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Tuesday, June 21, 2016

We Are Scientists' new album out now

photo by Shervin Lainez
We Are Scientists, the Brooklyn-based pop rock troupe have returned with their fifth album, ‘Helter Seltzer’, available now via iTunes, CD, and limited edition teal-colored vinyl) via 100% Records.

Watch the video for 'Buckle'
Watch the video for 'Too Late'
Watch the video for 'Classic Love'

For ‘Helter Seltzer,’ We Are Scientists asked their ex-keyboard player Max Hart to produce. Max had just finished a three-year stint as the keyboardist for Katy Perry, including her performance at the 2015 Super Bowl. Max rented a studio space in Brooklyn, outfitting it with gear he had accumulated over the course of a decade. Recording commenced that March and the results were mixed by Chris Coady (Future Islands, Beach House). 

"We've always made overtures toward being a pop band, but we've generally had the inclination to obscure those pop leanings in grit and chaos — to screw them up with fuzzed-out tones and raucous performances," says guitarist and vocalist Keith Murray.
 
"It's made us really think about what our musical genre is. We're not punk — we're too interested in making our songs as pretty as possible. We're not straight-up rock — our tastes are too left-of-center. We're not indie-rock — our heads aren't far enough up our own butts. So finally, after putting as much time into thinking about it as we're apt to — about ten minutes, over beers — we decided that our genre is 'Helter Seltzer.'"

"Declaring a new genre is obviously douchey as hell, though, and impossible to deliver with a straight face," adds bassist Chris Cain, "so we did the noble thing and just made ‘Helter Seltzer’ the album title. It's especially apt for us these days, though. The songs here are more effervescent than we've ever managed to deliver, but they've still maintained a measure of that ‘Helter Skelter’ element — no matter how fizzy and refreshing the tunes are, they've always got a bit of that seamy, scuzzy, 'cult on Spahn Ranch' vibe. We therefore consider this album, as a vessel of both sweet pop tunes and seltzer outreach,” concludes Chris. “To be a work of undisguised philanthropy on our part."

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of 'With Love And Squalor', the band recently performed the classic album in its entirety at their Irving Plaza show in NYC and will do so again at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles in July.

LIVE SHOWS:

July 8 - Spokane, WA - The Bartlett
July 9 - Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe
July 10 - Vancouver, BC - Cobalt
July 11 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
July 13 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
July 14 - Santa Ana, CA - Constellation Room
July 15 - San Diego, CA - Voodoo Room-House Of Blues
July 16 - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre ***
July 17 - Las Vegas, NV - Bunk House

*** celebrating 10th anniversary of 'With Love And Squalor'

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