Today, surf-punks The Frights are releasing a new album of uncharacteristically emotive songs. Everything Seems Like Yesterday is the group’s second LP for Epitaph, and the first to see them move in the direction of introspective acoustic songwriting, rooted in vocalist Mikey Carnevale’s original intention to share the songs as a solo record.
Among the ten new tracks, “Leave Me Alone” stands out as particularly earworm-y pop song, borrowing little more than its angsty subject matter from their SoCal-punk godparents. “[It’s] definitely the bounciest song on the record, and probably the most light hearted, lyrically speaking,” Carnevale notes. “During the writing process this song was a good turning point for me. Once this one was finished, tracked, and on the actual record, it gave us a kind of creative push to finish what we had started, and make each song as alive as the last.”
To bring the track to life, The Frights couldn’t resist the surreality of Palm Springs for the setting, pitting epic forest fires against lavish apathy. “The entire Palm Springs area really is a place that has never made sense—you have this crazy vast expanse of raw desert that slams straight into craggy mountains,” explains drummer Marc Finn. “It’s a place where your inner bullshit kind of quiets down for a minute, because you’re in a place that’s so alien, so completely stark. (Naturally, we wanted to set it on fire.) I loved the idea of setting these extremely dumb, surface level conflicts in such a foreboding place, where the fact that they’re even in a resort at all is such a fuck-you to, well, god and nature and all that.”
Everything Seems Like Yesterday is out now via Epitaph—stream it here, and grab a pre-order from their site before physical copies are released March 13. They’ll also be headlining a U.S. tour beginning in February—full dates below.
2/15 — San Diego, CA (Spreckels Organ Pavilion)
3/13 — Phoenix, AZ (Crescent Ballroom)
3/14 — Tucson, AZ (191 Toole)
3/21 — Dallas, TX (Deep Ellum Art Co)
3/22 — Houston, TX (Studio at Warehouse Live)
3/24 — Atlanta, GA (The Masquerade (Hell))
3/26 — Baltimore, MD (Baltimore Soundstage)
3/27 — New York, NY (The Bowery Ballroom)
3/28 — Asbury Park, NJ (House of Independents)
3/29 — Philadelphia, PA (First Unitarian Church)
3/31 — Boston, MA (Brighton Music Hall)
4/2 — Cleveland, OH (Phantasy)
4/3 — Detroit, MI (The Shelter)
4/4 — Chicago, IL (Bottom Lounge)
4/5 — Minneapolis, MN (Fine Line)
4/7 — Denver, CO (Bluebird Theater)
4/8 — Salt Lake City, UT (The Greek Station)
4/10 — Portland, OR (Wonder Ballroom)
4/11 — Seattle, WA (Neumos)
5/19 — Santa Barbara, CA (SOhO Restaurant & Music Club)
5/20 — San Luis Obispo, CA (Fremont Theater)
5/21 — Santa Cruz, CA (The Catalyst)
5/22-24 — Napa, CA (BottleRock Music Festival)
5/28 — Fresno, CA (Strummer’s)
5/30 — Los Angeles, CA (The Wiltern)
