WATCH AND SHARE “COOL TO WHO” HERE
COOL TO WHO LP DUE OCTOBER 18 VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC
"Walrus sound like one complete organism...No one part is taking away from anything else, and they all move well together." - Exclaim!
"Unrelenting guitar grooves and a smattering of psychedelia." - Stereogum
"Walrus bring about a magnificent explosion of noise and heat." Consequence Of Sound
Photo Credit : Charlie Benoit // DOWNLOAD HI-RES
Walrus, the Halifax based, Britpop-indebted, garage-psych quartet, are excited to announce their new album Cool To Who, due October 18, 2019 on Outside Music. To ring in the announcement, the group has shared the video for the title track, “Cool To Who”, a song about “making plans in the night and not being able to keep them the morning,” says songwriter Justin Murphy.
The video, produced by At Land (Nicole Cecile Holland and Sarah Greenwood) with the support of the StanceEast car club, stars Jackson Briggs, a Halifax based music producer and degenerate Instagram comedian. The video concept was born from Holland’s obsession with internet photos of squat poses in front of cars.
“Cool To Who” Single Artwork // DOWNLOAD HI-RES
Recorded over two sleep deprived days, Cool To Who is an album that runs the gamut from 60’s psych, garage rock, to 90’s Britpop. “I don’t think we have a specific classification or term of what we do, we used to be a lot more psyched out but now I think we just make music we like,” explains Justin. “We’re not trying to sound like one specific thing and aren’t trying to pretend we’re a jazz band or something either, so I suppose we sound like ourselves, a maturing version of what we have always been.”
With songs about getting robbed on tour and running out of food, anxiety, anti-social tendencies, Oasis in their prime, and a pseudo commercial for Halifax, Cool To Who captures the live energy of one of the hardest working bands on the planet.
As proof, we present the fact that Walrus are banned from Avis Rental Car. Rental companies offer unlimited mileage on a vehicle for families renting a minivan to go to their cabin, Disney World, or a family reunion. They don’t anticipate the renters racking up 18,000km in less than 3 weeks. It was worth it, the band played throughout the US and Canada, earning a devout following of their dynamic live show. After being banned from Avis, the band got their own van, and promptly drove it into the ground after more relentless touring.
There are a lot of good live bands, but some can’t make a good record. It’s not easy trying to capture that intense live energy in a studio, where there’s no energy from a live audience to propel a band. To recreate that live environment, Walrus found the biggest live space they could in Riverport, Nova Scotia at the Old Confidence Lodge, an 18th century old theatre on the banks of the LaHave River. “Originally we had just planned on trying out OCL for a couple days to see if we liked it, but ended up just banging out the whole record that weekend,” says Justin. “The main room there is enormous so we were able to have the whole band setup to play at once. Pretty much only the drum tracks were kept from that, but being able to play along with everyone definitely gave it that live sound.”
Formed in 2012 by brothers Justin and Jordan Murphy, Walrus, have been the recipients of some great tutelage. They were signed to Dan Mangan’s Madic Records for their first album which garnered them some immediate attention and most recently, they came off the road from supporting The Sadies on a North American tour. “We pride ourselves on being a hard working band,” says Justin. “We take our live show seriously and want to put on a real performance for the audience. The Sadies are one of the best bands to model yourself after when it comes to that side of things, and it wasn't lost on us.”
Now, a scrapyard worth of vans behind them, Walrus emerge with Cool to Who, their best album to date. They’re ready to get in the bad books of some more rental agencies, but it will all be worth it, both for them, and for you. Watch for more new music and tour dates to be announced shortly.
