Boston duo You Won’t debuted their raw, sonically adventurous take on indie folk back in 2012 with their first LP, Skeptic Goodbye. After touring with the likes of Lucius, The Joy Formidable, and Deer Tick, the band put two-and-a-half years of work into their follow-up. That self-produced effort, Revolutionaries, is due out April 29th on Extraneous Music/Meddling Kids, but it’s now available to stream in full below.
While there’s still a sense of playful simplicity in the music, Revolutionaries sees drummer/multi-instrumentalist Raky Sastri and singer/guitarist Josh Arnoudse boldly expanding their sound into cacophonous new territory littered with unexpected instruments. There’s the electric bagpipes of the raucous “Friends in Exile” and the singing saw on the ruminative “Trampoline”, each used not in irony but in true enhancement of the tracks. Sastri makes dexterous use of his eclectic toolbox to craft surprising, endlessly intriguing moments, like the whirling tubes that transition into forceful guitar between “Invocation” and “Jesus Sings”.
Arnoudse’s guitar work, meanwhile, occasionally recalls Frank Turner’s punkish take on folk, especially on tracks like “Douchey” and “Can’t Go Wrong”. Still, he can turn in a classic line just as well, as with “Little Lion”. His lyrics remain as spry and clever as ever, delivered in his friendly, earnest voice pinched into the top of his throat.
“Revolutionaries is about starting out determined to change the world and ending up determined just to change your socks,” Arnoudse tells Consequence of Sound. “It’s about sticking to your belief in something past the point of all logic – whether it be a cause, a dream, a career, or another human being – and all the beautiful, tragic, and ridiculous ramifications of that sort of thinking. It’s also about that time you shattered a plate glass window with your bare buttocks during the course of an attempted mooning. We’ve all been there.”
Led by singles “Ya Ya Ya”, “No Divide”, and “Douchey”, Revolutionaries is streaming below.
Revolutionaries Tracklist:
01. Untitled 2
02. Friends in Exile
03. No Divide
04. Ya Ya Ya
05. The Fuzz
06. Invocation
07. Jesus Sings
08. Untitled 1
09. Trampoline
10. 1-4-5
11. Little Lion
12. Douchey
13. Untitled 3
14. Can’t Go Wrong
15. Revolutionaries
You Won’t will be touring behind Revolutionaries throughout spring, and you can find their itinerary below.
You Won’t 2016 Tour Dates:
04/29 – Portland, ME @ One Longfellow Square
04/30 – Portsmouth, NH @ Birdseye Lounge
05/03 – Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory
05/04 – New Haven, CT @ BAR
05/06 – Boston, MA @ Sinclair
05/07 – New York, NY @ Berlin
05/08 – Northampton, MA @ Parlour Room
05/10 – Toronto, ON @ The Drake
05/12 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
05/13 – Madison, WI @ Frequency
05/14 – Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club
05/16 – Bloomington, ID @ Bishop
05/17 – Nashville, TN @ Hi Watt
05/18 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
05/20 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle Back
05/21 – Washington, DC @ DC9
05/22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot and Saddle
06/19 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
06/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater
06/23 – San Francisco, CA @ Brick + Mortar
06/25 – Portland, OR @ Bunk Bar
06/26 – Vancouver, BC @ Cobalt
06/28 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
