New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Following up their provocative 2018 EP "Complicit", which featured Ivanka Trump on its cover, pioneering post-punk band GANG OF FOUR are set to release their brand new full-length HAPPY NOW on March 1, 2019 via PledgeMusic, which is available now for pre-order.
Happy Now comes 40 years after the release of the band's groundbreaking debut Entertainment!, diving deeper into the heart of the classic Go4 sound with a modern slant. A combination of electronics and angular lines pursuing 21st century grooves achieve the striking balance between the band's fundamental sound and its restless embrace of the now and the new. Harnessing the unbridled energy of their live show, Gaoler's melodic vocals radiate confidence while Andy GIll's serrated guitar cuts through
Thomas McNiece and Tobias Humble's grooving rhythm section. The result is a body of anthemic songs of modern confusion, and the band's best and most consistent work since their post-punk years.
"Happiness is always an odd one; so difficult to pin down. Our personal lives are always a mixture-sad things, tragedy, joy," explains founding member Andy Gill. "When we were younger we thought things would gradually get better: the world would be less sexist, less racist, progress would be made and now we know that history isn't linear; it's very capable of U-turns."
The band is also announcing a US tour in support of Happy Now starting February 4th in Tustin, CA. The band will be traveling across the country for two months hitting cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia, culminating at Rough Trade in New York City. Full list of tour dates can be found below as well as on Bandsintown, and on Songkick.
TOUR DATES
Feb 4 Marty's On Newport Tustin, CA
Feb 5 The Casbah San Diego, CA
Feb 6 Roxy Theatre W. Hollywood, CA
Feb 8 Strummer's Fresno, CA
Feb 9 The Chapel San Francisco, CA
Feb 11 Global Hall Denver, CO
Feb 12 Slow Down Omaha, NE
Feb 13 Space Evanston, IL
Feb 14 Shank Hall Milwaukee, WI
Feb 16 El Club Detroit, MI
Feb 17 Club Café Pittsburgh, PA
Feb 19 Once Ballroom Somerville, MA
Feb 20 Space Ballroom Hamden, CT
Feb 21 U Street
Music Hall Washington, DC
Feb 22 Underground Arts Philadelphia, PA
Feb 23 Asbury Lanes Asbury Park, NJ
Feb 24 The Colony Woodstock, NY
Feb 25 Rough Trade NYC Brooklyn, NY
Groundbreaking and seminal from their getgo in 1977, Gang of Four's beginnings heralded a new direction for punk and ushered a sound that would later be coined as "postpunk", with Gill's unique and revolutionary guitar playing front and center. Their 1979 debut album Entertainment! felt like a blast of ice-cold water, both in form and content. Voted in Pitchfork's top ten albums of the 70's and a 'Record That Changed The World' by MOJO, Entertainment! is equally beloved by the likes of R.E.M., Red Hot
Chili Peppers,
Nirvana and
Rage Against The Machine among many others.
Since 2015's critically-acclaimed album What Happens Next, Gang of Four has been championed by artists as diverse as St. Vincent,
James Murphy,
Pharrell Williams and Frank Ocean, the latter of whom sampled their music on Blonde. As guitarist, composer, producer and lyric writer, Gill was and remains the band's driving force. He plays the guitar like it's sparking with electricity, while his band of young droogs add a youthful energy that makes Gang of Four a thrilling exercise in reinvention.
Gang of Four is Andy Gill, Gaoler,
Thomas McNiece, and Tobias Humble. Happy Now is out March 1, 2019 via Pledgemusic.
