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American Wrestlers share the track Hello, Dear from their forthcoming album Goodbye Terrible Youth due out on Fat Possum on 4 November

October 11, 2016

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AMERICAN WRESTLERS
Share the track “Hello, Dear”
Taken from their forthcoming album Goodbye Terrible Youth
Due out on 4 November via Fat Possum
Now residing in St Louis, Scottish musician Gary McClure harnesses the best of the songwriting traditions and lyrical wit of his homeland, combined with heady, psych-tinged, US-influenced indie rock, to create a refreshing and heartfelt account of modern day life with his second American Wrestlers release, Goodbye Terrible Youth. Today he shares the emotive track “Hello, Dear” via DIY, who described it as: “Darting between nervous, tip-toeing passages and huge euphoria, it’s an impassioned reflection on self-doubt.”
Gary McClure explains more about the track:
“‘Hello, Dear’ is a common subject line for spam email, or at least my junk folder seems forever full of mail with this header.
The song is from the point of view of a person who is taking on the image of being an artist when they’ve never produced anything
that could be deemed a work of Art on their whole life. It’s about feeling your time running out. In a panic you grab some cool pants
and a canvas and spread on some abstract crap and ask the void “What about this? Will this do it?”. It’s harsh and I’m a hypocrite.
Who knows, historically maybe some of the best Art has been made that way. There sure is enough of it stacking up.
What could be my favorite line from the whole record is here
“I’d crawl through glass for a sign of life but lately I cannot sleep at night with my back to my telephone”
It gets quiet, it gets loud. The guitars are the nerves getting out of control, the drums are the something deliberate and impending””

ABOUT AMERICAN WRESTLERS
How do you improve an already striking set of stripped-down, homemade pop? Gary McClure, the St. Louis-by-way-of Scotland songwriter behind American Wrestlers, a once anonymous project that became one of the year’s best new bands, believes it’s about being true to the basics.
“It’s truly about becoming good enough to write the album you wanted to listen to when you were 15,” he says. “Every time I make a new record, I feel like I’m getting closer.”
Goodbye Terrible Youth (4 November, Fat Possum) shows McClure taking bedroom recordings onto a bigger stage without sacrificing the intimacy that makes them so attractive. If his self-titled album showed his knack for stringing together addictive guitar lines—the shimmer of shoegaze mixed with the emotional fist pump of power pop—Goodbye Terrible Youth amplifies that energy with a road-tested band. Literally breaking out of the home studio—the Tascam mixer McClure had been recording on has fallen apart from overuse—he’s embraced a bigger sound and stage on Goodbye Terrible Youth, his rueful yet propulsive songwriting only becoming sharper.
“I wanted to write songs that bridged the gap better between audience and stage,” he says. “Faster, louder more distortion. Something you can do handstands and backflips and start small fires to.”
Building on the dreamy haze of previous recordings, McClure’s music on GTY often crackles with energy. Lead song “Vote Thatcher” flips a switch between propulsive, jangly guitar lines and bright, boisterous, choruses, a fitting backdrop for lyrics imploring listeners not to let their youth slip through their fingers. “Someone Far Away,” propelled by a massive, fuzzy bassline, makes a perfect soundtrack for a long desert drive, while the angular and angsty, while “Terrible Youth” opens with a muscular take on the mid section riff of Marquee Moon, than fuzzes into grunge over a Stone Roses bass line along with a bit of Big Star swagger.
When McClure’s homemade recordings surfaced in late 2014, they featured the kind of lo-fi charm you’d expect from a lost classic, like a long-lost mixtape rediscovered under the seat of your car. Self-released on Bandcamp, the earnest and effortless album reflects McClure at his best.
“Its this weird kind of thing happens where the music kind of constructs itself,” he says. “My music making process is always happening, always going on in my head. It’s almost like anti-virus software in my computer. It’s always plugging away in the background.”
McClure’s career may be the definition of plugging away, enough so that he has the unique distinction of being “discovered” twice. Before starting American Wrestler, he was one-half of Working For a Nuclear Free City, a shoegaze-inspired band out of Manchester, England. By 2013, McClure and bandmate Phil Kay decided to wind the project down. As McClure weighed next move, he started playing around and posting demos online. The tracks caught the attention of Bridgette Imperial, an American who was studying overseas, and sparked more than just a meeting of musical minds. They began dating, and a year later, McClure had moved to St. Louis to marry her.
The midwest move has been a key influence for the restless musician, a more open music scene than he was accustomed to in Manchester. While working a warehouse job for UPS in Missouri, McClure began experimenting and recording what would become the first American Wrestlers album, and the momentum and reception built since then has allowed him to stretch out and refine a new album of songs with a full band, which includes Imperial, who plays keyboard, as well as Ian Reitz on bass and Josh Van Hoorebeke on drums. McClure’s new set of bouncing, well-crafted songs show that musical youth is not always wasted on the young.
“I’m always surprised by how each record brings me closer to writing simpler, heavier, catchier songs like those bands who gave me my musical epiphany: Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins, Hole and that first Foo Fighters record,” he says. “I first learned how to write by copying them and got lost for a decade in intricacy and experimentation. Now, it feels like I’m heading back.”
American Wrestlers
Goodbye Terrible Youth
4 November – Fat Possum
01 “Vote Thatcher”
02 “Give Up
03 “So Long”
04 “Hello, Dear”
05 “Amazing Grace
06 “Terrible Youth”
07 “Blind Kids”
08 “Someone Far Away”
09 “Real People”

PRAISE FOR AMERICAN WRESTLERS

“Americana indie-rock gem” – The Independent

“One of the most exciting albums I’ve heard this year” – The Guardian

“But the intrigue neither adds nor detracts from the fact that this is one of the best records of the year. By times lo-fi and dreamy, at others basking in melodic power-pop.” – Q

“The songs grab you from the start with clever guitar hooks and pretty soft-rock melodies that hide under the tinny brashness of the production.” – The Sunday Times

“You can hear the bona fides of a skilled singer-songwriter. McClure’s cool charm makes these homespun songs feel like long-lost guitar-pop gems, newly discovered and barely dusted off.” – Rolling Stone

“Scottish expat Gary McClure sings with a fragile-but-hopeful tenor like a beam of light from a discount flashlight, and as American Wrestlers, he’s stumbled upon a scrappy underdog lo-fi sound that lets his songs shine properly.” – Stereogum (Band to Watch; 50 Best New Bands of 2015)

“The soupy sonics, looping guitar riffs, and McClure’s surprise shredding may put American Wrestlers in league with bands like Real Estate and War on Drugs, but the melodies are pure ’70s AM gold” – SPIN (Album of the Week)

“McClure leads songs off with breezy guitar leads, memorable titles become indelible lyrics, choruses make satisfying, expected leaps. And despite its disheveled exterior, McClure’s lyrics generate positive energy out of bad vibes – Pitchfork

Pre-order Goodbye Terrible Youth: http://smarturl.it/AWGTY.CDLP

American Wrestlers Online:
https://twitter.com/americanwrestle
https://americanwrestlers.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/americanwrestlers/

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