from the inbox:
Massachusetts-based DEFEATER is proud to announce the title and release date for their forthcoming album: Empty Days & Sleepless Nights, available March 8th, 2011 from Bridge Nine Records. The band's second full-length is a double LP, kicking off with ten of the heaviest and most intricately-written songs (Empty Days) Defeater has done to date. Following those ten tracks are four acoustic songs (Sleepless Nights) that sound a lot like Rocky Votolato and Ryan Adams. Guitarist Jay Maas said, "This new album was a very natural progression for us. We'd cut our teeth on an acoustic track on Travels ("Prophet in Plain Clothes") which is one of the most well-received songs we play live. And Derek (Defeater's vocalist) had written some lyrics that worked beautifully against an acoustic canvas so we decided to follow the heavier tracks on this new album up with these songs, resulting in a double LP release." Fans of heavy music should not fret - the first LP features 10 tracks that are incredibly dynamic and huge-sounding melodic hardcore songs. Maas continued, "Empty Days & Sleepless Nights is truly our most realized work yet. While we wrote this record, we really incorporated all of our musical tastes and creative talents. There are some surprises on this record for sure, but also plenty to love for fans of Defeater. We couldn't be more proud of how this album turned out."
Empty Days & Sleepless Nights carries on the narrative songwriting style the band has developed about a family set in post-WWII America in a working class town in New Jersey. We were first introduced to these characters in Defeater's debut LP, Travels, which was released back in 2008 and received great critical acclaim. The album was hailed with such bold accolades as "a new artistic peak for hardcore" (Punknews), "brilliant" (Absolutepunk) and "the perfect definition of modern hardcore" (Lambgoat). Travels was followed up in November of 2009 by the equally well-praised EP Lost Ground, which followed a man's (the "Prophet In Plain Clothes") journey from the military to post-war life. Empty Days & Sleepless Nights traces back to the family setting from Travels, but focuses on the older of the two sons and at times runs parallel to Travels, yet the events now unfold through the older sibling's eyes. Empty Days & Sleepless Nights is another chapter in the conceptual opus that is Defeater.
Empty Days & Sleepless Nights was once again recorded with Defeater's guitarist, Jay Maas, at his own Getaway Recording Studios in Wakefield, MA, throughout Fall of 2010. Maas commented on pulling double duty on the record as guitarist and producer by saying, "It's nice to be behind an idea all the way from it starting in your mind to actually shaping the way it will be heard as a final product. At the same time, there is an extreme level of stress that is reached when working so hard to both write AND record an album. But I wouldn't trade it for the world." Fortunately, Empty Days & Sleepless Nights has benefited from such TLC and turned out to be an absolute masterpiece.
Check out two songs off of Empty Days & Sleepless Nights by pre-ordering the Dear Father EP, which features one acoustic track ("I Don't Mind") and one heavy track ("Dear Father") from the album now on B9Store.com . This album teaser hits streets on February 8th while the ED&SL full length will be available everywhere on March 8th, 2011. Defeater will tour Europe in February and March with Carpathian - tour dates are below. Stay tuned for more Defeater tour announcements and information coming soon.
The artwork for the EP is above. Tour dates and the tracklisting for the lp are below.
DEFEATER - EMPTY DAYS & SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
EMPTY DAYS
Warm Blood Rush
Dear Father
Waves Crash, Clouds Roll
Empty Glass
No Kind of Home
White Knuckles
Cemetery Walls
Quiet the Longing
At Peace
White Oak Doors
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
But Breathing
Brothers
I Don't Mind
Headstone
DEFEATER - on tour with Carpathian
18/02 Germany Giessen MUK
19/02 Germany Bochum Matrix
20/02 Netherlands Eindhoven Kafee Aloys
21/02 UK London Underworld
22/02 UK Bristol The Croft
23/02 UK Leeds The Well
24/02 UK Nottingham Rescue Rooms
25/02 UK Bournemouth Champions
26/02 Belgium Ieper Winterfest
27/02 Germany Trier Ex-Haus
28/02 Germany Hamburg Hafenklang
01/03 Germany Berlin Cassiopeia
02/03 Austria Wien Arena
03/03 Germany Karlsruhe Die Stadtmitte
04/03 Italy Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna) Blogos
05/03 Germany München Feierwerk
06/03 Germany Rosswein Juha
