Sloppy Heads releasing an LP ft. YLT's James McNew (stream a track)

Brooklyn indie rockers The Sloppy Heads made Yo La Tengo bassist James McNew‘s favorite album of 2014, and now they got James to record, mix and play on their new album Useless Smile, which comes out on January 20 via Shrimper Records (pre-order). We’ve got the premiere of “The Suck” from that album:

The Sloppy Heads have two hometown shows coming up: December 5 at The Glove with George Sand, Ryne Ziemba and a “v special guest” (more info), and an album release show on January 25 at Union Pool with James McNew’s Dump project (who they also played that same venue with in August). Advance tickets for the show with Dump are on sale.

Here’s what Sloppy Heads’ Jimmy Jumpjump tell us about the new record:

Around the time we played a show together a few years ago, we collectively befriended Stephen Hunking, chief songwriter of the dear departed Hypnolovewheel and more lately of the equally excellent XL Kings. A few weeks after that show together, we repaired to our old practice space for further bonding and Stephen arrived with an answer song to our song “U Suck,” which he’d heard us play a few weeks earlier, and which ended up opening our album. After a few late night jams with Stephen, we kept the song, rearranging it for the three of us. Despite not sending him our version for a few years, we stayed friends with Stephen, who most recently joined us for a set-long “New Speedway Boogie” jam at the opening of our friends Chris and Lisa’s Marbled Meat Shop in Cold Spring, source of insanely delicious food products. Ariella now serves as the organist in the XL Kings, too, who you should totally check out whenever they play next. We’re still figuring out which song is going to occupy the final slot in our Suck trilogy.

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