Tom Verlaine

C89 is another celebration of the Eighties Indie scene, documenting a golden era when tuneful guitar-based bands made records on shoestring budgets, often issued on small labels with hand-made artwork, with little hope of mainstream exposure.

In the five years that have elapsed since the release of Alvvays’ second album, Antisocialites, and their long-awaited third, Blue Rev, the Toronto-via-PEI band had to deal with every possible roadblock a band could face: lineup changes, demo thefts, gear-destroying basement floods—and that was before the pandemic.

Dubbed Hotel Last Resort, it’s set for a July 26th due date through [PIAS]. It represents Violent Femmes’ tenth (overall and first since We Can Do Anything from 2016. The forthcoming collection spans a total of 13 songs, most of which feature additional instrumentation from Violent Femmes’ longtime backing band Horn of Dilemma. There are also two covers included — “I’m Not Gonna Cry”, originally by Greek rock super stars Pyx Lax, and a rendition of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”.