End Hit Records and As Friend Rust give us Any Joy on August 18, sharing the lead single from the upcoming record now: "Positive Mental Platitude."
The band last released new material in 2020, but Any Joy is their first new full-length album since 2001.
Vocalist Damien Moyal shares some deeper thoughts:
"Positive Mental Platitude" is about performative concern, using Facebook’s “Care reaction" emoji to symbolize the fairly empty gestures we make to show solidarity or sympathy without getting too close. We now have constant visibility into each other’s lives, so when we see someone suffering some misfortune, there’s an expectation to acknowledge it and empathize in spite of our own busy lives, struggles and tragedies. This dynamic requires new tools, and quick ones, to keep pace. With a single emoticon – praying hands, a heart, a muscular arm flexing – we can fulfill our ends of the social contract, neatly and conveniently. Reflexively. It’s not without its merits. I do it. But it’s not particularly meaningful, either. Sweet, but no staying power.
While formed in Gainesville, FL long ago, the new record was recorded from members' homes across the US: vocals in Ann Arbor, MI, guitars in Gainesville, and with guest Andrew Seward (Against Me!) playing bass on most of the record.
Any Joy will release on LP, cd, and digital formats.
Any Joy track list:
1. Final Form
2. Positive Mental Platitude
3. See Us Now
4. Great Filter
5. The Walking Debt
6. Origin Stories
7. No Gods, Some Masters
Tour Dates:
w/ Don’t Sleep
Sept 29 - Germany Schweinfurt Alter Stattbahnhof
Oct 1 - Germany Leipzig Conne Island
Oct 2 - Belgium Antwer Kavka
Oct 3 - UK London Boston Music Room
Oct 4 - Germany Wiesbaden Schlachthof
Oct 5 - Germany Köln Gebäude 9
Oct 6- Germany München Hansa 39
Oct 28 - Gainesville, FL @ The Fest
Nov 18 - Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus
Check out a pic of As Friends Rust, live at The Fest 14, in this recent feature on The Fest.
