LAGWAGON RELEASE NEW ALBUM, RAILER

INFLUENTIAL PUNK BAND LAGWAGON RELEASE NEW ALBUM, RAILER, ON OCTOBER 4th VIA FAT WRECK CHORDS
NORTH AMERICAN CO-HEADLINING TOUR WITH FACE TO FACEANNOUNCED FOR SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER
RAILER, PRODUCED BY CAMERON WEBB (ALKALINE TRIO, MOTÖRHEAD)

Lagwagon has also announced its fall North American co-headlining tour with label mates Face to Face. Beginning on September 27 in Tacoma, WA, the month-long tour will extend through October 27 and hit major markets such as Detroit, MI, Brooklyn, NY, Chicago, IL, Boston, MA, Atlanta, GA and more. Supports for the tour will include H20, MakeWar and Destroy Boys, and tickets are on sale now. A full listing of dates can be found below with more information on Lagwagon’s Facebook page HERE.

Unlike the last few Lagwagon albums, RAILER was written in an incredibly condensed period of time, in an attempt to capture the spirit of the band’s early days.  And it worked. While songs like “Stealing Light,” “Dangerous Animal” and “Dark Matter” bristle with a raw, ragged and pure energy that’s unusual for any band to have after almost 30 years of existence, these tracks also directly harken back to the band’s early days.

“There’s only so much one person or a group of people can do before they start to develop characteristics that become common to them,” says Cape in typically philosophical fashion, “and I think you have to be comfortable with that. And I am. I like my band and what we’ve done and I’m okay with the fact that we have our strengths and we have our limitations. I know what it is that we do well and if we stay true to that, there’s something that comes out of that that is truly original, because you’re being true to who you really are.”

At the same time RAILER, produced byCameron Webb (Alkaline Trio, Motörhead), accurately and honestly reflects who Lagwagon are in 2019, both lyrically and musically. While it sounds like these songs could have been written by a band 20 years younger, RAILER, as a collection, presents itself as youthful but jaded, frantic but exhausted, visceral yet cerebral.

The idea of struggling to get by alongside an overwhelming sense of existential chaos and angst is a common thread throughout RAILER, in the bouncy desperation of “Jini,” the Bertrand Russell-inspired “The Suffering,” the breakneck despair of “Parable” and even in the carefree nostalgia of “Bubble” and its unflinching celebration of the band’s early days of “beer for pay” and the “roach-ridden pads” they used to crash at. Life has moved on in the three decades since Lagwagon started, but it’s not something the band – guitarists Chris Rest and Chris Flippin, drummer Dave Raun and bassist Joe Raposo – have entirely left behind either.  

Additionally, Cape doesn’t necessarily expect people to extract his specific philosophies from each of these songs, but they’re certainly present for the listener to seek out if they want to. At the same time, just as with Lagwagon’s earliest songs, RAILER’s songs are there to be listened to and enjoyed, to take you back to simpler times. It’s no coincidence, then, that RAILER ends with a frantic punk rock cover of Journey’s “Faithfully.” Back in their earlier days, Lagwagon’s albums often used to include cover songs, but the band hasn’t recorded one for a long time, until now. And, with this record, Lagwagon has come full-circle and rediscovered the purest version of who they’ve always been as a band. Not that that feeling was ever really lost in the first place, of course.

“I wouldn’t say ‘lost’,” confirms Cape, “but you evolve. Evolution is a journey within yourself. You go on this journey and it takes you wherever it takes you, there are multiple people along the way that you meet who have different ideas than you and as you grow, you get into different things along the way. I don’t know if you ever completely lose the sense of where you came from, but you definitely evolve away from it over time. But the thing is, it’s always there.”

Lagwagon will be making the following co-headlining appearances with Face to Face throughout September and October. Dates below.

09/27/19 – Tacoma, WA @ Spanish Ballroom at Elks Temple *
09/28/19 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre *
09/29/19 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom *
10/01/19 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot *
10/02/19 – Denver, CO @ Oriental Theater *
10/04/19 – Minneapolis, MN @ Skyway Theatre *
10/05/19 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues *
10/06/19 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew’s Hall *
10/07/19 – Columbus, OH @ Columbus Athenaeum *
10/09/19 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw *
10/10/19 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore *
10/11/19 – Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom *
10/12/19 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa *
10/13/19 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club *
10/15/19 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground >
10/16/19 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade >
10/17/19 – Tampa, FL @ The Ritz Ybor >
10/18/19 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room >
10/19/19 – St. Augustine, FL @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre >
10/21/19 – Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Live! #
10/23/19 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Pressroom #
10/24/19 – Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues #
10/26/19 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory #
10/27/19 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park #

>: H2O opening
*: MakeWar opening
#: Destroy Boys opening

THE MENZINGERS SHARE NEW SONG & VIDEO “STRANGERS FOREVER”

Today Philadelphia-based punk band The Menzingers share the music video for the song “Strangers Forever,” a track off the band’s forthcoming record Hello Exile out October 4 via Epitaph. The track is a searing tribute to parting ways, backing their spiky guitars with brilliantly barbed lyrics. “Lyrically, the song is inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel, ‘Anna Karenina’. In it, the character Darya Alexandrovna learns of her husband’s infidelity and declares: ‘Even if we remain in the same house, we are strangers — strangers forever!’” explains vocalist Greg Barnett. “The idea of becoming a stranger to someone you so intimately know stuck with me and became the overarching narrative to this song.”

Misery Loves Company Release New Single, “Sad Song”

New Jersey-based post-emo outfit, Misery Loves Company, has released a brand new single, “Sad Song.” The track follows the band’s previous releases, their debut EP Love Notes and Highways in 2017 and single “Dead Inside” in late 2018. “Sad Song” and the accompanying stream video can be watched on the Revival Recordings YouTube page.