Caroline Rose – Gentling the Horse at the Walt Whitman Mall
Caroline Rose (she/they) announces their new album, Gentling the Horse at the Walt Whitman Mall, out October 23rd via SUCK records, and releases the new single, “Chow Mein.”
Caroline Rose has always found the surreal embedded within the banal, and Gentling the Horse at the Walt Whitman Mall pushes that instinct to its furthest edge. The record constructs a hyperreal Americana fantasy where everyday life is asked to reveal its underbelly. The release doubles as the debut of SUCK records, Rose’s own imprint—a fitting next form for an enigmatic artist whose work resists settling into one shape.
Working with producer John Congleton, Rose built the album through humor, layering, and instinct rather than polish. It pairs sharply observed, memoiristic songwriting with expansive guitar textures that render the everyday with violent clarity and mythic scale. Beneath its melodic sweep and signature hooks runs a current of violence and American dream leakage. It’s Ennio Morricone with an AR15: surf guitars, spaghetti westerns, and suburban dread colliding until they become their own sharp vernacular.
The record dips into caricature to tell stories through Rose’s idiosyncratic aesthetic fantasies, as on today’s “Chow Mein,” which lurches between menace and slapstick: “a bouncer at the door // he asks for the password // I’m already drunk cause I // can’t afford a cocktail // I pause before I throw up all over his tailored suit.”
Reflecting on “Chow Mein,” Rose says, “I relate to characters who are a little strange, who are outsiders, who seem to fuck up a lot or find themselves in awkward situations. Most of these stories are just pulled directly from scenes in my own life, so the character is basically always some version of myself. This is a story about trying too hard to be cool and act normal, but everything is going wrong.”
“Chow Mein” follows early album preview and longtime fan-favorite, “Yip Yip Yow,” which has become a Top 25 Billboard AAA and Top 25 Mediabase AAA hit through programmer support alone. Its success affirmed an independent path Rose has been building over the last six years: a career beyond the industry’s machinery. Their music has evolved alongside their work organizing with musicians, venue workers, and independent crews around stronger labor protections and collective bargaining rights. Creative practice and political practice have increasingly become the same project as Rose’s career has taken on its hyper-independent form. Those concerns echo throughout Gentling the Horse. Its landscapes are populated by inherited systems that feel absurd yet inescapable, where humor becomes a survival tactic and satire reveals the quiet violence embedded in everyday American life.
Rose just wrapped up a series of pop-up shows built around independent spaces and zero ticketing fees for fans. In the fall, they will support Modest Mouse across the U.S. and Canada, followed up by a run of in-store performances and signings.
Caroline Rose Tour Dates:
(New Dates in Bold)
Tue. Sept. 29 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee*
Wed. Sept. 30 – Cleveland, OH @ Jacobs Pavilion*
Thu. Oct. 1 – Cincinnati, OH @ MegaCorp Pavilion Outdoor*
Fri. Oct. 2 – Grand Rapids, MI @ GLC Live at 20 Monroe*
Sun. Oct. 4 – Ottawa, ON @ HISTORY Ottawa*
Mon. Oct. 5 – Toronto, ON @ Meridian Hall*
Wed. Oct. 7 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner*
Thu. Oct. 8 – New York, NY @ The Rooftop at Pier 17*
Fri. Oct. 9 – Baltimore, MD @ Pier Six Pavilion*
Sat. Oct. 10 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Citizens Live at The Wylie*
Mon. Oct. 12 – Memphis, TN @ Satellite Music Hall*
Tue. Oct. 13 – New Orleans, LA @ The Fillmore New Orleans*
Thu. Oct. 15 – Austin, TX ACL @ Live at The Moody Theater*
Fri. Oct. 16 – Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory*
Sat. Oct. 17 – San Antonio, TX @ Boeing Center at Tech Port*
Mon. Oct. 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Financial Theatre*
Tue. Oct. 20 – Hollywood, CA @ Hollywood Palladium*
Thu. Oct. 22 – Avila Beach, CA @ Avila Beach Golf Resort*
Fri. Oct. 23 – Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24*
Mon. Oct. 26 – New York, NY – Rough Trade +
Wed. Oct. 28 – London, UK – Rough Trade East +
Fri. Oct. 30 – Bristol, UK – Rough Trade Bristol +
Sun. Nov. 1 – Nottingham, UK – Rough Trade Nottingham +
Mon. Nov. 2 – Liverpool, UK – Rough Trade Liverpool +
Wed. Nov. 4 – Glasgow, UK – Assai +
Thu. Nov. 5 – Dublin, IE – Spindizzy +
Mon. Nov. 9 – Berlin, DE – Rough Trade Berlin +
Thu. Nov. 12 – Paris, FR – Balades Sonores – Paris, FR +
* = w/ Modest Mouse
+ = in-store signing/performance
#itsunclecarol