California Cousins
photo courtesy of the artist

California Cousins prep new LP 'Secret Footage' (stream a track)

Rochester emo band California Cousins will release their second full-length album, Secret Footage, on June 3 via Acrobat Unstable. “As of this year Christian, Juan, and I have been making music together as California Cousins for 10 years, which is pretty wild to think about,” vocalist/bassist Jordan Serrano tells us. “We don’t have a super extensive back catalogue, but considering our first release was an (admittedly embarrassing) easycore EP back in 2012, we’ve definitely come a long way. Now, with Secret Footage, it feels like we’ve finally honed in on the sound we’ve been gravitating toward for years.”

“We took what worked on our last LP, [2018’s] Distant Relatives, and refined it a bit,” Jordan continues. “We tried to make the heavy parts heavier and the catchy parts catchier, never pigeonholing ourselves to a specific genre. Ultimately we hope drawing from all our influences at once resonates with listeners in the sense that there’s a lil somethin’ for everyone, but if not, at least we’re playing what we wanna play!”

You can hear that array of influences coming through on lead single “Patterns,” which starts out in mathy/noodly Midwest emo territory before turning into a heavy screamo/post-hardcore rager at the end. It’s a very promising first taste of this LP and you can hear it below.

As previously mentioned, California Cousins are opening Prince Daddy & the Hyena‘s upcoming tour, alongside Macseal and Insignificant Other. That includes stops at Asbury Park’s House of Independents on May 24 and Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 27. All dates are listed below. Prince Daddy’s new self-titled album comes out next week (4/15) via Pure Noise, and you can pre-order our exclusive splatter vinyl variant of that LP here.

Prince Daddy