QUITTER Reveals Video For New Slacker Single ‘Hey, Useless’ Out Now
“This will stay with you…it will bury deep into your thoughts and feelings" - Podcart
"Gentle and lovely underneath the grumble and mumble" - Song, By Toad
Scottish Alt Songwriter QUITTER Reveals Video For New Slacker Single ‘Hey, Useless’
Watch - https://youtu.be/H3d_s1BmHFI
Launches Preorders For New Album Monument Road
Released 22nd September 2023 via Heavenly Creature / Gold Mold Records
Preorder - http://linktr.ee/quittermusic
Select Scottish Live Dates + Glasgow Album Launch Show On Sale Now
Scottish alt singer-songwriter Quitter (aka Kenny Bates) is pleased to reveal the video for his new single ‘Hey, Useless’ which is released on 9th August 2023 via all good streaming platforms.
The track is latest to be taken from his new album Monument Road, which will be released on 22nd September 2023 via independent labels Heavenly Creature and Gold Mold Records, and is available to preorder now.
The album will be released on a run of 200 black vinyl, including a printed card inner sleeve with lyrics and photographs. Pre-ordered vinyl comes with exclusive stickers and an exclusive hand-numbered, 16 page, A5 full-colour zine featuring album liner notes, collage, lyrics, poetry, photographs, and stream of consciousness writings.
‘Hey, Useless’ is the second track to be taken from the album following on from lead single ‘Penny Drop’, which was released earlier this year via all good streaming services, and was featured on the Lomography website last week.
Commenting on track, Bates says: “‘Hey, Useless’ is a dozy, slacker ode to indecisiveness. It’s a bit of a retrospective look at being useless and rolling your eyes at yourself. This single was recorded live as a band in an old half-burnt-down mansion house that’s now owned by the community in Stirling (Bannockburn House). The sections of rolling noise and the sounds of the wheels coming off before miraculously landing neatly back on track are a fun reflection on the rollercoaster ride of being useless.”
Setting his confessional storytelling within a noisy, progressive-yet-emotive musical landscape, Bates’ music is heavily flavoured by ‘90s US indie, emo, noise rock and lo-fi recording practices in a battle of what he calls “yuck vs yum”—a quick listen will yield distinct influence from the likes of American Football, Pavement, Slint, David Pajo, Conor Oberst, and Songs: Ohia, amongst others.
Recorded at Bannockburn House in Stirling by Stevie Cossar and in Bates' parent’s house, Monument Road was mixed by Stevie Cossar, mastered by Robin Sutherland (Esko Mastering) and follows on from Bates’ 2021 EP Good Things Come To You, 2018 self-titled album Quitter, and 2016 debut EP Commuter Town, which drew underground acclaim for their notable quality.
Based between Stirling and Glasgow, Bates has also previously toured France, Germany and the UK with Quitter and will be playing a handful of select Scottish live dates over the summer, including a special album launch show at Glad Cafe, Glasgow on 22nd September 2023.
Quitter’s new album Monument Road is released 22nd September 2023 via Heavenly Creature / Gold Mold Records
Upcoming live dates:
23.08.23 - Sad Song Club - Sketchy Beats Cafe, Edinburgh (solo)
01.09.23 - The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen
15.09.23 - The Twa Tams, Perth
21.09.23 - The Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh
22.09.23 - Glad Cafe, Glasgow (album launch show)
30.09.23 - Mediterranea, Stirling
Monument Road track list:
1. Penny Drop
2. Hey, Useless
3. Open Sesame
4. Golden
5. Polygraph
6. Phone Voice
7. So Far So What
8. Heavy Weather
9. Sword Fights
10. I've Walked This Dance Before
11. Monument Road
Quitter online:
http://www.instagram.com/quittermusic
http://www.facebook.com/quittermusic
http://www.twitter.com/quitter_k
https://www.youtube.com/@quittermusic
More info:
“A road is a pretty tried-and-tested allegory for life,” says Bates of the new album, “and for me, when I entered my thirties I started feeling the accumulation of memories and time more acutely, and how your life’s great conversations/nights/mornings/mistakes/flukes/discoveries/people/places are what gives you that sense of time and brings you to this point exactly.”
“I feel like we build monuments to these things along the road of life, and sort of walk up and down in their shadow. I’ve tried to represent the monuments I’ve built, here in this set of songs—some standing tall, others long half-built, many of them regularly revisited. All lovingly set in line either side of this road.”
Over the course of Monument Road, some songs lean affectionately on lo-fi sensibilities—carefully layered drum machines, percussion mic’d in hallways, vocals and guitars driven through 4-track cassette machines. These tracks sit alongside live band recordings made in a half-burnt-down old manor house in Stirling, soaking up the atmosphere in the performances. The thread that ties them all together is one of tactile, real sounds, made by real people in real rooms, and left largely unadulterated, the hope being that the listener feels present in the songs with Bates.
