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Acclaimed Toronto noise rock band GREYS surprised fans today with the release of Warm Shadow, a 10-track companion album to their celebrated sophomore LP Outer Heaven, released earlier this year on Carpark Records and Buzz Records. Warm Shadow features “Fresh Hell” which Greys released earlier this month via Bandcamp. GREYS frontman Shehzaad Jiwani talked in-depth with Stereogum, who are streaming Warm Shadow, about the LP’s creation and the new sound they experiment with throughout it.
The band will also embark on a slew of tour dates this fall, doing both headline shows and also supporting Bully, Japandroids and White Lung among others. All tour dates can be seen below.
Warm Shadow, a companion piece to Greys’ acclaimed sophomore album, Outer Heaven, is comprised of original material as well as elements from that album’s recording sessions at Hotel 2 Tango in Montreal. Penning new songs, manipulating tape drones created from various studio experiments and rearranging old favourites, Warm Shadow‘s intent is to create a parallel world which illuminates the dynamic contrasts that reside on Outer Heaven and within Greys themselves.
Where Outer Heaven‘s focus was more broad both musically and lyrically, tackling topics like xenophobia and mental health issues within an expansive sonic landscape, Warm Shadow is far more insular. Frontman Shehzaad Jiwani explores both the personal and the abstract, with lyrics about Jiwani’s spiritual connection to his grandmother who passed before he was born (“Minus Time”) to his vision of a dystopian future inspired by institutional oppression (“Fresh Hell”). Grandiose soundscapes the band previously wandered are replaced with subtly textured, lo-fi experimentalism by way of Broadcast (“Trish K”) or the tense minimalism of mid-period Sonic Youth (“Space Mountain”).
Warm Shadow occupies a space between larger statements that fills in the broader strokes Greys have painted in the past. Like Amnesiac, Weird Era Continued, or untitled. unmastered., this companion piece exists to spotlight the ethereal moments its predecessor hinted at – to be viewed not as the sum of its parts, but as an alternate universe in which the creative possibilities for a punk band in the 21st century are limitless.
Tour Dates:
10/12 Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong $
10/13 Brooklyn, NY @ Aviv $
10/14 Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie $
10/15 Montreal, QC @ Turbohaus #
10/16 Saint-Hyacinthe, QC @ Le Zaricot #
10/17 Quebec City, QC @ L’Anti #
10/19 Halifax, NS @ The Marquee *
10/20 Fredericton, NB @ The Capitol #
10/21 Ottawa, ON @ House Of TARG
10/26 Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace *
10/28 Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory %
10/29 Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory %
10/30 Tallahassee, FL @ Club Dowunder^
10/31 Mobile, AL @ The Merry Widow^
11/02 Oxford, MS @ Proud Larry’s^
11/03 Memphis, TN @ Hi-Tone Cafe^
11/04 Nashville, TN @ Drkmttr
11/05 Atlanta, GA @ 529
11/06 Richmond, VA @ Sound Of Music* – with White Lung
$ – with Big Ups
# – with Partner
% – with Japandroids
^ – with Bully
