California punk rockers STREET EATERS have released a new concept record “The Envoy”, based on famed dystopian, gender revolutionary, anti-authoritarian author Ursula K. Le Guin’s books “The Dispossessed” and “Left Hand of Darkness”. The record recalls the adventurism of early punk records and yet manages to takes conventional songs and plant both sonic surprises and inspiring lyrics beneath them, to keep you interested. Great stuff! Listen and scroll down to see the details of their upcoming European trek!
“THE ENVOY” is out now on Nervous Intent Records in the US/Canada and Contraszt! Records in Europe. Cover art by Miriam Klein Stahl (illustrator of “Rad American Women A-Z” and “Rad Women Worldwide”).
STREET EATERS are a truewave/punk band from Berkeley+Oakland, CA that has drawn a range of sonic comparisons to bands from Wipers to Masshysteri, Autoclave to Drive Like Jehu, Huggy Bear to KARP, Sonic Youth’s Bad Moon Rising to Warsaw. After years of relentless international touring on the heels of their well-received album “Blood::Muscles::Bones” (released on Nervous Intent in the U.S./Contraszt! in Europe), Megan March and John No returned home to troubled times in their immediate bay area underground punk community/family and the world at large. True to form, the band sought to come to terms with this changed landscape by diving deeply into their own recording studio to create a new record with an expansive new vision. This record, “The Envoy”, is a concept album based on famed dystopian, gender revolutionary, anti-authoritarian author Ursula K. Le Guin’s influential books “The Dispossessed” and “Left Hand of Darkness”.
Songs are at the heart of the album and keep its momentum and energy high, atop a shifting musical landscape underpinned by tension, fierce resolve, isolation, and the vastness of mental and physical space. Directly inspired by Le Guin’s radical speculative fiction and analytical lens on the world around us and beyond it, Street Eaters tackle transformative and transgressive lyrical themes of oppression, resistance, and change explored in the books. The songs are interspersed with instrumental interludes layering field recordings, planetary oscillations, comets, glaciers cracking, sea lions using tonal underwater sonar, a modded karaoke box, and more. However, the band’s core maximized-minimalist aesthetic – saturated and overdriven bass, propulsive yet bombastic drumming, and intense dual vocals – remain front and center.
Tour Dates:
US/CANADA
April 23 Reno @ Holland Project
April 24 SLC @ Diabolical Records
April 26 Omaha @ Milk Run
April 27 Minneapolis @ Pork Ave (moved from Coming Soon)
April 28 Milwaukee @ Mosh House
April 29 Chicago @ Minx House
April 30 Bloomington @ Blockhouse Bar
May 1 Cincinatti @ Opera House
May 2 Columbus @ The Summit
May 3 Detroit @ Trumbull Plex
May 4 Toronto @ Coalition
May 5 Ottowa @ Bar Robo
May 6 Montreal @ Bills House
May 7 Providence @ Columbus Theater
May 8 Brooklyn @ Other Side
May 9 Brooklyn @Silent Barn
May 10 New Brunswick @ In The West
May 11 Philly @ Glitter Galaxy
May 12 D.C. @ Tilden
May 13 Raleigh @ Ruby Deluxe
May 14 Chattanooga@ Sluggo’s North
May15 Athens @ Go Bar
May 16 Gainesville @ The Atlantic
May 17 Pensacola @ Chizuko
May 18 New Orleans @ Saturn Bar
May 19 Austin @ Hotel Vegas (matinee)
May 20 Denton @ Tom’s Daiquiri
May 21 OKC@ Warehouse B
May 22 Albuquerque@ Winning Coffee Company
May 23 Flagstaff @ Flagstaff Brewing Co.
May 24 Fullerton @ Republic
May 25 Oakland @ Octopus Literary Salon (record release)EU/UK
6/2 FR Dijon @ Maloka Fest
6/3 DE Mannheim @ Pfing Fest
6/4 DE Regensburg @ Büro
6/5 AUS Graz @ SUB
6/6 HU Szeged @ Várkert
6/7 HU Budapest @ Aurora
6/8 AUS Vienna @ Venster 99
6/9 DE Erlangen @ Jugendhaus
6/10 FR Strasbourg @ ABC/Antinational Fest
6/11 CH Biel @ TBA
6/13 DE Munich@ Kafe Kult
6/14 DE Berlin @ Bei Rut
6/15 DE Leipzig @ Zoro
6/16 DE Hamburg @ Storte
6/17 DE Cologne @ Contraszt! House
6/18 NL Utrecht @ACU
6/19 UK Brighton @ Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar
6/20 UK Bristol@ The Old England
6/21 UK Leeds@ Wharf Chambers
6/22 UK Sheffield @ Audacious Art Experiment
6/23 DE Neubrandenberg @ Punx Picnic Fest
6/24 UK Glasgow @ Spite House
6/25 UK London @ DIY Space For London
6/26 FR Paris (Montreuil) @ La Comédia
6/27 FR Bordeaux@ Void Club
6/28 ES Madrid @ La Condenada
6/29 ES Valencia @ La Residencia
6/30 ES Barcelona @ Rock & Trini
7/1 FR Marseille @ La Salle Gueule
