SPILL NEWS: ACTIVITY DEBUT NEW SINGLE/VIDEO “DEPARTMENT OF BLOOD”

ACTIVITY DEBUT NEW SINGLE/VIDEO “DEPARTMENT OF BLOOD”

FROM NEW ALBUM SPIRIT IN THE ROOM OUT AUGUST 4 VIA WESTERN VINYL

Activity, the Brooklyn-based band of Travis Johnson (lead vocals/multi-instrumentalist), Jess Rees (guitar/vocals/keys), Bri DiGioia (bass/vocals), and Steven Levine (drums), today shared their eerie new single “Department of Blood” from their forthcoming album, Spirit In The Room, due out August 4th via Western Vinyl. The track arrives alongside a chilling, unsettling video directed by singer Johnson while working a highly secretive and bizarre contract job on Staten Island. “I was working in a dank, cold parking garage in the middle of winter on a mysterious electronics project that I’m not supposed to talk about, and still don’t really understand,” he recalls. “It was freezing in there and I was also having the worst anxiety and depression I’d had in my adult life, so I felt insane every day. In the trash there, I found these little miniature figures and started taking these grotesque closeups of them.”

The new track explores a variety of themes–the longing and hopelessness that come with facing a monumental loss, the sardonic indictment of neoliberalism and “whatever the lord is,” and the feeling of powerlessness. “The song is loosely about a lot of things, but one of them is the feeling of knowing you’re being manipulated by something way more powerful than you and also knowing you can do absolutely nothing about it,” explains Johnson. “Just that resignation. It seemed to work.”

“Department of Blood” follows the darkly urgent lead single “Careful Let’s Sleepwalk.” Activity are set to play an initial set of headlining summer tour dates in support of the album, including a hometown release show at Baby’s All Right on July 16th; a full itinerary is listed below and more shows will soon be announced. Spirit in the Room is available for pre-order here.

Spirit in the Room–the band’s most collaborative album to date–is an emotional seance held through an unearthly haze of menacing trip hop, ambient electronica, and synth-based noise rock. The LP was written and recorded during the pandemic, “to keep from losing our minds,” as Johnson explains, and features production by Jeff Berner (Psychic TV). The inherent limitations of lockdown meant that the band had to strip down the process considerably, relying heavily on processed samples and drum machines to sketch early ideas and begin to process the collective trauma. It was also around this time that Johnson experienced a series of personal tragedies, namely the loss of his mother to pancreatic cancer. “The grief was (and sometimes is) this colossal thing,” Johnson explains, “and I kept finding myself thinking of how I could find her or get in touch with her, like there was a phone number or address and I just had to find it.”

Spirit in the Room is no lighthearted journey, but the band’s playfulness and obvious natural chemistry keeps the collection from being burdened by its own solemnity. The 11-song set–also featuring tracks sung/written by Rees and DiGioia–ultimately reflects the band’s deep anxiety about the modern world while simultaneously displaying their immense gratitude and—believe it or not—joy. As Rees describes it, “One moment it’s bottomless shearing chaotic noise, and the next it’s a sweet melody. Sometimes at the same time.”

This dichotomy seems to set Activity apart from their peers in the noise rock world. On the one hand, Spirit in the Room is a harrowing journey through a Bosch-like landscape of illness, global capital, and human-caused destruction. On the other hand, it’s a room full of friends who are simply trying to make it through the day and process this world that we’ve created.

Tour Dates

7/13 – Boston, MA – O’Brien’s
7/14 – Washington, DC – Pie Shop
7/16 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right (Album Release Show)

Artist Links

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