Ruler Winning Star Champion

Seattle indie rockers Ruler releasing LP on Barsuk (watch a new video)

Ruler
photo by Lauren Max

Matt Batey moved to Seattle from Montana 12 years ago, and he’s been part of the Seattle indie rock scene for years. He’s been a member of Rocky Votolato‘s band, and he’s played in Cataldo since 2009. He also makes his own music as Ruler, and he eventually caught the attention of venerable Seattle label Barsuk, who signed Ruler for their new album Winning Star Champion, due out May 25 (pre-order). The album features a few Seattle scene staples, including Cataldo leader Eric Anderson, Michael Lerner of Telekinesis, and Erik Howk who used to be in The Lashes and is now in Portugal. The Man.

We’re premiering the song “Unhindered Pace” from that album, along with its video. Matt says that both the song and video were inspired by months of forcing himself to confront his agoraphobia and run across Seattle’s very narrow Aurora Bridge, as he does in the video. The song is the kind of enjoyable indie rock that should easily appeal to fans of Matt’s aforementioned collaborators and fans of Barsuk’s fruitful catalog (like Nada Surf, Death Cab, The Long Winters, etc). Check it out below.

Ruler Winning Star Champion

Tracklist
Petrified
Winning Star Champion
Cars And Houses
Get To You
Rule This
Unhindered Pace
The Cure
Always Running
Obvious
Keep Moving
We’ve Got It Made