Rising Austin psyche duo Being Dead announce new album 'EELS' & release lead single 'Firefighters'
““Surf-rock riffs, oddball humor, and warped Americana storytelling define the Austin band" — Pitchfork
“Through great wordplay, delicious vocalizations and a gonzo theatricality, Being Dead are one of the coolest and freakiest acts around." — Paste
“One of the most chaotic trios in Texas.” — The Line Of Best Fit
Following a raucous run of UK dates last month, including London’s Wide Awake Festival, Being Dead — the Austin, TX-based duo consisting of Falcon Bitch and Shmoofy — announces its new album, EELS, out September 27th on Bayonet. Alongside the announcement comes lead single ‘Firefighters,’ and an autumn US headline run.
The album’s first taste, ‘Firefighters,’ is a pummeling, distorted garage rock ripper, accompanied by a URZULKA directed video, which “came together through a group hallucination.” The band says of the track, “we love marbles and outdoor play and decided to get it on video for y'all. Making this was like creating an intricate handshake with all your buddies—riddled with inside jokes and giggles.” Watch the video for ‘Firefighters’ HERE & listen HERE.
Being Dead’s records are mosaics, technicolor incantations, each song its own self-contained little universe. And while the dreamlike EELS probes further into the depths of the duo Being Dead’s psyche, it is, most importantly, a 16-track record that is genuinely unpredictable from one track to the next. It’s a joyous and unexpected trip helmed by two true-blue freak bitch besties holed up in a lil’ house in the heart of Austin, Texas.
When Horses Would Run, Being Dead’s “glorious and timeless” (Gorilla vs. Bear) debut record released in 2023, took years to release. The final product was excellent and expertly polished, at odds with the live rowdiness they’d cultivated a reputation for throughout Austin and beyond across seven years of being a band. For the next one, they knew they’d have to do things differently. They decamped to Los Angeles for two weeks to record with GRAMMY-winning producer John Congleton, writing songs for the record until days before they left. The radical shift in process was welcome - a good balance and a challenge, Congleton helping them find new ways to work and helping peel back the layers on the core of their songwriting. Being Dead has grown from a duo to a trio live, including bassist Nicole Roman-Johnston, who also co-wrote songs with the band for the record.
The resulting EELS is a darker record, tapped more into the devilishness within. It’s a more raucous, rougher ride sonically. There’s heartbreak, excitement, enchantment, dancing – we move through it all at a high-octane pace. Falcon Bitch and Smoofy never want to do the same thing twice on any song, and they don’t.
There are a number of different origin stories for Being Dead floating around on the internet, most of which are immortalized in various press pieces they’ve done across the last seven years of being a band, and there will likely be more. Falcon Bitch and Smoofy deliver each story with a wink, inviting you in on the joke. Maybe they were actually born from a giant egg left in a meteoric crater, or they’re undercover on earth from an alien universe. Something about their music suggests it’s a dispatch from both the future and the past – vocal harmonies that sound like they’re reverberating in a medieval church to surfy guitar lines, weirdo-punky cacophonies erupting into chaos. There’s the sense that these are two people who are strangers to all that is banal - there is always fun to be had, a little mischievous magic waiting around the corner, if you know how to find or make it.
EELS Tracklist
1. Godzilla Rises
2. Van Goes
3. Blanket of my Bone
4. Problems
5. Firefighters
6. Dragons II
7. Nightvision
8. Gazing At Footwear
9. Big Bovine
10. Storybook Bay
11. Ballerina
12. Rock n’ Roll Hurts
13. Love Machine
14. I Was A Tunnel
15. Goodnight
16. Lilypad Lane
Being Dead Online
Instagram | Bandcamp | Bayonet Records
