Rival Sons Announce New Album, Great Western Valkyrie, Coming June 10

 

“Sun kissed psychedelia and irresistible hooks, with the band’s soul, funk and blues influences thrust joyously to the fore… If you thrilled to the Black Keys it’s time to meet your new favourite band.” ~ The Guardian

 “They craft near-perfect garage-rock songs to hang the thrills and frills from.” ~ Kerrang!

“A powerhouse of big riffed rock ‘n’ roll…” ~ Q Magazine

 “Highly-charged and fresh…” ~ Mojo

 

Rival Sons will release Great Western Valkyrie (Earache) on June 10, 2014, unleashing their freewheeling fuzz and improvisational stage ethos that The Guardian calls “a vital force in the modern age.”

Rival Sons’ blues and soul rock is loaded with gritty intricacies and a definite immediacy to their sound. The band often approaches their music as if they were on a mission: forcing songs to stay awake and active through instinctive and honest delivery.

In Support of Record Story Day:

Scott Holiday shared, “Ever since this band started we’ve been very focused on releasing everything we do on vinyl and making sure it’s a special kind of presentation in this format. At home that’s pretty much all I listen to (vinyl), so I’m pretty focused about how we do it. As many have, we’ve also made it a point to always contribute something extra cool to RSD (Record Store Day). Last year for RSD we did one of my all-time favorite releases (of ours) – the Manifest Destiny limited edition on 10″ picture disc.

This year we had to approach the Record Store Day release very differently; being as our record comes out a month after RSD we had to treat it a little more like an ‘advance’ to the album. So if you can get your hands on one of these (dry limited release) you’ll get an advance peep into our new record on a limited 7″ green vinyl – featuring two of our very favorite tunes off the LP, which in my opinion is the coolest way to introduce the sound of the new album [Great Western Valkyrie]. Just remember…records are for listening, not displaying on shelves or hoarding fifteen copies, and then selling ‘em later for 10x the amount. That’s lame. Buy one and listen till your heart’s content. Spread the love.” 

 Some Cool Rival Sons Info

Two new tracks from the upcoming album are featured on BBC National Radio 2 by Bob Harris.
Rival Sons’ last album charted in 9 countries across Europe, including Top 40 in UK.  
Mojo posted exclusive behind the scenes studio footage from the recording of the new album. Watch the clip HERE.
Gibson Rooms for Last.fm featured the band in their video interview series. Watch the clip HERE.
The band has performed at the Classic Rock Awards.  
The bands cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” has just been released on a BBC compilation with the likes of London Grammar, The National, Editors, Rudimental, Foals, among others. Listen to the cover HERE.      
The Band Opened for AC/DC at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and performed at the Indy 500. 

Jimmy Page loves them.

[A Lot] More About Rival Sons

Pitched somewhere between the loose revivalism of Jack White and the groove of Alabama Shakes, Rival Sons possess a chimera-like character: a jazz-trained rhythm section that met at Isaac Hayes’ house, a garage-rock fuzzadelic guitar maestro, and a blues rooted street singer with the powerful raw delivery of rock and the sensitivity of a Laurel Canyon trip. Though rooted in the past Rival Sons play with awareness and modernity like they’re calling on inspiration through their roots anew, filtering out more of rock’s overblown past and bringing in call-and-response testaments to truth – In their own words, they “…want to give the people the rock and roll they deserve by keeping it honest, visceral, and dangerous.”

 

Rival Sons see the creative process as a snapshot, only spending less than a month in the studio for each album; writing and recording all live under one roof to keep the process raw. The band bear no special allegiance to the didactic needs of retro-rock, their roots are just that, grounding from which they launch using the creative chemistry and the schooling they all possess to create in the moment, capturing a live feel that thrills and delights in often quite unexpected and exciting ways. Witnessing what a band in tune with each other is really like and knowing that what you hear on record as a 1st or 2nd take still comes second to the electric performance you will see on stage.

Set for release June 2014 via Earache Records, Great Western Valkyrie puts Rival Sons’ freewheeling fuzz and improvisational stage ethos to wax and cements their position as America’s next great rock’n’roll band. With, according to RS singer Jay Buchanan, a “…conscious decision for this band to be just what it is…,” this album is more cohesive than any Rival Sons album before.

