News

Darwin Deez Shares New Track

• 29th Jun 2018

Ahead of releasing his fourth studio album, Darwin Deez today shares latest single “Queen of Spades”. A lovelorn lyrical reckoning, the masterful wordplay, and bright guitars prove there’s no one as adept at veering between scathing and playful as Darwin.

He says the track is about “Frustration. We all feel unlucky sometimes. ‘There’s nothing quite like losing it all’ is my favorite line. It alludes to a twinge of pleasurable flavor found at the bottom of a glass of utter abject misery. Sometimes when we choose partners, we choose badly.”

The album, entitled 10 Songs That Happened When You Left Me With My Stupid Heart, will be released August 31 via Lucky Number.

Darwin Deez has also announced both US and UK/EU tour dates.

Darwin Deez is a New Yorker originally from North Carolina. After the success and critical acclaim of the hit single “Radar Detector” and his self-titled debut album, in 2010, he toured extensively in support of second and third records Songs For Imaginative People (2013) and Double Down (2015).

The crux of his fourth album, 10 Songs That Happened When You Left Me With My Stupid Heart, is Darwin’s singular songwriting. Darwin, the autodidact, is fiercely original as an artist, and enormously catchy and accessible. In the contemporary musical landscape, overfull as it is with redolent reverbs and saccharine synthesizers—a style of music he jokingly calls “Spotify-wave”—Darwin still makes sparse guitar songs. But not the kind of mellow, “psychedelic” 70’s-inspired stuff typical of most guitar-based indie groups nowadays. Songs with energy (“why should EDM have the monopoly on danceability?”). Songs with vulnerability. Songs with relatable, audible, intelligible lyrics. “Ever since I bought my first CD—Last Splash by the Breeders—I’ve been internally railing against the kind of vague nonsensical stuff that passed for lyrics in the 90’s. It’s not that it was objectively bad, but it was so cryptic and over my 13 year old head that it infuriated me.”

“Everyone is getting a free pass, lyrically,” Darwin says. Had it not been for the full year he spent in 2007 attending weekly open mic nights, at Sidewalk Café in NYC’s East Village, hosted by scene godfather Lach (whose progeny include Beck, Regina Spektor, and The Moldy Peaches) Darwin might never have been challenged to develop his voice as a lyricist. “I’ve always respected country songwriters because they’re some of the last ones standing, lyrically. They’re some of the last writers not to be getting away with murder out here. They don’t mess around in Nashville.”

Darwin Deez is one of the few indie musicians who truly ought to be much more famous than he is. Someone with the refreshing ability to be both goofy and grim. Someone with the songwriting chops to express the human condition artfully, in a way that cuts through thick clouds of cultural static. Someone with his own sound and his own style. “I’m mixed; my dad is half black and my mom is white. Maybe that’s why I make the kind of music I make. It’s definitely why my hair was like that. That hairstyle was the only way I could figure out to wear it that looked good to me. Mixed race hair is definitely a thing. My dad is always talking about the mixed race experience.”

The origin of his originality is beside the point. It’s here. It’s been here. And on this record, there is a wider-than-ever range of its expression both instrumentally and vocally. And Darwin always delivers the most unique sing-a-longs, heartbreak or no.

TRACKLISTING:
1. THE WORLD’S BEST KISSER
2. ANNA-MARIA
3. QUEEN OF SPADES
4. GETAWAY
5. SAY IT FIRST
6. DRIVE AROUND
7. TOO SHY TO TAKE A SHINE
8. ALL MY FRIENDS
9. SOMEONE NEW
10. DADDY ALWAYS

TOUR DATES:
SEP 20 – ANTWERP, BE | TRIX BAR (All Ages)
SEP 21 – AMSTERDAM, NL | PARADISO (All Ages)
SEP 22 – HAMBURG, DE |REEPERBAHN FESTIVAL (16+)
SEP 23 – COPENHAGEN, DK | HOTEL CECIL (All Ages)
SEP 25 – PARIS, FR | POINT EPHEMERE (14+)
SEP 26 – BERLIN, DE | BI NUU (16+)
SEP 27 – MUNICH, DE |KRANHALLE (16+)
SEP 28 – COLOGNE, DE | ARTHEATER (16+)
SEP 29 – GLOUCESTER, GB | UNDERGROUND FESTIVAL (14+)
OCT 01 – LONDON, GB |VILLAGE UNDERGROUND (16+)
OCT 02 – BRIGHTON, GB | KOMEDIA (14+)
OCT 03 – BRISTOL, GB | THEKLA (14+)
OCT 05 – GLASGOW, GB | ORAN MOR (14+)
OCT 06 – MANCHESTER, GB | NEIGHBOURHOOD FESTIVAL (14+)
OCT 07 – DUBLIN, IE | THE WORKMAN’S CLUB (18+)
OCT 09 – NOTTINGHAM, GB |BODEGA (14+)
OCT 10 – LEEDS, GB |BELGRAVE MUSIC HALL (14+)
OCT 11 – BIRMINGHAM, GB | O2 INSTITUTE 3 (14+)
OCT 17 – TORONTO, ON | BABY G (19+)
OCT 18 – PONTIAC, MI | PIKE ROOM (ALL AGES)
OCT 19 – CHICAGO, IL | SUBTERRANEAN (17+)
OCT 20 – IOWA CITY, IA | BLUE MOOSE TAPHOUSE (ALL AGES)
OCT 22 – OMAHA, NE | SLOWDOWN FRONT ROOM (ALL AGES)
OCT 24 – DENVER, CO | LARIMER LOUNGE (16+)
OCT 25 – SALT LAKE CITY, UT | KILBY COURT (ALL AGES)
OCT 27 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA | RICKSHAW STOP (ALL AGES)
OCT 28 – LOS ANGELES, CA | ECHO (18+)
OCT 29 – PHOENIX, AZ | VALLEY BAR (16+)
NOV 01 – AUSTIN, TX | BARRACUDA (ALL AGES)
NOV 02 – DALLAS, TX | THREE LINKS (ALL AGES)
NOV 04 – ATLANTA, GA | MASQUERADE – PURGATORY (ALL AGES)
NOV 05 – CHAPEL HILL, NC | LOCAL 506 (ALL AGES)
NOV 06 – RICHMOND, VA | STRANGE MATTER (ALL AGES)
NOV 08 – WASHINGTON, DC | DC9 (ALL AGES)
NOV 09 – PHILADELPHIA, PA | WORLD CAFE LIVE (ALL AGES)
NOV 10 – BROOKLYN, PA | ROUGH TRADE (16+)
NOV 11 – BOSTON, MA | MIDDLE EAST UPSTAIRS (16+)