This May, El Paso alt-rock veterans Sparta – currently comprised of founding members Jim Ward (vocals/guitar/keyboard) and Matt Miller (bass), in addition to drummer Neil Hennessy, who joined the fold in 2023 – released Cut A Silhouette, their sixth full-length and arguably best since 2002 debut LP Wiretap Scars, whose “Collapse” you may have heard on the August edition of Philthy Radio (now streaming via Y-Not Radio) and whose 20th anniversary (technically 21st and 22nd) was celebrated with a 2023/2024 world tour that had the band playing the album in its entirety, including a stop at Underground Arts.
Cut A Silhouette – whose lead single, “Crater,” co-written by My Chemical Romance’s Frank Iero, had Revolver writing, “The band’s tempo-jolted post-hardcore waltz lunges towards galaxy-spiraling guitar noise, phosphorescent waves of bass fuzz and Ward’s yearningly, scratchily melodic vocal presence.” – was written around the world over the course of a year, and produced, engineered, and recorded in seven days by Jawbox’s J. Robbins at Baltimore’s Magpie Cage Recording Studio.
“This is a love record… I want it to leave an impression, and at this point in my career, that’s what I yearn for. I’m working so hard to make something meaningful to me, and I really want people to get a chance to feel it as well,” Sparta frontman Jim Ward said of Cut A Silhouette in a recent press release, before going on to add, “This feels like we’re a fucking band again… All three of us are in a room, we’re all writing together, we’re listening to each other; this is now a constructive creative process, and it’s now the end of this era. Like, I made it through.”
Sparta have been touring Cut A Silhouette since May of this year, including headlining shows, festival appearances, and dates supporting both The Toadies and Jimmy Eat World, respectively. This Wednesday, Sparta kick off a run of September dates which will have them headlining our very own Warehouse on Watts next Wednesday, September 16th. Get your tickets below; check out Sparta’s recent videos for “Without Your Hands,” “Everything You Say,” and “Crater;” and read my 2023 chat with Jim Ward about more than two decades of Wiretap Scars.
*Get your tickets here.
