Wombo – S.T. Tilted
This Friday, Wombo will release their anticipated new album, Danger in Fives, via Fire Talk Records.
Today, the Louisville art rock trio present its final advance single, “S.T. Tilted,” and an accompanying music video helmed by the band’s own Cameron Lowe (guitar).
“S.T. Tilted” is Wombo’s purest essence distilled — Lowe’s off-kilter guitars, Sydney Chadwick’s mesmeric vocals and bass, and Joel Taylor’s skeletal percussion — and filtered through their singular visual lens. On “S.T. Tilted,” melodies hum high above frenetic riffs and references range from Limp Bizkit to Eric B. & Rakim; it’s charged, adventurous, and entirely Wombo. The “S.T. Tilted” music video is another entry in Danger in Fives’s canon of expertly-executed self-produced videos, complete with a hand-crafted waiting room set constructed by Lowe and Chadwick in Chadwick’s garage.
Of “S.T. Tilted,” Lowe adds: “It’s the first song we wrote after the Slab EP that made it on Danger in Fives. We weren’t sure it was going to work, but all the contrasting parts ended up being cool. It’s rare for a Wombo song to be written on guitar first like this one, with some of the bass and drum parts jammed out in the basement afterwards. The wacky guitar part came last.”
To celebrate this Friday’s release, Wombo will perform an intimate hometown show at Whirling Tiger, with remaining tickets for purchase here. Later this fall, Wombo will embark on a US/UK/EU tour, including stops in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, London and more.
On Danger in Fives, Wombo not only enhance their formula — they routinely perfect it. To ace their techniques, Wombo first had to tear them apart. Standard practices of writing and workshopping material in drummer Joel Taylor’s post-war basement rehearsal space were paused, and the band explored alternative writing processes. The experimentation across Danger in Five’s writing process comes paired with subtle shifts in Wombo’s palette: the welcome addition of digital texture, and drum machine incorporated on a handful of tracks. The band’s desire to change their model was in part to “get away from a results mindset, where it’s about producing things for a certain expectation instead of doing it all for the joy of exploring,” Lowe says.
Wombo first connected in Louisville in 2016 and have crafted a unique lane over the near-decade since forming, contorting post-punk structures into uncanny shapes. On Danger in Fives they twist another knot into their belt, and come out creatively renewed. This pursuit of strengthening their craft has earned Wombo a beloved reputation among their community of touring artists. Ask any adjacent musician operating today who they’re listening to, and more often than not you’ll hear Wombo toward the top of the list. Throughout Danger in Fives, it’s clear what has made Wombo one of the most respected bands in their class, and it’s thrilling to hear them command new terrain. “I don’t want to be in a band that’s confined to one form of writing,” Chadwick maintains. “Where’s the fun and the creativity and the exploration in that? You have to push yourself and try something new.”
With Danger in Fives underway, it’s never been more unclear what the next new thing might be, or how Wombo may discover that. It’s also never been more exciting.
Wombo Tour Dates
Fri. Aug. 8 – Louisville, KY @ Whirling Tiger %
Thu. Sep. 4 – Sat. Sep. 6 – Raleigh, NC @ Hopscotch Music Festival
Mon. Sep. 8 – Washington, DC @ DC9 +
Tue. Sep. 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s +
Wed. Sep. 10 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s +
Fri. Sep. 12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right +
Sat. Sep. 13 – Boston, MA @ The Rockwell +
Sun. Sep. 14 – Montreal, QC @ L’Esco +
Mon. Sep. 15 – Toronto, ON @ The Dance Cave +
Wed. Sep. 17 – Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle +
Sun. Sep. 21 – Minneapolis, MN @ Zhora Darling +
Mon. Sep. 22 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club +
Sun. Oct. 5 – St. Louis, MO @ The Sinkhole &
Tue. Oct. 7 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge &
Thu. Oct. 9 – Boise, ID @ The Shredder &
Fri. Oct. 10 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios &
Sat. Oct. 11 – Vancouver, BC @ The Kingsway Club &
Mon. Oct. 13 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza &
Wed. Oct. 15 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop &
Fri. Oct. 17 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon &
Sat. Oct. 18 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar &
Sun. Oct. 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Linger Longer Lounge &
Tue. Oct. 21 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas Inside &
Wed. Oct. 22 – Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves &
Thu. Oct. 23 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Resonant Head &
Fri. Oct. 24 – Kansas City, MO @ Disco Burger + Varsity Club &
Sun. Nov. 2 – Edinburgh, UK @ Voodoo Rooms
Mon. Nov. 3 – Manchester, UK @ YES
Tue. Nov. 4 – Liverpool, UK @ Quarry
Wed. Nov. 5 – Bristol, UK @ Exchange
Thu. Nov. 6 – Oxford, UK @ Little Bully
Fri. Nov. 7 – London, UK @ Oslo
Sat. Nov. 8 – Paris, FR @ Pitchfork Music Festival – Supersonic
Tue. Nov. 11 – Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown
Wed. Nov. 12 – Hamburg, DE@ Aalhaus
Sat. Nov. 15 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg Puschenfest
Tue. Nov. 18 – Schaffhausen, CH @ TapTab
Wed. Nov. 19 – Vienna, AT @ Rhiz
% w/ Mia Joy, Grace Rogers
+ w/ shower curtain
& w/ Ribbon Skirt
#womborocks