Out today, FALSE HEADS return with another cut of their patently agitated punk-tinged rock on latest single: “Thick Skin”.
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Produced by Frank Turner and taken from the trio’s long-awaited new album ‘Sick Moon’ — due 30 September 2022 via Scruff of the Neck Records — the snarling slice of garage-grunge takes aim at the current political climate and the incessant hopelessness and rage that bubbles over on social media.
With biting electric guitar lines, a final fractured drum breakdown and a gritty, yet relentlessly catchy chorus, “Thick Skin” swings from agitated to infectious in a beat.
Speaking of the new track frontman Luke Griffiths explains:
“”Thick Skin” is about how much I f****** hate the current political discourse. To me, politics seems to be completely and utterly middle-class from left to right — class has been seemingly removed from a lot of left-wing politics.
It’s also about social media politics. That kind of rage and vitriol is some form of lashing out for mental health problems and it’s like a form of addictive behaviour. I understand this, dealing with depression and having a history of drug abuse, and I understand how difficult it is to not let that rage inside you come out in vicious ways. But I just feel like social media has allowed a million different forms of religion, nationalism and tribalism to be completely normalised. Our brains are rotting and there is no hope, and every time I feel like there is I’m stung again.”
Arriving as a scorching third glimpse into False Heads’ forthcoming second album, “Thick Skin” comes in the wake of earlier singles “Day Glow” and “Mime The End”. Gaining airplay across the UK and beyond from a range of tastemaker names including BBC Radio 6, BBC Introducing, talkSport Radio, Amazing Radio, KINKin the Netherlands and Inter FM in Japan, “Mime The End” was also featured on BBC Radio 1’s Future Artists with Jack Saunders and gained placements on Apple Music’s ‘New in Rock’, Spotify’s ‘All New Rock’ and Amazon Music’s ‘Best New Bands’ playlists.
Produced by Frank Turner at his home studio — and with its first single unveiled just weeks after Turner’s own record ‘FTHC’ landed the UK Number One spot — the ten-track LP ‘Sick Moon’ arrives this September.
Of the story behind upcoming album, Luke adds:
“The album is just a pure expression of everything I’ve felt and feel. It’s pure rage, isolation, and alienation, yet also sarcastic and hopefully sprinkled with a bit of humour. It’s a stream of consciousness I used to deal with my struggles with depression, insomnia, anxiety, and issues with substance abuse.
It’s also about how often the external world seems to parallel and affect your internal struggle. I get trapped into a cycle of apathy and suffocation with the idea of externalism and eternal recurrence: maybe we have no free will and maybe we do all of this again and again, forever. Humans aren’t meant to have access to every piece of information on the planet at once. I’ve felt frustration over the last five years in the music industry; rock and pop music have become an endeavour for kids from super-rich families or kids from parents already in the industry.”
False Heads are Luke Griffiths (guitar/vocals), Jake Elliot (bass) and Barney Nash(drums), and are for fans of Radiohead, Nirvana and The Libertines. The band have taken the UK by storm in recent years, forming in 2015 and eventually catching the attention of key tastemakers with their incendiary live reputation.
False Heads have earned airtime from a range of renowned radio stations and hosts including Steve Lamacq (BBC 6 Music), John Kennedy (Radio X), Jack Saunders(BBC Radio 1), Planet Rock, KINK (NL), Sirius XM (US) and RTE2 (IE), and have been praised by the likes of Clash Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, Louder Than War and When The Horn Blows amongst others. With their single “Rabbit Hole” gaining over a million streams on Spotify, the band’s recent album ‘It’s All There but You’re Dreaming’ has amassed nearly four million streams across all platforms.
The Essex outfit have also played with the likes of The Libertines, Josh Hommeand Band of Skulls, and the legendary Iggy Pop has gone so far as to endorse the band as “young, talented and going places.”
With their second studio album ‘Sick Moon’ set for release this September, the band will also be heading out on their most extensive UK and European tour to date from October 2022. Full dates and details below.
2022 LIVE DATES
JULY
31 – Y Not? Festival, Derbyshire
OCTOBER
01 – Muther’s Studio, Birmingham
02 – World Headquarters, Newcastle
04 – Hug and Pint, Glasgow
05 – The Grand Social, Dublin
06 – Voodoo, Belfast
07 – Monroe’s Live, Galway
11 – Bodega, Nottingham
12 – Venn St Social, Huddersfield
13 – Night & Day Cafe, Manchester
14 – Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield
17 – The Exchange, Bristol
18 – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
19 – 60 Million Postcards, Bournemouth
20 – Oslo, London
21 – The Hope & Ruin, Brighton
26 – Neues Schauspiel
27 – Backstage Cub, Stuttgart
28 – Yard Club, Cologne
31 – Headcrach, Hamburg
NOVEMBER
1 – Cassiopeia, Berlin
2 – Melkweg, Amsterdam
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