Survival Knife Tours For Loose Power

Survival Knife heads out on tour in support of their debut album, Loose Power
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Featuring Unwound bandmates Justin Trosper and Brandt Sandeno, Loose Power is out now on Glacial Pace Recordings.

Praise for Loose Power:

“…Trosper has found a fascinating new way forward: one that mangles then mingles his punk and classic-rock influences while melodically subverting his own accomplishments in Unwound.” Pitchfork
“On its just-dropped debut long-player, Loose Power, the band has naturally set its rhythms to ’90s-era angular with a Television-on-speed, dueling guitar-assault; its extra taut, hook-heavy, anthemic bruisers dripping riffs galore that would make your silly head spin.” Noisey

“Survival Knife’s Loose Power is tense, fresh, and anything but predicatable…” Mother Jones

“The band’s debut full-length is a lean, wiry collection of prog-punk that sounds only slightly like Unwound. Granted, it’s still grim, jittery, and cryptic—but Survival Knife slices in a direction all its own.” The AV Club

“Loose Power sees some of the better minds in the heavier side of indie rock’s legacy branching out into grittier, gnarlier territory and turning in some inspired, crushing tunes in the process.” All Music

When Unwound broke up in 2002, the pioneering post-rock band left a hole in the musical firmament that dozens of acts have been trying and failing to patch up in the years since. Try as they might, they could never quite reach the perfect balance of tension and release, spiny and smooth that made the Olympia-based trio’s work so damn powerful.

That is until Survival Knife came to life.

Bringing together two ex-Unwound bandmates Justin Trosper and Brandt Sandeno, Survival Knife is another bracing and energetic shot to the dome by these singular songwriters, and one that they are eager to embrace.

The first major statement to arrive from this new project is Loose Power, the debut full-length from Survival Knife, out April 29th on Glacial Pace Recordings. Working with longtime Unwound cohorts Stuart Hallerman (he recorded the album with Matt Buscher) and Steve Fisk (who handled the mixing), and mastered by the venerable Bob Weston (he of Shellac and Mission of Burma infamy), the seven-song album weds the riffage of classic rock with the feverish angular pulse of post-punk/post-hardcore.

Lyrically, Trosper circles back on the existential and global concerns that marked much of Unwound’s best material. This time around, though, his words feel more cutting and direct. He tears the financial industry to shreds (“Heaven Has No Eyes”) and touches on global paranoia (the title track), while also leaving you with the devastating image of a lone man running away from his own despair (“Fell Runner”).

Getting to this point, however, took some doing. Unlike all of his former musical brethren, singer/guitarist Trosper didn’t have any interest in music after Unwound split. Instead, he moved to Los Angeles for a stretch, going to school and helping other bands with recording projects. But after returning to his hometown of Olympia, the itch to take up his guitar against the world returned, and, with the help of longtime musical companion Sandeno and his friends Kris Cunningham (drums) and Meg Cunningham (bass), Survival Knife was born.

The quartet already garnered a great deal of attention. The West Coast has already had a taste of what Survival Knife has to offer thanks to plenty of NW dates and a tour the band did last year with Modest Mouse. And the world has been well-primed thanks to the band’s 7” releases on Sub Pop and Kill Rock Stars. Once Loose Power is in the world, there will be little hope of holding back and soon we’ll all be following Survival Knife into the abyss.

 

Tour Dates:
11.14.14 – Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
11.15.14 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Founders Brewing Co.
11.16.14 – Columbus, OH @ Double Happiness
11.17.14 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
11.18.14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle
11.19.14 – Washington, DC @ DC9 Nightclub
11.20.14 – Allston, MA @ Great Scott
11.21.14 – Pawtucket, RI @ The Met
11.22.14 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Night Bazaar