We were told we did everything wrong,” Borcherdt says now, laughing-but really Congrats is the sound of a band doing absolutely everything right.

2016 Tour Dates

June 4: Toronto, ON – Field Trip at Historic Fort York
June 12: San Diego, CA – Casbah
June 13: Los Angeles, CA – Club Bahia
June 14: San Francisco, CA – The Independent
June 16: Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
June 17: Vancouver, BC – Levitation Festival at Malkin Bowl, Stanley Park
June 18: Seattle, WA – Crocodile
July 14: Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
July 15: Detroit, MI – Shelter
July 16: Ottawa, ON – RBC Ottawa Bluesfest at LeBreton Flats
July 18: Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
July 19: Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
July 20: New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
July 21: Washington, D.C. – DC9
July 22: Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle

Holy Fuck
Congrats
(Last Gang Records)
Release Date: May 27, 2016

Pre-Order via

Congrats Track List

1. Chimes Broken
2. Tom Tom
3. Shivering
4. Xed Eyes
5. Neon Dad
6. House Of Glass
7. Acidic
8. Subbatics
9. Shimmering
10. Crapture

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