WATCH AND SHARE “AMARUQ” HERE
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES BEGIN MARCH 5
WARRIOR DOWN OUT NOW VIA YOU’VE CHANGED RECORDS
BUY / STREAM WARRIOR DOWN - PHYSICAL / DIGITAL
“Warrior Down takes you for a sonic hike — sometimes through the wilderness, sometimes through a wasteland — never staying long in one spot or indicating the next direction. With long instrumentals that dance between chaos and calm, it's a subconscious assault on the emotions.” - Exclaim!
“Warrior Down is a perfectly paced and arranged set of songs and instrumental interludes, each a movement in its own right but ultimately in service to the record’s overarching theme.” - Dominionated (#1 Album of 2019)
“Whoop-Szo released its powerful new album, Warrior Down, at the end of 2019, giving us an impossible-to-categorize, rock-psych-sometimes-folk set of 10 songs that draw on vocalist and lyricist Adam Sturgeon's experience as an Anishinaabe-Canadian, writing about the intergenerational trauma within his family and his Anishinaabe community" - CBC Music
“Sitting at the meeting point of sludgy post-metal, and jagged folk-punk, WHOOP-SZO craft melodies that perform the dual function of encouraging your rapt attention, and effectively melting into.” - Beatroute
“Amaruq” Video Still
On March 5, WHOOP-Szo will take their acclaimed new album, Warrior Down, on the road for a run of tour dates throughout the US on the way to SXSW before returning to Canada. Full tour dates can be found below.
Today, the band shares the new video for “Amaruq” which songwriter Adam Sturgeon describes as “a visual summation of the themes conveyed on Warrior Down. It presents a vision of an Indigenous Future, one that defies being molded into the usual narrative of Indigenous identity. The ‘Noble Indian’ looks into the mirror of his past and/or present.”
Video director, editor, and set builder Ross Millar says the song “has a lot of energy, and it immediately gave us the impression that there was an adventurous story to be told visually. The challenge with miniatures is making small characters, structures and landscapes appear much bigger than they are. A lot of it comes down to tricky camera angles, lighting, and various scales to achieve depth and create an interesting cinematic environment for the viewer.
This video is a product of friends getting together on a small budget and using their combined skills and camaraderie to make something special.”
WATCH AND SHARE “AMARUQ” HERE
Listed as one of The Most Underrated Albums of 2019 by Exclaim!, Warrior Down presents a vast and barren landscape associated with the harsh truth of Canadian History, a post-colonial firestorm harbouring moments of doom and heavy introspection while remaining true to their psychedelic aesthetic.
WHOOP-Szo is a force of nature, sprung from a mixed-blooded experience of Canadian history with deep Anishinaabek roots. Thunderous and ground-breaking, harmonious and generative—a WHOOP-Szo show envelops audiences in an emotional weather-storm that dances conscientiously between anger and discipline, frustration and hope. They tell us about colonial injustice loudly and punishingly, with haunting chord changes and monolithic distortion. They explore the possibility of wisdom and empowerment, with acoustic melodies that calmly find space within crushing layers of politics and sound. On stage and off, WHOOP-Szo engage communities with a powerful synchrony that invites people to feel and to heal. They are passionate storytellers who knock loudly on the door, and will reward you tenfold for letting them in.
WATCH WHOOP-SZO LIVE ON CBC q HERE
Warrior Down harnesses their power into a concise, focused 35 minutes on wax, calling out both specific instances of injustice in Canadian history — as we see in “Gerry”, or recalling Sturgeon’s grandfather’s experience at a Residential School (“Gerry”, “Cut Your Hair”) — and broader, wider-reaching ones such as the experience of having race and culture assigned to you by a government that doesn’t represent you (“6.1/6.2”).
WATCH AND SHARE “GERRY” HERE
BUY / STREAM WARRIOR DOWN - PHYSICAL / DIGITAL
TOUR DATES
Mar 5: Toronto, ON - Baby G
Mar 12: Cincinnati, OH - Mockbee
Mar 13: St. Louis, MO - Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center
Mar 15 : Louisville, KY - Wet Basement
Mar 16: Fort Worth, TX - Lola’s
Mar 17: Denton, TX - Fannin
Mar 18-20: Austin, TX - SXSW
Mar 21: Hot Springs National Park, AK - Valley of the Vapors Festival
Mar 25: Seattle, WA - Substation
Mar 26: Portland, OR - No Fun Bar
Mar 27: Boise, ID - Neurolux / Treefort Music Festival
Mar 28: Boise, ID - The Hideout / Treefort Festival
Mar 29: Boise, ID - Tom Grainey's Basement / Treefort Festival
Apr 1: Abbotsford, BC - Carport Manor
Apr 2: Vancouver, BC - TBD
Apr 3: Victoria, BC - Rubber Boots Club
Apr 4: Seattle, WA - Victory Lounge
Apr 5: Portland, OR - Firkin Pub
Apr 8: Regina, SK - T & A Vinyl
Apr 9: Calgary, AB - Palomino
Apr 10: Edmonton, ON - Aviary / Mad Galaxy Festival
Apr 11: Saskatoon, SK - Amigo's
Apr 14: Winnipeg, MB - Good WIll Social Club
Apr 15: Thunder Bay, ON - Apollo
Apr 16: Sault Ste Marie, ON - Sault Ste Marie Museum
Apr 17: Port Huron, ON - Schwonk Homestead
Apr 18: Toronto, ON - Tiny Record Store (Record Store Day)
Apr 18: London, ON - Grooves Records (Record Store Day)
Apr 21: Quebec City, QC - La Source De La Martiniere %
Apr 22: Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz %
Apr 23: Peterborough, ON - TBD
Apr 24: Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern %
Apr 25: Ottawa, ON - 27 Club %
% with Trail Of Dead
MORE PRAISE FOR WHOOP-SZO
“A true psychedelic group ... For WHOOP-Szo, punk, DIY and psych principles go beyond music scene bubbles and fuse with Indigenous solidarity and healing through music.” - NOW
“WHOOP-Szo has perfected their eclectic sounds, binding the paradox of indistinguishable familiarity with themes of Canadian history, language, and culture.” - VICE
“It’s scary how good this band is” - Exclaim!
Photo Credit : Rima Sater // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES