Monday, January 22, 2018

Poster Children to Release First Album in 14 Years. Here's the Title Track.

Poster Children by Nathan Keay

"Grand Bargain!"

Like CoolMom, Poster Children were born and grew up in Champaign, Illinois. The band formed when Rick Valentin (vocals, guitar) and Rose Marshack (bass, vocals) met at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the mid-eighties, just about the time that CoolMom was discovering music like, well, Poster Children. Over the next 15-plus years, Poster Children released 11 LPs and EPs covering styles from punk to indie rock to post-hardcore and more. Recently, the band announced that they'd be returning with their first album in 14 years to mark one year since the inauguration of Donald Trump. Last week, they shared title track "Grand Bargain!"

Engineered by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, Grand Bargain!, according to the band, is "a return to their formative years" featuring "a raw and intense fury matching their heralded live performances." The title track would seem to bear that out. It's angular, political, prog-punk and opens with Valentin declaring "America held hostage: Day 1!" I've listened to the song about 50 times since discovering it, and the edge still hasn't worn off.

Grand Bargain! is currently up for pre-order via Pledgemusic and slated for a May 2018 release.



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