Hawaii's Kings of Spade Announce Continental US Tour Dates

Hawaiian by birth, southern by sound: Kings of Spade's gritty, whiskey-soaked swagger is making its way to the forefront - and to the mainland this fall! After years of building a local buzz, the four-piece is excited to announce the release of their self-titled album produced by Dave Cobb, coming October 19via Soundly. The four-piece will be taking the show on the road in support of the album this October, with dates ranging from Phoenix to Atlanta to New York City. Stream + Watch "Way She Goes" Spotify | Youtube.

The first taste of the new album comes via "Way She Goes" - a perfect display of Kings of Spade's balance between sheer power, emotion, and the ability to have a good time - accented by the production of Nashville favorite Dave Cobb. Hawaiian fans can get a feel for what's to come when the band plays this month in Honolulu.

Pre-Save the Album Here

CATCH KINGS OF SPADE LIVE:
8/24 - Honolulu HI - The Republik
10/9 - Phoenix AZ - Last Exit Live
10/14 - Birmingham AL - The Nick
10/15 - Atlanta GA - Music Room at Smith's Olde Bar
10/18 - Charlotte NC - Milestone
10/20 - Washington DC - Tropicalia
10/23 - New York City NY - Arlene's Grocery
10/26 - Battle Creek MI - Music Factory
10/28 - Indianapolis IN - Melody Inn
10/31 - Des Moines IA - Lefty's Live Music




MORE ON KINGS OF SPADE:
It was 2006, and the band from Honolulu moved to Los Angeles to chase their dreams. But the jungle, as we've learned, isn't always so welcoming. Singer KC and drummer Matt Kato were barely scraping by. So they decided to sell their blood for money. "Everyone at the clinic looked down-on-their-luck," KC remembers, laughing. "I was hooked up to a plasma machine reading the self-help books there. This was the lowest point of my life."

A majority of the feisty anthems on the group's new full-length, Kings of Spade (Oct 19th, 2018, Soundly Music), comes from simply not letting tough times kick them down. Produced by Grammy-winner Dave Cobb (Rival Sons, Judah and the Lion, Chris Stapleton), their output (guitarist Jesse Savio and bassist Tim Corker rounds out the band) is at turns soulful and rollicking-never complacent, never dull, always sincere.

Kings of Spade's first single is "Way She Goes." Though buoyant, falsetto'd, and highly danceable, it's about the pitfalls of queer romance. "I've never had a lesbian girlfriend," KC says. "It's always a straight girl wondering why they're attracted to me. This song is about that chase." The sleight of hand underlying Kings of Spade's work is that their songs manage to feel like punch-the-sky singalongs, despite being effortlessly personal, often bordering on cathartic. The banshee wail and grimy riffs of "San Antone" and the Joplin-esque, slinky blues of "Mess of Me," for instance, are a more lovesick "Way She Goes".

"I was this somber, closeted queer kid who felt soul and blues music," says KC, who grew up on everything from Aretha Franklin to Creedence Clearwater Revival. She had no designs on being a singer until, one day, while bartending at Anna Bananas in Honolulu, the house band pulled her up on stage to sing. "They started playing Sweet Child O' mine," she says. "I started singing and was like, 'Hey, I sound pretty good.'"

After teaming up with guitarist Jesse and recruiting local punk-rocker Matt on drums and Tim on bass, KC took it upon herself to book club shows that featured Kings of Space alongside local DJs, artists, and other bands. After amassing a decent following, they left for California, returned to Hawaii, and then back to LA years later after former MTV VJ Riki Rachtman caught them at SXSW-"Your singer's fing incredible," he told Jesse-and booked them an enviable slot in a show commemorating the 30th anniversary of his old metal club, the Cathouse. (It once gave rise to, yes, Guns N' Roses.)

They recorded Kings of Spade over two weeks in Nashville with Dave Cobb. "He produced a band I like, The Rival Sons, which had this old-school sound with modern energy-like, analog-tape soul built into it," Jesse says, admiringly. Not one to disappoint, Dave used a vintage Mellotron keyboard to give the crunchy "Take Me" its intriguingly simmering comedown. Marvels KC, "We'd never seen that stuff before...."

Typically, as with "Way She Goes," Jesse brings ideas to the band, and they collectively decide if it's a good fit. KC explains, "Eventually the vibe of the song will spark a memory. Then I write the lyrics." Those soulful memories she conjures are the deceiving gut-punches that make Kings of Spade so dimensionally potent.

There's no better example of this than "Strange Bird"-all Zeppelin riffs and stellar vocal gymnastics-which, in reality, chronicles KC's heart-breaking coming-out story. "I was in second grade and told a girl in school that I liked her," she says. By the time she walked home from school, her furious mother, who was very religious, cut-off her tomboyish rattail and told her daughter that she'd be wearing dresses from now on. "I had to go to school like that the next day," says KC, who notes that her mom has since come around. "It was super-traumatic, but I learned to hide it. Inside, I felt like I was dying. I had suicidal thoughts."

Kings of Spade's music sounds so alive, because rock and roll actually saved KC. "I slowly turned into somebody who had the confidence to be myself," she says, "rock my colors." Turns out, those colors are electric. Says Jesse: "There's this amazing energy that comes off her when she's singing. It hits you in your sternum."