LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) Alcopop! Records are delighted to announce that they have signed fast-rising Los Angeles indie rock trio Cheekface, who release their new b-sides EP Emphatically Mo' on 22nd
September 2021. As a taster of the record, new single 'Ted Talk City' is out now and available to stream on all good digital service providers.
Following hot on the heels of their critically-acclaimed debut album Emphatically No. released in January 2021 on New Professor Records, the new EP is a collection of extra previously-unreleased material from the album writing sessions.
Commenting on the EP, front man Greg Katz said: "We started recording the Emphatically No. album without enough songs, and we ended up with too many. So a few tunes fell under the axe that swung to keep a good flow in the track sequence and make the record short enough for a 12-inch LP."
"Not every song is your best song, and b-sides definitely aren't, with the possible exception of Booker T's 'Green Onions.' But with these four tracks, me and Mandy were definitely exploring the same themes of loneliness, futility, insomnia and Diet Coke as the rest of the album, so I think they make a pretty good companion."
Cheekface are a band influenced by the great American talk-singers like Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman and Stephen Malkmus, British post-punk bands like Wire and The Fall, and proto-indie bands like The dB's and Minutemen.
Alongside their more apparent influences, the trio chart their own course with their self-effacing, openhearted lyrics that set the mundanity of daily life against the backdrop of our chaotic world, as in the memorable 'Best Life', when Katz blurts out: "Due to personal reasons, I said nothing in therapy / we just laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed!"
The story starts in 2018, when the band's second single 'Dry Heat/Nice Town'—a playful pub rock tune about leftist protest culture—created an underground hubbub. It anchored the band's debut album Therapy Island, released by the New Professor label in March 2019. In the wake of that album, Cheekface's followup singles and sing along, everyone-in-the-audience-climbs-on-the-stage shows created a word-of-mouth cult around the band's sideways lyrics, catchy choruses, and windows-down grooves.
Over the course of 2019 and 2020 Cheekface recorded second LP Emphatically No., released in January 2021 on New Professor. Paste Magazine called the record "essential listening" and it was named Bandcamp's top-selling alternative album.
New EP Emphatically Mo' is released 22nd
September 2021 via Alcopop! Records
Cheekface US Tour Dates:
22.09.21 - Seattle - The Vera Project
23.09.21 - Portland - Doug Fir Lounge
25.09.21 - Boise - Treefort
Music Festival
02.10.21 - Los Angeles - The Echo Sat
09.10.21 - Philadelphia - PhilaMOCA
10.10.21 -
Boston - Sonia Mon
11.10.21 - Brooklyn - Zone One
13.10.21 - Washington, DC - Songbyrd
14.10.21 - Pittsburgh - The Funhouse at Mr. Smalls
15.10.21 - Columbus - Big Room
16.10.21 -
Chicago - Schubas.
