[photo by Tom L. Matthews]
Upstate New York outfit SURMISER has completed their newest EP, Hold The Static, and is preparing to release the album in June. The band has just issued a video for the EP’s “Trains,” which has made its debut through a premiere at New Noise Magazine.
SURMISER is a three-piece band from the Woodstock, New York region, which was formed in 2012 by Tom Matthews, Jay Andersen, and Jenn Russell, with a goal of infiltrating music scenes everywhere. Influences from a wide array of punk, grunge, rock, metal, and alternative acts can be felt in the band’s upbeat attack, citing elements of Tad, Mission Of Burma, Nirvana, Tar, Killing Joke, to name a few.
The first release with new drummer Lukas Lerner, who joined in 2017, SURMISER‘s no-holds-barred fourth release, Hold The Static, sees the members embracing their ’80s punk and ’90s grunge roots. The band’s intense fuzzed-out instrumentation, always paired with the right balance of verbed-out, in-your-face vocals, sees an occasional break of lush spatial effects, while the drums hammer down like thunder. With four new songs littered with sarcasm, humor, uncloaked anger, and a complete unwillingness to compromise for the listener’s comfort, Hold The Static was recorded by guitarist/vocalist Jay Andersen at his Bohemesphere Studio in Saugerties, and mastered by Oliver Ackermann at Death By Audio in Brooklyn, SURMISER wholeheartedly invites you to either get on board or step the fuck back.
With the release of the “Trains” single, SURMISER offers, “‘Trains’ is about dead-end life in a small city and an analogy to the way that people in this place, and indeed these types of places, allow themselves to be derailed by anger, addiction and the patterns created of the previous generations mistakes. The b-roll footage came from a drive around some midtown neighborhoods and there are a couple Easter eggs that tie into the lyrics if you know what you’re looking at. The live footage was shot by Mike Parish of 424recording.com with a handheld dslr on the same day we did the final edits.”
Check out SURMISER’s “Trains” video at New Noise Magazine RIGHT HERE.
SURMISER is poised to forcibly eject Hold The Static on digital and CD on June 8th; find digital preorders HERE and watch for CD preorders shortly.
Hold The Static Track Listing:
1. ESF
2. Mindreader
3. Trains
4. Believer
SURMISER will unleash tunes from Hold The Static at shows across New York surrounding the release, including a show May 19th in New Paltz and a DIY record release show in Rosendale on June 9th, with more to be announced.
SURMISER Live:
5/19/2018 Bangkok Café – New Paltz, NY w/ Hairbag, Ramona Lane [info]
6/09/2018 The People’s Cauldron – Rosendale, NY *release show w/ Hairbag, Mr. Blonde, more TBA
https://surmiser.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.facebook.com/surmiserband