Beach Slang

Beach Slang announce new album with Tommy Stinson on bass, share song

Anyone who knows Beach Slang knows they’re big Replacements worshippers, so it’s pretty big news that Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson is playing bass on Beach Slang’s just-announced new album. (It’s not Tommy’s first time showing love to Beach Slang, but it is his first time playing in the band.) It’s called The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City, and it comes out January 10 via Bridge Nine Records (following two albums on Polyvinyl). And Tommy’s not the only familiar name who worked on this album; it was mixed by Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins, Sunny Day Real Estate, etc). The first single is “Bam Rang Rang,” which starts out like something that could’ve appeared on the first Replacements album, but ends in decidedly different territory. Main member James Alex talked to Kerrang about the song:

“I was listening to an interview with Paul Westerberg about the way he went at writing songs for a particular record — Come Feel Me Tremble maybe? I don’t know,” he says of the first half. “My head loses stuff easily. But, yeah, he called the way he’d hit his guitar as ‘just going bam, rang, rang.’ I heard that and it shot me good. I knew, straight away, I wanted to write a real dirty burner and call it Bam Rang Rang, something that made you want to buy a motorcycle, smoke a cigarette and land a hangover.”

The second half of the song, meanwhile, has a bit more of a point on it for James. “I heard someone say I wasn’t a very good guitar player and I wanted to prove them wrong. I mean, they’re right, but I figured I’d just play loud enough to let them know they weren’t. There’s something about a sleazy riff on a ratty guitar that makes everything alright. So, I smashed Angus Young into Marc Bolan and got a great, big, messy chunk of glam and swagger. Pick your heroes right, you know?”

Listen below.

As mentioned, Beach Slang are gearing up for a tour supporting another band who started out worshipping at The Replacements’ altar, Goo Goo Dolls. The tour follows Beach Slang’s recent two-song EP with covers of Paul Westerberg and Bob Mould songs, which was produced by Goo Goo Dolls’ Robby Takac.

Before that tour begins, Beach Slang play a one-off Brooklyn show at Saint Vitus on October 22, and since we last spoke, their Bridge Nine labelmates Spiral Heads (the new punk supergroup from Simon Doom, Jim Carroll of American Nightmare, and Q from Doomriders) were added to that show. Tickets are still available.

Beach Slang — 2019 Tour Dates
10/22: Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus^
11/5: Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
11/7: Pittsburgh, PA @ Smiling Moose
11/8: Kalamazoo, MI @ Kalamazoo State Theatre #
11/9: Appleton, WI @ Fox Cities Performing Arts Center #
11/10: Madison, WI @ Orpheum Theater #
11/12: Louisville, KY @ Palace Theatre #
11/13: Huntsville, AL @ Mark C. Smith Concert Hall at the Von Braun Center #
11/15: Chattanooga, TN @ Tivoli Theater #
11/16: Knoxville, TN @ Tennessee Theatre #
11/17: Charleston, SC @ Charleston Gaillard Center #
11/19: Richmond, VA @ Carpenter Theatre #
11/20: Columbus, OH @ Palace Theatre #
11/22: Hershey, PA @ Hershey Theatre #
11/23: Atlantic City, NJ @ Tropicana Showroom at Tropicana Atlantic City #
11/25: Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre #
11/26: Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place

^ = w/ Spiral Heads
# = w/ Goo Goo Dolls