STREAMING: Scranton’s The Menzingers debut imagery-filled title track of ‘After the Party,’ due out Feb. 3
As we get closer to the anticipated release of “After the Party” on Friday, Feb. 3, fans of Philadelphia punk band The Menzingers have been piecing together the new album through various song and video premieres since last summer, when they returned to their hometown of Scranton for an outdoor concert and debuted two of those songs live. Today, they released what may be the most important piece of that new record – the title track.
Vocalist/guitarist Greg Barnett told Stereogum that “After the Party” serves as the emotional centerpiece of the album, filled with the kind of imagery and references that careful listeners should expect from their music by now.
“The title track to the record, ‘After the Party,’ is the central emotional epiphany of the album, written in images. They’re mundane moments etched behind eyelids that culminate into meaningful realizations, and of course give way to the beautiful trifecta of ‘Sex! Drugs! Rock ‘n’ Roll!’ It’s a bit of an ode to Meat Loaf’s verse in ‘I’d Do Anything for Love,’ but the God of drums? You lost me,” Barnett explained.
“Vladimir Nabokov once said in an interview, ‘I don’t think in language. I think in images.’ I wanted to play off that idea, and use imagery as unexciting as the sludge in the bottom of a coffee cup to tell a bigger story. In doing so, it captured the excitement of falling in love that language often misses. Turns out my twenties can be summed up quite similarly.”
Stream the new song below:
Their fifth full-length album comes out Feb. 3 via Epitaph Records and can be pre-ordered now on Kings Road Merch, where it can be purchased on green or black vinyl or on CD bundled with t-shirts, hoodies, pins, pennants, and even their own coffee blend.
Local fans may want to wait and pick up the album at a free record release show at the Gallery of Sound in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday, Feb. 4, which includes a meet and greet with the group.
The Menzingers also announced a 2017 national tour with Jeff Rosenstock and Rozwell Kid, which stops at Irving Plaza in New York City on March 30 and The Fillmore in Philadelphia on March 31, though the latter date will not include Rosenstock. Tickets for these shows are on sale now, and VIP bundles can be purchased here.
