Coping Skills, Philly's Charming Non-Binary Moody Punk Duo, Share New Single on Stereogum, Plus Tour Dates
By: Tori Hartshorn Mar. 20, 2018
Deceptively poignant duo, Coping Skills, from Philadelphia will release their sophomore record, Worst New Music, will be out on April 13, 2018 via Citywide Records. It's "moderately gay post-ironic bummer pop" that consists of "moving, endearing, and occasionally upsetting songs about, like, the exhausting burden of living under capitalism, post-millennial rot, and the ways mental health can affect both individuals and relationships."
As the follow-up to their debut album, Relatable Web Content, which Stereogum calls a "wry and sharp collection of tracks, filled with odes to Ben Gibbard and songs about mounting college debt," one thing is for sure: this band is committed to the bit and they're all about the joke.
At times, it's fair to say the duo (Rachel Dispenza and Lauren DeLucca) are annoyingly self-aware. Here's what they have to say about the title of their sophomore record's title:
Calling it Worst New Music is about being comfortable enough in our own strengths and insecurities that it makes it impossible for others to use them against us. Any criticism we might get, we've probably already said about ourselves. The most important opinions about an artist's music should always be their own, but what we've noticed is how affected bands and listeners are by bad music journalism and "tastemakers." And that sucks. Because it's just one dude's sty opinion versus your own sty opinion. We want to spur a conversation about music press and its effect on both band's and listener's perception of music; drawing attention to the publicist/PR aspect to releasing music that pulls many strings but doesn't get talked about nearly the same way as say, signing to a label does. We want to talk about it.
Worst New Music is the band's first time in a studio working soley as the musicians and not the engineers. Both Dispenza and DeLucca have backgrounds in recording, and many more hours have been spent behind the console than in front of it. Having recording their prior releases themselves, they took this opportunity to see what it was like to open their door to collaboration. They chose Evan Bernard and Chris Baglivo at Big Mama's Recording because they're another duo, who understand the dynamic of working as a team.
The new album is available for preorder - both digitally and on a limited run of 25 glitter or 125 black cassettes. Coping Skills will be on a record release tour throughout the Spring (dates below). Two Philadelphia shows will happen before the tour, to kick things off in the band's home city (3/23 at JJ's Diner for The Music Matters Project Benefit Show, and 4/12 at Johnny Brenda's).
TOUR DATES
3/23 - JJ's Diner - Philadelphia, PA - The Music Matters Project Benefit Show
04/12 - Johnny Brenda's - Philadelphia, PA - Partner, Curtis Cooper
RECORD RELEASE TOUR DATES
04/26 Richmond, VA @ Crystal Palace
04/27 Raleigh, NC @ Ruby Deluxe
04/28 Columbia, SC @ TBD
04/29 Atlanta, GA @ The Pink Room
04/30 New Orleans, LA @ Parasite Skatepark
05/01 Austin, TX @ Beerland
05/02 Denton, TX @ J&J's Pizza
05/03 Springfield, MO @ The Outland
05/04 St. Louis, MO @ Beef O Brady's
05/05 Bloomington, IN @ Ducks In A Stack
05/06 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
05/07 Cleveland, OH @ Now That's Class
05/08 Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar
05/09 Burlington, VT @ The Monkey House
05/10 Boston, MA @ O'Briens
05/11 Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bazaar Cellar
05/12 Philadelphia, PA @ Everybody Hits
Coping Skills is a band of two people who live in Philadelphia, the place where bands are from now. Lauren DeLucca and Rachel Dispenza met by chance when they ended up moving into the same house after they both enrolled in college for the second time. They started working the same jobs, dreading the same bosses, and decided to learn how to play instruments so they could start a band. This is that band. They graduated, and as of this writing, their combined student loan debt is exactly $288,136.69. Which is a lot of money. They wrote a song about this. Please pay them.
Since starting the band in 2015, they've written a bunch of songs and played a bunch of shows and learned to play their instruments, more or less. That's what bands do. In 2016, they released a tape called Relatable Web Content, which essentially describes the spirit of the thing. Rachel plays the guitar and sings. Lauren plays the bass and sings. They have a rotating cast of friends who play drums with them. For a while they used a drum machine operated by a stuffed hedgehog named Doug, but they fired Doug later that year. Despite creative differences, the three remain friends.
Their songs are just songs. You've heard songs? They sound like those. The best parts of this band come from a dynamic Rachel describes as an unstoppable-force-immovable-object-collision sorta situation, where theirs and Lauren's gut impulses come in conflict, and they end up writing records full of pop songs about bagels and the way that life can suck. They self-identify as "moderately gay post-ironic bummer pop," which gives you a good idea of what you're in for.
On April 13th, they're putting out a new record they're calling Worst New Music, mostly because it fing sucks, and they wanted to tell you that first. But also it's because the idea of Music Taste is a late capitalist branding tool that only stands to benefit tech companies and major labels. Music criticism, as much as it even still exists in 2018, is a vehicle for ads for alcohol brands owned by InBev more often than it is anything else. (Also, hello, InBev if you're reading this, Coping Skills would love to discuss the possibility of a more direct sponsorship opportunity.)
Anyway, behind that real firebrand of a title are more moving, endearing, and occasionally upsetting songs about, like, the exhausting burden of living under capitalism, post-millennial rot, and the ways mental health can affect both individuals and relationships. There's still jokes and stuff, so it's not that serious. But it kinda is.
Photo credit: Josh Stewart
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