New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Jittery 60�s style garage rock couples with spacey synth experimentation and danceable new wave beats on Cotillion Knives, the new album from the Brooklyn band, The Qualia. The album is due out August 12. The first single, �Out For Blood� is available as an approved downloadable mp3. Bright and energetic, the track�s unhinged, upbeat melody and surprise jazz inflections feel perfectly danceable, underpinning a story of teenage frustration and excitement.
Listen to the first single �Out For Blood�:
Praise for The Qualia:
�80s style goodness� - Bill Kopp, Musoscribe
"Jazzy synth pop with a killer left and right hook...epic 'Die in Motion' from Brooklyn artful pop act The Qualia...packed with a relentless beat and massive vocals!" - Diamond Deposits
"The Qualia creates wonderfully expressive pop rock songs that occasionally induce bouts of spontaneous dancing and can easily short-circuit your nervous system." - Joshua Pickard - Nooga
�'Out For Blood,' is an off-kilter slice of indie pop with a ton going on: Casio keyboards, synthesizers and horns working in strange, mystifying unison." -
Magnet Magazine
Front-man Lars Casteen explains that the inspiration came from growing up in Charlottesville,Virginia, a small city known for its affluence, natural beauty, and occasional headline-grabbing scandals. He says, �Every year or two, there was a high profile murder, a student attacked at the university, or something else that made me question the town�s reputation as enlightened and peaceful. That comes up a lot on the record and the song. I�ve developed a distrust for people who insist that everything�s okay when it�s not - it sort of ties into a generational thing happening where people my age are resentful of Baby Boomers and Gen X�ers for destroying the economy.�
These feelings of anger and anxiety come up on other songs in the album, which delve into the sinister undercurrent that marked Casteen�s upbringing in a southern college town. Even the album�s title, Cotillion Knives, comes from a series of formal dances pushed onto awkward middle schoolers to teach them to thrive in proper society. Songs like �Rocket Back Down� highlight generational jealousy, where another, �They
Catch Up,� tells a slow, simmering tale of a wealthy adolescent trying to escape a life of privilege, only to be hunted down and murdered by his peers.
Cotillion Knives Track Listing:
Cotillion
Die in Slow Motion
Rugby Road Extended
Rocket Back Down
They
Catch Up
Trick Candles
Out For Blood (*FCC warning - 0:53, 1:51)
Get Unspooled
Don�t Want Nothing
Late Bloomer
About The Qualia
Brooklyn based band, The Qualia, is made up of Lars Casteen, Chvad SB and Rossen Nedelchev. They have been writing and releasing music for about eight years. Their first record, Nevada�s Greatest! (2007), Secret Weapon (2010), and the EP, Memorial Gore (2011) were all released on WTII Records. They have opened up for bands like Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
