Raccoon Fighter has announced a new EP, ‘Hover Craft,’ set to arrive August 26 via PaperCup Music. To coincide with the announcement, they also premiered the first single LVLR, which you can listen to now via Soundcloud below.
Friends since grade school, Sean Gavigan (vox/guitar) and Zac Ciancaglini (drums) have been playing in bands together for over a decade. Originally from the small farm town of Vineland, NJ, the duo came up in Philadelphia and relocated to New York in 2008 to work in recording studios and start a new band. They played their first show in the summer of 2009 where they met Gabe Wilhelm (vox/bass) – also a Vineland native – who had relocated to do much the same in 2005. Wilhelm (who was previously in Ryan Adams band The Cardinals during the making of Easy Tiger) joined on bass and instantly became a permanent fixture and collaborative songwriter. Collectively combined, they’ve had the pleasure of working in the studio with Blonde Redhead, Real Estate, Willie Nelson, Minnie Driver and Warren Haynes to name a few. Their experience and versatility is apparent on ‘Hover Craft’.
Raccoon Fighter has built up a loyal following of brazen hooligans in New York, Philadelphia and along the East Coast, up to Montreal. They’ve shared the stage with X Ambassadors, Joywave, Das Racist, Sunflower Bean, Jukebox The Ghost, Ex Cops, have had two tracks featured on the Showtime series ‘Shameless’. Their last EP, Spiral Flag, produced and recorded by the band on 4-track cassette, on the CMJ chart at #18, and was called, “a brawl between The Beatles’ ‘White Album’ and T. Rex’s The Slider,” by the Weekly Alibi.
Lauded as “Masters of the short-form album” by Popmatters, ‘Hover Craft’ continues on this path and raises the bar for what’s to come. Recorded at Strangeweather by comrade Rich Crescenti and mixed at Russell Street Recording by longtime confidant Alex Lipsen (Nada Surf, Phosphorescent, Okkervil River), Hover Craft is a perfect blend of polished punk, psychedelia and lo-fi, fuzzy, garage bliss.
Tour dates:
08/11 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
08/28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Vulcan Room
10/14 – Montreal, PQ @ Bar L’Esco
For more information on Raccoon Fighter, visit raccoonfighter.com.
