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THE COLD STARES will release their new studio album ‘Heavy Shoes’, on August 13th via Mascot Records. The band has shared a new video for the title track, watch it below.

Chris Tapp comments:

“Heavy Shoes is a metaphor for something that is weighing you down. Could be a relationship, an addiction, or just something you can’t let go of. That feeling of every step being heavier than the last and not being able to carry the baggage any further. Heavy Shoes was the first song I had written for the album, and kind of a template we wanted to use for the rest of the record.  Heavy, bluesy, straight ahead and honest. 
 
What you hear on the track is the first take we did at Sam Phillips Studio in Memphis. If I remember right,  it might have been the first song we recorded as well.  I think I went back and recut some vocals and maybe part of the solo in late 2020 at my home studio, but the song is about as live and real as a studio session can be. 
 
We shot the video in a old church from the 1800’s. The church was abandoned, and in the 1980’s it was set for destruction when a woman bought it. The lady had the church moved about a mile down the road to her property and slowly started to preserve it. It’s cool that today it’s structurally sound, but they haven’t changed anything from on the interior from the day the church closed its doors. Like a lot of places I love, you can feel the memories and peoples experiences in the walls.”

There’s a richness running through the songs with dark, multi-layered narratives that course through every twist and turn. Dirty fuzzed-up rock and roll meet blues, garage, desert rock and a Southern Gothic sensibility. Sombre storytelling is etched into their songs with unflinching honesty. For Chris Tapp and Brian Mullins, authenticity is their hallmark.

The Nuggets-era psychedelic garage-rock “In The Night Time” is the band striving for something more unique and is inspired by the southern gothic city of St Augustine, Florida. “The whole city is a graveyard. So many Spaniards are buried there,” singer-guitarist Tapp says. “When you’re walking the streets, it’s like you’re walking on the graves. I was visualising walking late at night, with things in the shadows coming alive, and It’s joyous.”   The day of the dead inspired narrative and visuals ties into the incredible cover-art by Corey Booth (Rick & Morty) which highlights that darkness doesn’t need to be menacing, it can be beautiful too.

Now on their fifth album, the road-worn warriors have crisscrossed the US, playing the Mercury Lounge to the Viper Rooms, and played with Rival Sons, Spoon, Grand Funk Railroad and Thievery Corp. Their music has been streamed over 20m+ times and has featured on TV and games; ESPN, X-Games, Monster Energy, TNT’s Animal Kingdom, Dodge Motors and the smash-hit game CyberPunk 2077.

You want authenticity, take one long cold hard stare at these two. The Cold Stares are a rock ‘n’ roll band, but they take a sledgehammer to the foundation to reveal the cracks that are suppressed within it. With that, allowing themselves to be raw and open to show that, we are not alone.

Track list

1. Heavy Shoes
2. 40 Dead Men
3. Take This Body From Me
4. Hard Times
5. In The Night Time
6. Strange Light
7. Prosecution Blues
8. It’s A Game
9. Save You From You
10. You Wanted Love
11. Election Blues
12. Dust In My Hands
13. Hard Times

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