Oklahoma City's cursetheknife formed last year and have been steadily dropping new songs this year as they gear up to release their debut EP Thank You For Being Here Pt I on November 13 via New Morality Zine, followed by Thank You For Being Here Pt II at a later date. As they were gaining steam, their original drummer Connor left and they put out one song ("Filter") with a drum machine before recruiting new drummer Steph, who has helped CTK craft a louder, heavier sound than they had on their early singles and demos. They cite Hum, Nothing, Duster, My Bloody Valentine, Codeine, and Red House Painters as influences and reference points, which should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect, and I'd add that there's a little of Turnstile and Higher Power's psychedelic hardcore in the mix too.
The first EP will include a re-recording of "Filter," and the second EP will include new versions of both songs from their January demo ("Too Solid Too Flesh" and "cursetheknife"). We're premiering the first two official singles from EP1, "Low" and "Feeling Real." Both are heavy and melodic and gazey, and if you like this kinda stuff, I think you'll find that cursetheknife do a lot of justice to it. Even in a year that's had genuinely awesome albums by Hum and Deftones themselves, these songs stand out.
"'Low' is kind of a tongue in cheek song," bassist/vocalist Branden says. "It’s about when I first left my church a few years ago, I was consistently judged, people would say I wasn’t living a holy life, and that I should come back. The chorus is a sarcastic take like 'oh yeah I’m wrong? Well come and save me then.'"
"But I knew that something was up with that church," Branden continued. "I spent years there and sure enough over this past summer abuse allegations came out about the pastor, we protested them to close their doors and the church vanished within a month. A lot of the songs I’ve written are about that and how I coped with those feelings of hurt and betrayal."
"'Feeling Real' is about being someone you’re not and acting a certain way in hopes that someone will befriend you," guitarist/vocalist Sev says. "I lost some friends at the time of writing this song and I was also losing sight of what I really wanted in life and who I wanted to be. It made me realize how I needed to live my life for me and not for other people and to be confident in that."
Listen to both new songs and check out the EP artwork and tracklist below.
Pt. 1 Tracklist Intro Feeling Real Pissing Off the Neighbors Low Filter
Pt. 2 Tracklist Too Solid Too Flesh We Both Want the Same In Dreams Interlude Thank You For Being Here cursetheknife
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28 Essential Songs from the Shoegaze / Heavy Crossover
Listen and/or subscribe to our playlist of all 28 songs (with MBV's "Feed Me With Your Kiss" replacing "You Made Me Realise" because the latter isn't on Spotify):
