VANCOUVER DUO’S UPCOMING ALBUM, POSITIVE THINKING, OUTAUGUST 12 VIA CADENCE MUSIC
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES CONTINUE THIS WEEK
LISTEN TO AND SHARE “FAIR ENOUGH” HERE
PRE-ORDER POSITIVE THINKING HERE
PHOTO: REBECCA BLISSETT
The Pack A.D.’s Becky Black and Maya Miller are two musicians who sound like five and know that that kind of shit takes work. They don’t have the time or patience to fuck around, which is why they’re out the door and on tour with a ferocious start to support their upcoming album, Positive Thinking and the first single “So What”. The first few weeks have been a smash, starting at home in Vancouver and tearing up rooms across Canada and now into the U.S.
The Georgia Straight says “So What” is “the sinfully sweet spot between shimmering ’90s shoegaze and hyperlush pop” while Exclaim! notes the song’s “series of in-the-red riffs” and The Vancouver Sun simply calls it “rollicking.” In the meantime “So What” has hit #43 on the National Commercial Alternative Rock Radio Chart after peaking at #1 on CBC Radio 3.
Now the drum pounding, gutted guitar duo from East Vancouver is ready to reveal another track from their upcoming LP.“Fair Enough” is about “the bubbles of illusion we inevitably draw around ourselves as a barrier against reality,” says Black. “The comforts of escapism.”
LISTEN AND SHARE “FAIR ENOUGH” HERE
Set for release on August 12 via Cadence Music, Positive Thinking is all carefully constructed chaos, crushing vulnerability, and massive swagger. Underneath the sprawl of its sonic infrastructure, singer/guitarist Black and drummer Miller — self described lifelong high school outcasts — traverse the hidden tunnels that connect all us damaged people together: anger, alienation, humour, sarcasm, sincerity, loneliness, grief.
“Positive Thinking explores the numbing day-to-day routine of depression and the fantastical ways that we look to mask it from ourselves and others,” Miller says. “The lyrics on this album are probably more personal to us than on any other record we've done.”
PRE-ORDER POSITIVE THINKING HERE
Engineered by Jesse Gander (White Lung, Bison, Japandroids) and mastered by Heba Kadry in Brooklyn’s Timeless Mastering, Positive Thinking isn’t a total overhaul of the Pack A.D. everybody knows and loves. But making this album—it was a reinvention, an old-school reckoning, and they’re better for it. We’re all better for it. “We’ve gone back and found the place where we started from,” Miller says. “This may have been one of the most difficult albums for us personally to work on but because of that, it's also been the most comfortable. There isn't a single moment where I feel like we've done any of it for anyone but ourselves.”
Fans can watch the sci fi inspired alien abduction video for “So What” now, which Noisey says is “as polished as it is grimy” and what CBC Music calls “visually stunning” and “a must-see.”
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “SO WHAT” HERE
THE PACK A.D. ON TOUR
Jun 13 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
Jun 14 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club
Jun 16 - Saskatoon, SK - Bud’s On Broadway
Jun 17 - Red Deer, AB - Bo’s Bar
Jun 18 - Edmonton, AB - Brixx
Jun 21 - Spokane, WA - The Bartlett
Jun 22 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
Jun 23 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
POSITIVE THINKING TRACKLIST
01 So What
02 Yes, I Know
03 Teenage Crime
04 Anyway
05 Medium
06 Los Angeles
07 Sorrow
08 Error
09 Gold Eyes
10 Is It So
11 Skin Me
12 Fair Enough