Canadian indie poppers Alvvays have described their latest single, “After The Earthquake” – inspired by Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake – as, “a rapid fire recital of drive-thru breakdown, tectonic breakup and boyfriend in a coma brake failure.” The track is off of the band’s third LP, Blue Rev, released last month on Polyvinyl Records, which New York Times says, “pushes the band’s sound toward dreamier and noisier frontiers, while deepening its narrative-driven songwriting.”
Blue Rev has actually been in the making since shortly after Alvvays’ sophomore album, Antisocialites, dropped in 2017. And the pandemic was only partly responsible for the delay, in addition to a bevvy of sold-out shows keeping the band almost perpetually on the road, a robbery that had singer/guitarist Molly Rankin lose a recorder full of demos, and a basement flood that destroyed the vast majority of the group’s gear…
However, in October of 2021 Alvvays finally got into the studio with producer Shawn Everett (best known for his work with Kacey Musgraves, The War on Drugs, and The Killers), who recorded the band playing the entire album front-to-back live… twice (A long cry from the meticulousness of their previous recordings.) The finished product gives us Alvvays at their most epic and immediate, simultaneously…
Alvvays are currently nearing the end of a US tour that has them performing the album nearly in its entirety, in addition to a handful of favorites from Antisocialites and their 2014 self-titled debut. This Saturday they’ll be coming to Franklin Music Hall for their biggest headlining show in the 215 yet (after selling-out two nights in a row at Union Transfer in 2018). There are currently tickets available, but I wouldn’t count on them lasting, so I’d highly suggest picking them up below…
*Get your tickets here.
