New Bums

New Bums

Last Time I Saw Grace

Drag City

***Seven years and a handful of lifetimes ago, New Bums came out of nowhere with their debut album, Voices In a Rented Room—a record the New York Times described as “feeling like it’s falling apart.” New Bums took this as a compliment and, thus emboldened, they toured relentlessly in support of the release: criss-crossing the USA in the spring of 2014, with a European run that summer. Then, silence descended, as the Bums withdrew to the place from which they’d mysteriously emerged. Now, the Bums are back! 2021 finds them with a new album in hand. Following a west coast US tour in late 2019, it’s clear that the duo of Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards) and Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Rangda, etc) are fully reanimated, as evidenced by the songs and sounds of Last Time I Saw Grace. Retaining the drunk-dog-locomotion of their debut, New Bums sprinkle a bit of fresh fancy into their signature twin guitars-and-vocals sound, with cleaner recording techniques, further developments in harmonies, and a new appreciation for a song with more than two parts, making Last Time I Saw Grace nothing less than the perfect progression from the purposefully murky mixes of their debut. Continuing to embrace an acoustic rock ’n’ roll sound, inspired by artists such as Jacobites, Robyn Hitchcock, Johnny Thunders, Replacements and such, New Bums push the words and the stories to the front of the line, crafting tales with satiric glee on Last Time I Saw Grace. However, this world...

New Bums

Voices In A Rented Room

Drag City

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Received a 7.6 rating from Pitchfork. Sometimes it’s best to see the world in black and white. Shades of grey are for p*****s, right—and NEW BUMS have ridden the hard road all the way to this, their album debut. They’ve played around and they’ve hit the singles scene (haven’t you turned up “Slim Volume”? 7"EP of the year, man!), but Voices in a Rented Room tells their whole life story and probably more of yours than you’d care to admit. The voices are two, spinning harmonies both heavenly and salt-pickled. Picking their direction and floating along on a pair of acoustics, New Bums are the sound of old drunk America, dancing out of the shadows, coming forth again to stand in the light, in the hopes of repopulating those sad old single-occupancy hotels before they’re all torn down. New Bums is the grudging match-up of DONVAN QUINN (SKYGREEN LEOPARDS) and BEN CHASNY (SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, COMETS ON FIRE, 200 YEARS, RANGDA). They didn’t like each other at first, but now make sweet and sour music together over the light of the magical Sterno (if there’s anything left in the can, that is!). The ideas go back and forth between Ben and Donovan in what seems to be a true partnership. Their songs are all that: songs, with lyrics set in a space to speak to the human buried in you. People’s music, with all the stark confessions, tall tales, bleak humors and punch lines that the...

New Bums

Slim Volume

New Bums Industries

Slim Volume is the debut single by New Bums, a duo consisting of Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance) and Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards).  Although the two began playing together during the summer of 2008 while neighbors in San Francisco, 2013 has seen them finally performing live (including touring with Bill Callahan) and recording. Slim Volume exemplifies the surreal storytelling, 4:00 A.M. acoustic guitars and urban paranoia that lie at the core of their music.