
TACOCAT
– Share new single & video “The Joke of Life”
– LP ‘This Mess Is a Place’ due May 3rd via Sub Pop
Seattle band Tacocat
When Seattle band Tacocat—vocalist Emily Nokes, bassist Bree McKenna, guitarist Eric Randall, and drummer Lelah Maupin—first started in 2007, the world they were responding to was vastly different from the current Seattle scene of diverse voices they’ve helped foster. It was a world of house shows, booking DIY tours on MySpace, and writing funny, deliriously catchy feminist pop-punk songs when feminism was the quickest way to alienate yourself from the then-en vogue garage-rock bros. Their lyrical honesty, humor, and hit-making sensibilities have built the band a fiercely devoted fanbase over the years, one that has followed them from basements to dive bars to sold-out shows at the Showbox. Every step along the way has been a seamless progression—from silly songs about Tonya Harding and psychic cats to calling out catcallers and poking fun at entitled weekend-warrior tech jerks on their last two records on Hardly Art, 2014’s NVM and 2016’s Lost Time.
This Mess Is a Place, Tacocat’s fourth full-length and first on Sub Pop
Despite current realities being depressing enough to make anyone want to crawl under the covers and sleep for a thousand years, Tacocat
Throughout the album, Tacocat questions power structures and the way we interact with them, recalling the feminist sci-fi of Ursula K. Le Guin in pop-music form. “Rose-Colored Sky” examines the privilege of people who have been able to skate through life without ever experiencing systemic disadvantage: “For all the years spent/Hot lava shaping me/For all the arguments/I wonder who else would I be?” Nokes sings. “If I wasn’t on the battleground/I bet I could’ve gone to space by now.” “Hologram” reminds us to step outside ourselves and try to see beyond imaginary structures that trap us: “Just close your eyes and think about the Milky Way/Just remember if you can, power is a hologram.”
The record is full of beautiful details, finding plastic beaded curtains catching light amidst feelings of despair. This Mess Is A Place explores politics with more nuance than the topical songs of Tacocat’s past, inviting listeners in for more complicated exchanges and leaving space for introspection. “Grains of Salt” finds the band at the best they’ve ever sounded: Maupin’s spirited drums, McKenna’s bouncy walking bass, Randall’s catchy guitar
Producer Erik Blood (who also produced Lost Time) brings the band into their full pop potential but still preserves what makes Tacocat so special: they’re four friends who met as young punks and have grown together into a truly collaborative band. Says Nokes: “We can examine some hard stuff, make fun of some evil stuff, feel some soft feelings, feel some rage feelings, feel some bitter-ass feelings, sift through memories, feel wavy-existential, and still go get a banana daiquiri at the end.”
‘This Mess Is a Place’
1. Hologram
2. New World
3. Grains of Salt
4. The Joke of Life
5. Little Friend
6. Rose Colored Sky
7. Phantom
8. Crystal Ball
9. Meet Me at La Palma
10. Miles and Miles
See Tacocat live:
May 09 – St. Paul, MN – Turf Club
May 10 – Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club
May 11 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
May 12 – Grand Rapids, MI – The Pyramid Scheme
May 13 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Cafe
May 15 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair
May 17 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
May 18 – Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle
May 19 – Washington, D.C. – U Street Music Hall
May 21 – Durham, NC – The Pinhook
May 22 – Atlanta, GA – The Drunken Unicorn
May 23 – Nashville, TN – The High Watt
May 24 – St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway
May 25 – Kansas City, MO – The Record Bar
June 08 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox at the Market
June 12 – Spokane, WA – The Bartlett
June 13 – Boise, ID – Neurolux
June 14 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
June 15 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
June 17 – Dallas, TX – Club Dada
June 18 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
June 19 – Austin, TX – Barracuda
June 21 – Sante Fe, NM – Meow Wolf
June 22 – Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar
June 23 – San Diego, CA – The Casbah
June 25 – Los Angeles, CA – The Bootleg Theater
June 26 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel
June 28 – Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater
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