New York City-based songwriter and frontman Kip Berman is right: being “pure at heart” is usually one. giant. pain in the ASS. Most days, I don’t go in for it, myself; I’m almost always concealing pornography inside the Mother Theresa biography I take with me on the train, popping kids’ balloons on the street with lit (un-fucking-filtered) cigarettes, and taking delicious lollipops right out of the cherubic hands of helpless, stroller-bound, and possibly-diabetic little babies.
But hey, you never know — maybe Berman and his revolving cast of collaborative cohorts in TPOBPAH can save my filthy soul yet with their latest album of deliciously sentimental, sleevehearted, widescreen power pop, The Echo of Pleasure. Guess we’ll all find out together on July 14, when the record comes out — via Berman’s own label, Painbow — in a “limited edition (500 copies) gold metallic vinyl with gold foil stamped packaging” (which you can pre-order now, alongside a variety of other, slightly less-exclusive formats, from the band’s website).
The fourth album for the long-running indie rock outfit reportedly found Berman — alongside return-producer Andy Savours, guest vocalist Jen Goma (A Sunny Day in Glasgow), bassist by Jacob Danish Sloan (Dream Diary), and horn player Kelly Pratt (Beirut, David Byrne, St. Vincent) — in a place of transition, fighting back against the existential fucking dread that duly accompanies the impending arrival of a new baby, and ultimately “try[ing] to make the best record I could, knowing it might be the last time.”
Actually, we can get a sneak-preview of the fate of my lascivious ass right now courtesy of the album’s first single, the appropriately dark-yet-sweet “Anymore,” which is streaming down below (I promised my priest I’d try to listen to it “super-hard” to see if I “feel” anything!) Oh yeah, and the live band (i.e. guitarist Christoph Hochheim, bassist Jacob Danish Sloan, drummer Chris Schackerman, and vocalist/keyboardist Jess Rojas) will also be touring the UK at the end of the month before hitting all of North America in the summer and Spain in the fall…so I suppose I can always hop the train to the show in my hometown of Chicago and try to “get my purge on” in-person, too. Where’s my Mother Theresa?
The Echo of Pleasure tracklisting:
01. My Only
02. Anymore
03. The Garret
04. When I Dance With You
05. The Echo of Pleasure
06. Falling Apart So Slow
07. So True
08. The Cure for Death
09. Stay
The pains of formatting this many tour dates:
05.24.17 - Bristol, UK - Thekla @+
05.25.17 - Manchester, UK - Night & Day Café @+
05.27.17 - Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK - Think Tank? @+
05.28.17 - Glasgow, UK - Stereo @+
05.29.17 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell @+
05.30.17 - London, UK - Oslo Hackney @+
06.01.17 - Leicester, UK - The Cookie @
06.02.17 - Wolverhampton, UK - Newhampton Arts Centre @
06.03.17 - Oxford, UK - The Cellar @
06.08.17 - Hamden, CT - The Outer Space *#
06.09.17 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg *#
06.04.17 - Boston, MA - The Sinclair *%
06.15.17 - New Portsmouth, NH - 3S Artspace *%
06.16.17 - Montreal, Canada - Bar Le Ritz *%
06.17.17 - Toronto, Canada - The Horseshoe Tavern *%
06.19.17 - Cleveland, OH - The Grog Shop *%
06.20.17 - Detroit, MI - El Club *%
06.22.17 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th St Entry *^
06.23.17 - Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon *^
06.24.17 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall *^
06.25.17 - St Louis, MO - The Firebird *^
06.27.17 - Nashville, TN - The High Watt *^
06.28.17 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl *^
06.30.17 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 *^
07.01.17 - Washington D.C. - Rock & Roll Hotel *^
07.02.17 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live Downstairs *^
09.22.17 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret $&
09.23.17 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern $&
09.24.17 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge $&
09.26.17 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel $&
09.27.17 - Los Angeles, CA - Teragram Ballroom $&
09.28.17 - San Diego, CA - The Loft UC $&
10.15.17 - Madrid, Spain - Joy Slava
10.16.17 - Cordoba, Spain - Sala Hanger
10.17.17 - Granada, Spain - Lemon Rock
10.19.17 - Valencia, Spain - La Rambleta
10.20.17 - Barcelona, Spain - Bikini
10.21.17 - Santander, Spain - Escenario
* = Ablebody
# = Beverly
% = Frankie Rose
^ = Tony Molina
$ = The Courtneys
& = The Prids
@ = Night Flowers
+ = Yoke Lore
More about: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
