IDLES have shared a new video for album track Carcinogenic. Recorded live for Independent Venue Week, the video sees each of the band members performing the track from separate venues across their hometown of Bristol including The Louisiana, Exchange, The Mother’s Ruin, The Old Duke and Trinity Centre.
Speaking about Independent Venue Week, guitarist Mark Bowen says:
“Now more than ever independent musicians and the music industry at large need to unite to keep from being decimated. Between the pandemic and a government who not only don’t care about the future of the arts (especially independence within the arts) but take a pro-active role in its diminishment, independent venues are at greatest risk because they are mostly small businesses, not interested in profit or investors but in the nourishment of creative, open-minded, critical thinking.
Independent venues are the fertile soil in which the future of the performing arts will grow. They are where your future favourite band will play, where the best song ever written will be tested out, where the new can bud and flourish.
They are also vital for a sense of community and union, something people sorely need and miss at this time, without them we’re all fucked”
Watch the video for Carcinogenic via YouTube below.
Looking ahead, IDLES are preparing to make their much-anticipated live return in the UK and Ireland with tour dates across May and June 2021, which will see them play Brixton Academy on four consecutive dates.
The tour will see the band joined by the likes Jehnny Beth, Anna Calvi, Cate le Bon, Sinead O Brien, Big Joanie, Witch Fever, Shopping and wych elm.
Dates are as follows:
Tickets are on sale now and you can purchase the new album from the band’s official store at: idlesband.com
Fans can also sign up to their mailing list for further news at: IDLES.LNK.TO/NEWS
In addition to the above live dates, IDLES will also play an almost entirely sold-out run of intimate out-store shows to take place for record stores across the country in April 2021. The dates are as follows:
12th April – Southampton, The 1865 (with Vinilo Records) – SOLD OUT
13th April – Portsmouth, Guildhall (with Pie & Vinyl)
15th April – Brighton, Concorde 2 (with Resident) – SOLD OUT
16th April – Hull, The Adelphi Club (with HMV) – SOLD OUT
17th April – Newcastle, Boiler Shop (with HMV) – SOLD OUT
19th April – Dundee, Fat Sams (with Assai Records) – SOLD OUT
20th April – Leeds, Beckett (with Crash Records) – SOLD OUT
22nd April – Oxford, O2 Academy (with Truck) – SOLD OUT
23rd April – London, Pryzm (with Banquet Records) – SOLD OUT
25th April – Bristol, Louisiana (with Friendly Records) – SOLD OUT
26th April – Bristol, Louisiana (with Friendly Records) – SOLD OUT
Tickets are available at: IDLES.LNK.TO/2021-OUTSTORES
Recorded in Paris and produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire) and Adam ‘Atom’ Greenspan (Anna Calvi, Cut Copy), with Kenny Beats (FKA Twigs, DaBaby, Vince Staples) providing additional programming, “Ultra Mono” was sonically constructed to capture the feeling of a hip-hop record. Across all twelve brutally relevant tracks, the band double down on the vitriolic sneer and blunt social commentary of their past work, with themes of active presence, inclusivity, class, gender inequality, nationalism, community, and toxic masculinity remaining ever-present. ‘Ultra Mono’ also features guest vocals from Jehnny Beth (Savages), and additional guest contributions from Warren Ellis (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), David Yow, and Jamie Cullum.
If their last record, 2018’s ‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’, was meant to detail IDLES’ manifesto, then ‘Ultra Mono’ is the sound of the band heading into battle, battering ram in hand, for those tenets. The phrase “momentary acceptance of the self” serves as spiritual guide and mantra throughout, as Talbot elaborates on further in an essay printed inside the album’s physical packaging (read that here).
