Coming out of hibernation with their first track (and subsequent album) in ten years, The Bush Tetras are continuing their plunge, full-steam, into foreboding waters. “Red Heavy,” the first single off their forthcoming EP Take The Fall, out April 13 via Wharf Cat Records, is a slow-to-boil brooder, a thickened up bassline reintroducing you to that all-too-easily forgotten notion that not all areas of music (or life) need be feel-good. That one string, pulled ever so slightly, dims the lights in whatever room, or alleyway, or forest you find yourself in, and gives you that sense of “not alone here.” Dee Pop’s snare drum hits knock at the foundation of your knees, coupling with the tease of Pat Place’s effected, snarling electric guitar whooshing past your ear like deafening, unnerving projectiles. Vocalist Cynthia Sley’s fierce intonation slams with the same intensity as their 1979 inauguration, as she howls, “My heart is pierced, deflated tired / You’ll never guess what will transpire. The stormy sky seen overhead / A sailor warned shows no regret.” It’s real deal troublemaker music, the swirling and jangling of slide guitar eddies and promises of danger afoot, and the metronomic ticking timebomb of cowbell only hammers home this promise. The innovators haven’t skipped a beat.
April
14 – New York City at Le Poisson Rouge w/ PILL & Palberta
21 – Boston at The Middle East
22 – New Haven at Cafe Nine
May
5 – Miami at Gramps
12 – Oakland at The Elbo Room
13 – San Francisco at The Elbo Room
19 – Toronto at Rivoli
July
7 – Detroit at PJ’s Lager House
