Methyl Ethel Announce EP + US Tour
By: Kaitlin Milligan Feb. 25, 2020
Today, Australian psych band, Methyl Ethel announces their new EP. Hurts To Laugh will be released Friday 10th April via Dot Dash / Remote Control. Today, the band share the EP's lead single "Majestic AF". Listen via methylethel.lnk.to/hurtstolaugh.
To celebrate the new single and EP Methyl Ethel will be supporting Peter, Bjorn & John on their American tour dates throughout March and April. On return to Australia, Methyl Ethel will tour in solo mode at intimate venues in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Full tour dates and ticket links below.
Hurts To Laugh marks the ongoing output of Methyl Ethel singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jake Webb's restless mind. Time and again he's proven that while there's no distinction between music and art, psychologically speaking there is a difference between feeling and emotion. One is a conscious response to a set of circumstances, the other is the unconscious conditions of our very being that only occasionally surfaces through feelings. Hurts To Laugh excavates this ambiguous site, implied by its very title. You can laugh so hard it hurts - pure joy. Or laugh despite the pain - despair. These paradoxes run throughout the EP, as well as everything that came before.
'Majestic AF' stumbles into its bubbling oscillator and analogue polyrhythms, while a kick-free drumbeat marches right into an atonal synth melody supporting Webb's equally idiosyncratic falsetto.
Hurts To Laugh was recorded at the same time as 2019's Triage and both releases feature cover art by Sydney-based artist Loribelle Spriovski. Triage was Webb's third and final album in a trilogy of obliquely expressed relationship drama, starting with 2015's Oh Inhuman Spectacle which features certified ARIA Gold single 'Twilight Driving'. 2017's Everything Is Forgotten birthed the sensational single 'Ubu' which is now certified ARIA Platinum.
Methyl Ethel is a project that's the brainchild of a single mind-writer, performer and producer Webb-while also being a live band of five members. It makes music that draws from myriad influences and a history of new wave and indie rock, while sounding like its own thing entirely. Both familiar and alien, intimate and aloof, you never quite know what you're in for, but the trip is bound to be enchanting.
Pre-order / pre-save Methyl Ethel - Hurts To Laugh via methylethel.lnk.to/hurtstolaugh
TOUR DATES
March 23 - Teragram Ballroom - Los Angeles, CA#
March 24 - La Santa - Santa Ana, CA#
March 25 - New Parish - Oakland, CA#
March 27 - Doug Fir Lounge - Portland, OR#
March 28 - Crocodile - Seattle, WA#
March 31 - Urban Lounge - Salt Lake City, UT#
April 01 - Bluebird - Denver, CO#
April 03 - Amsterdam - St. Paul, MN#
April 04 - Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL#
April 05 - Loving Touch - Ferndale, MI#
April 07 - Johnny Brendas - Philadelphia, PA#
April 08 - Union Stage - Washington, DC#
April 10 - Webster Hall - New York City, NY#
April 11 - Brighton Music Hall - Boston, MA#
April 15 - The Outpost - Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
April 16 - Nightcat - Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
April 17 - Mary's Underground - Sydney, AUSTRALIA
April 19 - Goodwill Club - Perth, AUSTRALIA
# Supporting Peter, Bjorn & John
All tickets
via methylethel.com
Methyl Ethel - Hurts To Laugh - TRACK LISTING
1. Majestic AF
2. Honest
3. Charm Offensive
4. What Memory Found
5. The Quicker
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