From the beach cities of Southern California, the time was ripe for Rival Sons. Guitarist Scott Holiday had long been searching for something that would fit his psychedelic vision and fuzzy garage rock tones, then things fell into place when blues singer/songwriter Jay Buchanan put the solo career on the back-burner and gave rock “n” roll a chance. Said Scott Holiday, “A random find on the Internet points me to Jay Buchanan. In 13 seconds I realize I have just come across the singer I’ve looked for over the last 10-12 years of my life. Jay was invited to record vocals on the band’s debut release Before the Fire, singing “On My Way” in a single take. We never even ran tape a 2nd time. That was a first to witness for me. And so it was born… Rival Sons.”  Four albums on, with an ever-growing fan base, the band go from strength to strength and have never looked back.

Emerging from a scene where over-production was commonplace, writing and recording in a hotbox of activity without prior discussion or preparation came to be what Rival Sons is about. “We have a reputation for recording our albums very quickly and keeping things very live – off the floor,” agreed the band. As Holiday put it after recording Before The Fire, “This is just the simplest way to not cheat ourselves or the listener. Rock and Roll can’t be over-thought, and if it is, it loses its immediacy and instinct ~ it needs to be a knife fight, not a choreographed knife dance.”

The Rival Sons EP was recorded soon after Jay Buchanan joined the band and it caught the attention of Earache Records founder Digby Pearson who signed a deal in November 2010 that led to the recording of Pressure & Time in early 2011. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Dave Cobb (who has worked on all Rival Sons albums) and released worldwide in May 2011. The band committed to creating an experience that closely matches the attitude and excitement of one of their live performances. Coming straight off a 4 week stint on the road, Rival Sons wrote, recorded, and mixed the album in just 20 days, ensuring a rawness for both the listener and the band. Explains Buchanan, “In the code of the Samurai, any decision must be made between 3 and 5 breaths ~ writing by that code forces us to act, go with our instincts and really, truly listen to each other. Creatively, you’re bringing your most immediate instincts.”

Pressure & Time opened a door to Europe where from their first European show at Camden Barfly to Shepherds Bush Empire in 2012, there has hardly been a show that was not sold out. The band quickly picked up European shows and festivals and became known for a wild improvisational live show.

Jay Buchanan shared that “Each one of us is coming at this thing we call a band for different reasons and with a very different approach. It’s an unlikely collective really but when it all comes together there’s an energy I don’t see happening anywhere else. If rock ‘n’ roll is our base form I would say, that transparent energy in our performance and solid writing are our highest functions as a band. Give everything you have, every time. Each time you approach that stage, every night, you’re waiting for someone to call you out for the fraud you really are so you empty your pockets and give them everything you have inside of you just trying to prove that you’ve come there for a greater reason than just wanting to be the center of someone’s attention. Music is fucking heavy business.”

Seeing the creative process as a snapshot, only spending less than a month in the studio for each album, writing and recording live under one roof, all keeps the process raw but also grueling. Straight off the back of more touring in early 2012 the band went into Honey Pye studios in Nashville in February 2012 for 22 days to write and record their new album again with Dave Cobb and Vance Powell (Jack White, Kings of Leon, etc.). Experimenting with old analog equipment from legendary studios that producer Cobb had collected, the band found a warmth in their sound for the album that would be Head Down.

With growing accolades and chart success, the band were presented with the “Breakthrough Artist” award by Vic Reeves at the Classic Rock awards at the end of 2012; they also graced the cover of that magazine as well as several other publications’.

Between albums, Rival Sons have a taxing tour schedule; in fact, original bassist Robin Everhart left the band in August 2013 after realizing that the touring life didn’t agree with him. Playing club shows, stadiums and festivals, the band find new fans wherever they are. Continuing with their touring schedule, long-time friend of the band Dave Beste (Maroon 5, Rocco Deluca and The Burden) joined on bass before the band returned to the studio January 2014 again with producer Dave Cobb in Nashville to record their 5th release, Great Western Valkyrie.

Called “…a vital force in the modern age…” by The Guardian, Rival Sons often approach their music as if they were on a mission. Drummer Michael Miley offers that “We’re pushing the envelope of modern music; forcing it to stay awake and active through instinctive and honest music delivered with a blistering live performance.”  

 

Great Western Valkyrie  will be released 6th June EU, 9th June UK and 10th June USA. Pre-order yours here on iTunes  or from Earache.

 

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