If you’re hoping to catch more than five acts at this year’s New Colossus Fest, Swallow the Rat might be a good place to start—the New Zealand–hailing group juggles post-punk and shoegaze while leaning on progressive song structures to keep listeners on their toes. News of their debut Leaving Room arrives today, which will drop a month after the collective takes the U.S. by storm at NCF and SXSW in March.
Today STR are also sharing the first single from Leaving Room, called “Bird of Ill,” which sets the tone for the record as a particularly noisy affair, doing with post-punk what New Colossus headliners A Place to Bury Strangers have been doing with noise rock for years: merging the genre with messy shoegaze for dense, lengthy soundscapes that end somewhere entirely different from where they begin.
“My wife is from the north of England where the superstition ‘bird of ill omen’ is well known,” guitarist/vocalist Sam Vercoe shares. “I was inspired by this concept of how in sociocultural practices we associate negative events with luck rather than taking responsibility for the choices we make. This song plays with the idea of our own intrinsic beliefs of the power we hold over the actions we take which lead to situations of ‘bad luck.’”
Leaving Room is out April 24 via Shifting Sounds. Pre-order it here. See details on their New Colossus and SXSW visits below.
March 14 New York, NY @ New Colossus Fest @ Bowery Electric
March 15 New York, NY @ New Colossus Fest @ Bowery Map Room
March 18 Austin, TX @ SXSW – New Zealand Party at the Parish
March 19 Austin, TX @ SXSW – The Loyalty Firm Official SXSW 2020 showcase at the Drafting Room
March 20 Austin, TX @ SXSW – Shifting Sounds Party at Hole in the Wall
March 21 Austin, TX @ SXSW
