Sour Widows – Lucky Star

Sour Widows – the Bay Area alternative rock duo of Maia Sinaiko and Susanna Thomson – announced their second full-length album, Sigil, last month, which garnered praise from outlets like Pitchfork, Stereogum and Consequence.

Today, the band is sharing “Lucky Star,” a searing track filled with electronic screeches that arch around the instrumental twists and turnarounds the band has become known for.

“‘Lucky Star’ is a spell for achieving your dream. Sing the chorus to yourself before bed and maybe it’ll come true,” says Maia Sinaiko.

Sigil, due October 23rd via Julia’s War Recordings, was crafted with acclaimed producer and Jay Som mastermind Melina Duterte (boygenius) in downtown Los Angeles. Its songs curve in unexpected directions and are the most magnetic the band have written yet. There is a newfound immediacy to the album as if Sour Widows have urgent findings to share, and throughout Sigil, ostensible disaster ushers in a new start as a feeling of hope slithers from every dark corner. The album is available for pre-order on tape, CD, and vinyl, including a Julia’s War exclusive splatter vinyl limited to 200 copies.

Not long ago, Maia Sinaiko had a nightmare that morphed into an epiphany. While they slept, Sinaiko imagined that the world was ending, that the Earth itself was about to be swallowed by a black hole. From their perch in an old bedroom in a long-ago apartment, Sinaiko saw that physics itself was rupturing—water ran in reverse, doors locked and unlocked without a touch, traffic lights hung upside down. All traces of human civilization would soon be obliterated, our collective efforts lost forever; no one would ever know, Sinaiko realized in their nocturnal terror, about the films their sister had made. Sinaiko cried to their father, who responded to this looming end-of-everything scenario with an unexpected bit of sanguine wisdom: “But it could be amazing.”

This is the premise of the opening title track of Sigil, the second album by Sour Widows, the Bay Area band Sinaiko started nearly a decade ago now with fellow songwriter, singer, and guitarist Susanna Thomson. Named for a dream that Thomson had about making a record called “Sigil”, the record navigates the wasteland of human cruelty and loss only to emerge with defiant and hard-won hope. Awful things happen during Sigil. A genocide leaves bodies rotting in the sun. Lovers subjugate their counterparts with empty promises, emotional cruelty, and physical dominance. Parents are lost, leaving behind chasms that only seem to grow. But these conflicts and crises alternately produce righteous rage, welcome solidarity, and revelatory freedom. Sigil sounds like a musical breakthrough for Sour Widows, and its songs about persevering and growing feel like personal breakthroughs, too. An end is always nearby here. What comes after can always be amazing.

Sour Widows are hitting the road this fall in support of Sigil on a tour with Squirrel Flower.

Tour Dates:

10/23 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway *

10/24 – Lawrence, KS @ White Schoolhouse *

10/25 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge *

10/27 – Dallas, TX @ Ruins *

10/28 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger *

10/29 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall *

10/30 – Austin, TX @ 29th St Ballroom *

11/01 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar *

11/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ Sid The Cat Auditorium *

11/04 – Ojai, CA @ Ojai Deer Lodge *

11/05 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel *

11/07 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern *

11/08 – Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall *

11/09 – Olympia, WA @ Wild Child *

11/11 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater *

11/12 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux *

11/13 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge *

11/15 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall *

11/17 – Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge *

11/18 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line *

11/19 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club *

11/20 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall *

* w/ Squirrel Flower

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