Led by singer/songwriter Guy Keltner, & drummer/visual-artist Ian Cunningham, Acid Tongue has been touring the world and espousing a timeless rock & roll sound with a DIY mentality since 2015. The touring band features a rotating roster of musicians from around the globe; with members based in Seattle, Paris, New York, London, Mexico City, Los Angeles, & Austin-lending fresh ears to the setlist for an ever-evolving live experience. Employing nostalgic riffs lifted straight from a forgotten jukebox and razor-sharp lyrics delivered in a childish croon, Keltner has built a large catalogue of material in a short period of time.
Dismayed by their hometown of Seattle's devolution into a squeaky-clean tech bubble, Keltner & Cunningham formed a partnership to elevate their soul-drenched compositions beyond a suffocating local music scene. Their debut EP, I Died Dreaming (2015) garnered the attention of both the iconic radio station KEXP and a hyper-alert British audience- landing the band opening slots for the likes of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, De La Soul, Ariel Pink, and Pacific Northwest legends The Sonics.
In the years to follow, the band set their sights on the global horizon-releasing their sophomore EP Beautiful Disaster (recorded in a London basement) in 2016, a handful of singles & cassette-only releases, and Guy's autobiographical ode to his time living in New York City: 2019's The Night We Broke Our Lease EP (recorded at a friend's home studio in Brooklyn).
In 2016, Keltner and Cunningham co-founded their own record label, Freakout Records, with fellow Seattle music patron, Skyler Locatelli, and in 2017, released the band's debut LP, Babies. The album's singles-"Humpty Dumpty" & "If I Really Loved Her"-received substantial airplay and attention from college radio, playlists, and the underground indie-rock world. Acid Tongue continues to regularly tour across the United States, Europe, Canada, & Mexico, spreading their gospel of cynicism and emotional catharsis to an increasingly wider audience.
Acid Tongue's sophomore full-length album Bullies-available March 13, 2020-finds them fully-formed with a mature sound; synthesizing commentary on millennial culture, bruised relationships and broken dreams, painted against the backdrop of high energy, hard-rocking soul songs that could only be the product of our modern era.
Listen to the title track here:
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