Scream From New York, NY
Been Stellar
June 14, 2023Been Stellar have announced their highly anticipated debut album, Scream From New York, NY, out June 14th via their new label home Dirty Hit. Lead single “Passing Judgment” is a heart-racing post-punk barnstormer, a masterful deployment of unbearable pressure and violent relief that clearly reveals the band’s years of playing together. Stream the new single below. Later this month the band will embark on a European tour supporting The 1975.
Scream from New York, NY is a remarkably brutal debut – bruised and volatile, it captures an image of ‘20s New York that’s unrelenting and harsh, where tenderness is a finite resource burned up by the machinery of the city and human connection is a luxury product. Leaving behind the driving shoegaze of their early recordings, the NYC-based five-piece tap into the disaffected sound and spirit of New York luminaries like Sonic Youth and Interpol, as well as the nihilistic, yearning cool of Iceage and Bends-era Radiohead, striking upon a sound that’s fearsome, buffeting and beautiful at the same time – a tidal wave as viewed from underneath.
“We were finishing “Passing Judgment” in the midst of our first tour in the UK. Playing through it a bit differently each show, we were learning to look at the song from different angles. The recording feels live because of this process — there’s a chaotic feeling in the drums and bass that wouldn’t be there if we hadn’t finished writing it live,” shares lead vocalist Sam Slocum, “Lyrically I was thinking about why we judge the world around us, and how passing judgment on someone or something is usually rooted in being unsure in oneself.”