Greet Death share new song "Your Love Is Alcohol," announce tour with Infant Island
Greet Death have just followed their recent single “I Hate Everything” with another new single, “Your Love Is Alcohol,” and like the previous track, it finds the punk/shoegaze band going in a softer, folkier, but still dark direction. “I wrote ‘Your Love Is Alcohol’ in July of 2020. Around that time, my girlfriend and I would hang out after work at my parents’ house and pass a bottle of Tito’s Vodka back and forth and listen to my parents watching Fox News. Getting drunk with my girlfriend is one of my favorite things to do so I wrote a song about it,” Logan Gaval said. “We recorded the song with our friend and new bass player Jackie Kalmink. I’m very excited to see what we can create before the heat death of Earth.” It’s a gorgeous song, and you can stream it and watch the video (directed by Logan) below.
Greet Death have also announced a 2022 tour with support from metallic screamo band Infant Island, which is a great double bill. That includes a stop at Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus Bar on April 23 (tickets). All dates are listed below.
Last year, Infant Island released Beneath (one of our favorite albums of 2020) and the mini-LP Sepulcher.
Greet Death — 2021/2022 Tour Dates
11/19 Detroit, MI @ Sanctuary
3/24 Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club *
3/25 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry *
3/26 Fargo, ND @ The Aquarium *
3/27 Des Moines, IA @ Gas Lamp (Matinee) *
3/28 Wichita, KS @ Barleycorn’s *
3/29 Denver, CO @ Meadowlark *
3/31 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court *
4/01 Boise, ID @ The Olympic *
4/02 Portland, OR @ The High Water Mark *
4/03 Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile *
4/05 Oakland, CA @ Elbo Room *
4/06 Los Angeles, CA @ Resident *
4/07 Costa Mesa, CA @ The Wayfarer *
4/08 San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick *
4/09 Phoenix, AZ @ Nile (Underground) *
4/11 Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips *
4/12 Austin, TX @ Spider House Ballroom *
4/13 Houston, TX @ Eighteen Ten Ojeman *
4/14 New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa *
4/15 Mobile, AL @ Alabama Music Box *
4/16 Atlanta, GA @ Boggs *
4/17 Nashville, TN @ Springwater *
4/19 Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor *
4/20 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall *
4/21 Washington, D.C. @ Pie Shop *
4/22 Philadelphia, PA @ Milk Boy *
4/23 Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus *
4/24 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East / Upstairs *
4/26 Middletown, CT @ Rednawa *
4/27 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Funhouse *
4/28 Columbus, OH @ Spacebar *
4/29 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle *
4/30 Detroit, MI @ Sanctuary *
*w/ support from Infant Island
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30 Essential Songs from the Shoegaze / Heavy Crossover
My Bloody Valentine – “You Made Me Realise” (1988)
Swervedriver – “Rave Down” (1990)
Way before "metal-gaze" was a thing, MBV's UK neighbors and Creation Records labelmates Swervedriver were getting metal cred. "Rave Down," the title track of their 1990 sophomore EP (which also ended up on their 1991 debut album Raise) was made single of the week by a heavy metal magazine, which prompted guitarist Jimmy Hartridge to say "Maybe we're the start of an indie-metal cross-over" in a 1990 Melody Maker interview. If only he knew just how on point that comment would end up being.
It's not hard to see why a metal mag might've liked "Rave Down." That crushing riff in the middle of the song owed as much to sludge metal as the more pillowy parts owed to shoegaze. MBV could add some weight into their songs when they wanted to, but "Rave Down" really toed that shoegaze/metal line in 1990 as much as Hum's breakthrough hit "Stars" would five years later. Swervedriver not only ended up opening for Hum years later, they also did US tours in the early days with Soundgarden (1992) and The Smashing Pumpkins (1993). With monster riffs like "Rave Down" in their arsenal, it's no wonder the grunge-loving US crowds latched onto them.
Catherine Wheel – “Kill Rhythm” (1993)
The Smashing Pumpkins – “Rocket” (1993)
Starflyer 59 – “A House Wife Love Song” (1995)
Quicksand – “Delusional” (1995)
Failure – “Saturday Savior” (1996)
LA's Failure started out as more of straight-up grunge/alt-rock band, but they slowly inched their way towards shoegaze and space rock, and it all culminated in 1996's Fantastic Planet, their third album and final new release until their mid 2010s reunion. There are a lot of songs on Fantastic Planet that perfectly navigate the shoegaze/space/grunge/punk/metal divide ("Stuck On You," "Another Space Song," "Leo," "Sergeant Politeness," to name four), but it's opening track "Saturday Savior" that really epitomizes what the heavy shoegaze sound is today. It's as catchy and anthemic as anything on alt-rock radio in the mid '90s, but it's cloaked in atmosphere and moves at a glacial pace. It's the perfect way to kick off the album that became their masterpiece.
Unfortunately, said masterpiece wasn't received as well as it deserved to be, and Failure broke up just a year later. Like Hum, the album became hugely influential over the years, and with the band's eventual reunion came the long overdue recognition of Fantastic Planet as one of the true classic records of '90s alternative.
Deftones – “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” (1997)
Hum – “Isle of the Cheetah” (1998)
Hum's 1995 hit "Stars" is the band's most historically significant song, a super catchy fusion of post-hardcore and shoegaze that managed to get this type of music on the radio, but its one hit wonder status has done a disservice to the rest of Hum's music in the mainstream public eye, so I chose something else for this list. Plus, as fantastic as 1995's You'd Prefer an Astronaut is, its followup Downward Is Heavenward is really the album where Hum pushed their sound to the limits and raised the bar for what heavy, spacey, shoegazy rock could be. It's a crime that the album was viewed as anything but a creative and artistic leap from its predecessor.
It's hard to pick just one song, but the nearly-seven-minute opener "Isle of the Cheetah" is a great place to start. It immediately introduces Downward Is Heavenward as a more ambitious album than You'd Prefer an Astronaut, with jangly acoustic guitars, gentle piano lines, thick layers of sludge, prog riffage, and Matt Talbott's angelic vocals all swirling together to create the song's towering wall of sound. "Stars" was digestible enough to become a fluke hit, but the world wasn't ready for something as immersive as this.
Far – “Bury White” (1998)
Castor – “Stay Lo” (1999)
Cave In – “Big Riff” (2000)
Shiner – “The Egg” (2001)
Centaur – “The Same Place” (2002)
Hopesfall – “Escape Pod for Intangibles” (ft. Matt Talbott) (2002)
Boris – “Farewell” (2005)
Jesu – “Silver” (2006)
Title Fight – “Head In the Ceiling Fan” (2012)
Cloakroom – “Bending” (2013)
Paramore – “Future” (2013)
Nothing – “Hymn to the Pillory” (2014)
Lantlôs – “Azure Chimes” (2014)
Superheaven – “I’ve Been Bored” (2015)
Holy Fawn – “Dark Stone” (2018)
Torche – “Admission” (2019)
Alcest – “Sapphire” (2019)
Greet Death – “You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done” (2019)
Hum – “Cloud City” (2020)
Clearbody – “One More Day” (2020)
Deafheaven – “Great Mass of Color” (2021)
Listen and/or subscribe to our playlist of all 30 songs: