Been Stellar Share New Single 'Pumpkin'

New York rock band Been Stellar have released their newest single, “Pumpkin.”

“This song is somewhat of a sonic departure for us — it’s definitely more subdued,” says lead singer Sam Slocum.  “There was a point when we weren’t totally sure it would make it onto the album because of that. It had existed in many forms, but it wasn’t until the last month leading up to recording when each part fell into place. Oddly, the lyrics remained the same from the very beginning. They stemmed from a visual I had: an apartment light shining through its windows out onto a street at night. I imagined the people inside the apartment crossing back and forth in front of the window. From there, the lyrics I wrote formed a vignette of the people in the apartment, sharing a space together. I described several shared, intimate moments from my own life— I wanted to get as specific as I could.” The song marks the last pre-release single ahead of the band's debut album Scream from New York, NY, coming out on June 21st via their new label home Dirty Hit.

Been Stellar have spent the spring on a major European tour supporting The 1975 and are currently out on their own sold out headlining UK tour which included stops at The Great Escape and London Calling last week. They’ll return to the states for their Lollapalooza debut, ahead of their North American tour supporting Fontaines D.C. before returning to the UK and Europe for an extensive headline run. Stops this fall include the Palladium in Los Angeles on September 26th, the Salt Shed in Chicago on October 9th and the Paramount Theatre in Brooklyn on October 15th and 16th. 

The band have shared several singles so far, including the white-knuckled and cutting “Sweet,” the ferocious late-album highlight “All In One,” and lead single "Passing Judgment," a masterful deployment of unbearable pressure and violent relief. 

Scream from New York, NY is a remarkably brutal debut – bruised and volatile, it captures an image of ‘20s New York that’s unrelenting and harsh, where tenderness is a finite resource burned up by the machinery of the city and human connection is a luxury product. Leaving behind the driving shoegaze of their early recordings, the NYC-based five-piece tap into the disaffected sound and spirit of New York luminaries like Sonic Youth and Interpol, as well as the nihilistic, yearning cool of Iceage and Bends-era Radiohead, striking upon a sound that’s fearsome, buffeting and beautiful at the same time – a tidal wave as viewed from underneath. 

Pre-order the album on vinyl, CD and cassette from Dirty Hit HERE. 

Tour Dates

May 22 - Manchester, UK @ YES (basement)

May 23 - London, UK @ The Lexington

July 26 - Sheffield, UK @ Tramlines Fest

July 27 - Oxfordshire, UK @ Truck Fest

July 28 - Suffolk, UK @ Latitude Festival

August 1-4 - Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza

Sep 20 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo *

Sep 21 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater *

Sep 22 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom *

Sep 24 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield *

Sep 26 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium *

Sep 27 – San Diego, CA @ SOMA *

Sep 28 – Pomona, CA @ The Fox Theater *

Sep 30 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren *

Oct 2 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre *

Oct 4 – Lawrence, KS @ The Granada Theater *

Oct 5 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown *

Oct 6 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee *

Oct 8 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore Minneapolis *

Oct 9 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed *

Oct 11 – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre *

Oct 12 – Montreal, QC @ MTELUS *

Oct 13 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner *

Oct 15 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount * (SOLD OUT)

Oct 16 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount *

Oct 18 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club * (SOLD OUT)

Oct 19 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club *

Oct 20 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia *

Nov 3 - Amsterdam, NL @ Bitterzoet

Nov 4 - Cologne, DE @ Blue Shell

Nov 6 - Berlin, DE @ Cassiopeia

Nov 7 - Hamburg, DE @ Molotow Skybar

Nov 9 - Warsaw, PL @ Klub Hybrydy

Nov 10 - Prague, CZ @ Cafe V Lese

Nov 11 - Munich, DE @ Orangehouse 

Nov 13 - Milan, IT @ Bellezza 

Nov 14 - Zurich, SW @ Exil 

Nov 16 - Brussels, BE @ Witloof Bar 

Nov 17 - Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere

Nov 19 - Bristol, UK @ The Fleece 

Nov 21 - Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy 3 

Nov 22 - Glasgow, UK @ King Tuts 

Nov 24 - Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny 

Nov 25 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club 

Nov 26 - Nottingham, UK @ Bodega 

Nov 28 - London, UK @ Scala 

Nov 30 - Dublin, IR @ The Workman’s Club 

Dec 1 - Galway, IR @ Roisin Dubh 

Dec 2 - Belfast, UK @ Ulster Sports Club 

* supporting Fontaines D.C.

Tracklist:

01 Start Again

02 Passing Judgment

03 Pumpkin

04 Scream From New York, NY

05 Sweet

06 Can’t Look Away

07 Shimmer

08 Takedown

09 All In One

10 I Have The Answer

As its wry title implies, Scream from New York, NY, is a record about what happens when language fails – between friends, partners, a city and its citizens – and the primal scream you might let out when words just don’t work anymore. 

Like so many other dyed-in-the-wool New York bands, Been Stellar are transplants. Guitarist Skyler Knapp and vocalist Sam Slocum first met in their freshman year of high school a decade ago; members of the cross country team, they bonded over the band t-shirt Skyler was wearing and decided to start jamming together. In Michigan, they started performing under the Been Stellar name, but it wasn’t until the pair began studying at NYU, and met Brazilian-born guitarist Nando Dale, bass player Nico Brunstein and drummer Laila Wayans, that a sound started to coalesce. Despite working in wildly disparate styles – Nando and Skyler bonded over British bands like The Cribs; Nico was making electronic music, and Laila rave – the group bonded over a shared sense of humor, forming a motley crew based more on emotional compatibility than any rigid ideas of shared artistic sensibility. 

Determined to break new sonic ground, the band embarked on a relentless practice schedule, even renting scrappy studios on days off during tours with Fontaines DC and Shame. After befriending him at SXSW, the band tapped producer Dan Carey (black midi, Wet Leg) to help coalesce the disparate elements of their sound that had been percolating: forceful, driving physicality; pop classicism; gnarled beauty; and a rich emotional core. The resulting 10-song album announces Been Stellar as gimlet-eyed chroniclers of contemporary youth, staring through noise and confusion into the dark heart of modern life. These songs embody the spirit of a city that makes and breaks its inhabitants on a daily basis - an irony befitting the album’s tone: Been Stellar’s preternatural ability to capture the disconnection that haunts New York with photorealist detail might just be the thing that vaults them into its pantheon.

Photo credit: Gabe Long

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