The Van Pelt have announced a new album called Artisans & Merchants. It marks the New York City band’s first new LP in 26 years, and it arrives March 17 via Spartan Records/La Castanya/Gringo. Lead single ‘Punk House’ is out today alongside an accompanying video, which you can check out below.
“When a bunch of old VHS tapes were unearthed, the band had them digitized and they turned out to be from US tours of the mid-90s,” frontman Chris Leo said in a statement. “The footage is mainly of daily banalities: random purchases at rest stops, packing and unpacking the van, highway views that could be on the outskirts of Any Town USA. Yet there is a nostalgia to it that’s compelling. The song mirrors the mood in both sound and text. Lines like ‘The floor is filled with resin on the place where you’re to sleep/ if you have enough to drink you can pretend that it’s a sheet bring any musician back to the rougher side of days on the road – yet again, the subtext here is that the spirit of it all is to be longed for.”
Artisans & Merchants Cover Artwork:
Artisans & Merchants Tracklist:
1. We Gotta Leave
2. Image of Health
3. Artisans & Merchants
4. Punk House
5. Old Souls from Different Epochs
6. Grid
7. Cold Coconuts
8. Did We Hear The Same Song
9. Love Is Brutal
