New York, NY (Top40 Charts) On May 4,
Belly return with DOVE, their first full length album release in 23 years. The album was produced and recorded by band member Tom Gorman alongside longtime friend of the group Paul Q. Kolderie (Hole, Throwing Muses, Radiohead). Today, the band shared the official video for "Shiny One," the first single to be released from the forthcoming album.
DOVE is now available for pre-order and includes an instant download of "Shiny One."
A statement on the video from Chris Gorman:
I purchased a crow mask from Archie McFee a few years ago for a Halloween party that had an "enchanted forest" theme. I'm a lazy and dull human being so I just wore the mask and street clothes. In the party photos everyone looked magical and "enchanted" but I looked disturbing and wrong. I always wanted to do something with that.
After moving to a house surrounded by woods I started capitalizing on the space for
Belly stuff, like the woodshed photo shoot, or the Hushabye Mountain photo series. When it became clear that we were calling the album DOVE and the suggestion that we produce our own video the masks were my first and only idea. I sent a brief pitch to the band saying "hey guys, what if we shoot a video and we all have bird heads?" The response was overwhelmingly affirmative. I purchased 3 more heads.
Due to scheduling I had to shoot each band member on their own - we used my garage as a studio space and the woods around my home for the 'critter in the woods' stuff and tree related b-roll.
I worked very closely with my good friend Jack McKenna as we processed the clips and together we arrived at an Andy Warhol layered silkscreen look that really seemed to match the hallucinogenic vibe and retro groove of the song. I have to give a ton of credit to Jack for pulling it all together.
Belly, who formed in 1991, is
Tanya Donelly (guitar, vocals), Tom Gorman (guitar), Chris Gorman (drums), and Gail Greenwood (bass). The band released their gold-certified critically-acclaimed debut album Star in 1993, which spawned the alternative radio and MTV staple "Feed The Tree" and led to Grammy nominations for Best Alternative
Music Album and Best New Artist.
In 1995,
Belly released their sophomore album King and toured extensively behind the album before dissolving in 1996. Over the next two decades, the members stayed close while pursuing their own creative paths before the idea of a
Belly reunion gained serious traction just a few years ago.
"We had just gotten to the point where we were just missing each other, and missing the music," says Donelly. "The music I've been doing in the past several years has been very collaborative, which made me kind of homesick for Belly; I missed that sense of having a band."
The songs that comprise DOVE were spun out of a new songwriting system that was necessitated by the four members' far-flung hometowns. "It required a lot of trust," says Donelly, "because we were sending raw snippets to each other—anything from 30-second pieces to full songs. Tom and Gail and I would send demos back and forth, and then Chris would add drums to whatever snippets he'd heard, and Tom would sew everything together. It would sometimes be a very circuitous route to a song, but it was really fun."
"All three of the songwriters were locked in and working in a way that complemented the others' strengths," says Chris Gorman. "Gail's writing was in top form.
Tanya is able to make anybody's song her own—she's got that gift. And Tom has really honed his arrangement and production style."
Belly will launch their first major tour since 1995 later this year and will play
Boston Calling on May 26. Find a full list of tour dates below. "We're all looking forward to presenting these songs in a live setting, and having the opportunity to play together again," says Chris Gorman. "We should be in for a really exciting year."
Tracklist:
1) Mine
2) Shiny One
3) Human Child
4) Faceless
5) Suffer The Fools
6) Girl
7) Army of Clay
8) Stars Align
9) Quicksand
10) Artifact
11) Heartstrings
Tour Dates:
5/26: Cambridge, MA -
Boston Calling
6/9: Portsmouth, UK - Wedgewood Rooms
6/10: Bristol, UK - SWX
6/11: Cardiff, UK - Glee Club
6/12: Manchester, UK - The Ritz
6/13: Leeds, UK - Beckett
6/14: Whitley Bay, UK - Playhouse
6/16: Glasgow, UK - O2ABC
6/17: Sheffield, UK - Leadmill
6/18: Nottingham, UK - Rescue Rooms
6/19: Brighton, UK - Concorde 2
6/20: London, UK - Shepherd's Bush Empire
8/8: Los Angeles, CA - Teragram
8/9: Los Angeles, CA - Teragram
8/10: San Francisco, CA - Great American
Music Hall
8/11: Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
8/12: Seattle, WA - Neptune
8/22: Portland, ME - Port City
8/25: Brooklyn, NY -
Music Hall of Williamsburg
8/26: Brooklyn, NY -
Music Hall of Williamsburg
9/28: Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
9/29: Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
10/4: Madison, WI - Majestic Theater
10/5: Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line
Music Cafe
10/6: Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
