PRIESTS

Upset The Rhythm presents…

PRIESTS + APOSTILLE + HYGIENE

PRIESTS are a group of rock iconoclasts from Washington, DC. Bred in punk, Priests play rock’n’roll that is as intellectually sharp as it is focused on pop’s thrilling pleasure centres, that is topical without sloganeering. The high-wire physicality of their live shows and their commitment to cultural, political, and aesthetic critique have all made Priests truly subversive in a literal sense, doing things you would not expect. With fireworks of noise and arresting melodies both, Priests’ 2017 debut album ‘Nothing Feels Natural‘ feels urgently present for an album heralded as a modern punk classic. This April they return with their second album ‘The Seduction of Kansas‘ out on their own imprint Sister Polygon Records. Entering their eighth year as a band, Priests drummer Daniele Daniele, vocalist Katie Alice Greer, and guitarist G.L. Jaguar remain an inspired anomaly in modern music. A band on its own label jolting the greater music world with early releases by Downtown Boys, Snail Mail and Sneaks, they are living proof that it is still possible to work on one’s own terms, to collectively cultivate one’s own world. New single, ‘The Seduction of Kansas‘, is Priests’ purest pop song to date. It is dark and glittering, though there is still something fantastically off about it, decadent and uneasy at once. Its title is a moving target, probing questions about the realities and mythologies of America in 2019 without giving in to easy answers. https://www.666priests666.com/

APOSTILLE is a man who’s torn through enough sound-systems to know the difference between gesture and meaning. Alongside running his own DIY record label, Glasgow native, Michael Kasparis has spent the last few years making forays into the realm of hardcore punk with his groups Anxiety and The Lowest Form. Throughout all this, his solo electronic venture, Apostille has continued to evolve with each twist and turn of the world. What started off as a quest to whip up a mood and force that into a song has steadily become more of a mission in communication. His audacious 2015 debut album ‘Powerless‘ self-released through Night School set the template by hooking up his honest delivery to some manic expositions in electronic pop. At once minimal and courageous with intent to connect, Apostille songs race off with unchecked abandon, skittering drum machines, thick walls of sequenced synth and decidedly elastic basslines. ‘Choose Life‘ (his most recent album on Upset The Rhythm) is both the album Apostille chose to make and had to make. He dialled down the clown, built up a new-found confidence in his voice and melody in general and began to feel more at home in the refuge of pop music (with a capital P). All the truest pop music speaks to us of escape and through this new album Apostille allows its transformative power to fully manifest. It’s an album full of life and energy, and like his live show as disobedient as it is heroic in its pursuit of liberation. https://apostille.bandcamp.com/

HYGIENE released a slew of singles and an LP on various DIY labels in the US and the UK at the turn of the decade, now the London post-punk stalwarts return from hiatus with their sophomore effort, ‘Private Sector‘. Where their debut LP ‘Public Sector‘ (2011, La Vida Es Un Mus) reflected a nostalgic longing for an unrealised socialist modernist utopia, ‘Private Sector‘ finds them confronting the grim realities of the present. Hygiene rail against the neoliberal madness of utility cartels, tax havens and privatised railways, seizing the moment as the current period of interregnum sees the old ideological certainties come into question. Proving nostalgia to be an inescapable trap, the band continue to hearken back to the kind of post-punk that existed before anybody knew to affix the ‘post’ prefix. ‘Private Sector‘ (out May 24th through Upset The Rhythm) has the signature Hygiene sound, mixing brooding melodies with a choppy, aggressive approach and a restricted pop sensibility. However, this ever-so-slightly-more mature record finds the band taking advantage of the musicianship of their friends, mixing in the odd viola, glockenspiel, piano and keyboard. Recommended for fans of Real Ale, British Rail Class 55 Deltics, Euston station and Jeremy Corbyn. https://www.facebook.com/Hygiene-126660907380779/

THUR, 16th MAY 2019

7.30pm - 11.00pm

£12.00 adv + bf

BUY TICKETShttps://link.dice.fm/priests-100-club

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