Los Angeles psych-punk quartet Frankie and the Witch Fingers have returned with their seventh studio album Data Doom, due September 1 via Greenway Records / The Reverberation Appreciation Society. To ring in the announcement, the band has shared album highlight “Mild Davis” with a mind-bending animated music video. Inspired by Miles Davis’ early-70s electric work, the track’s dizzying 7/4 meter winds through chunky riffs, commanding vocals and proggy synths before crash-landing in a minefield of angular guitar harmonies. Be sure to pre-order the record now @ frankieandthewitchfingers.com
The nine-track project was recorded at the band’s L.A. practice space and is led by the single “Mild Davis,” a fusion of grit-encrusted guitars and icy synths set to an odd 7/4 time signature. “That song pretty much sums up the energy of the entire record,” Aguilar tells SPIN Magazine. “That’s why we felt it would be the most appropriate one to be the lead single.” Adds vocalist/guitarist Dylan Sizemore, “It’s very different from anything we’ve done in the past. We wanted the first statement from the album to be something new and fresh.”
There’s long been a growl festering in the West, an earthen rumble fed by tectonic tension, acrid smoke, and sun-parched air. The brew has boiled over lately, a pressure-cooked chaos that can no longer be contained. The growl has grown to a howl.. the howl is at the door. Few are as ready to meet the madness head on as Frankie and the Witch Fingers. On the upcoming Data Doom the band hurtles the listener head first into the wood-chipper of technological dystopia, systemic rot, creeping fascism, the military-industrial profit mill, and a near-constant erosion of humanity that peels away the soul bit by bit. With a fuse lit by these modern-day monstrosities the band seeks to find salvation through a thousand watt wake-up of rock n’ roll exfoliation.
After tearing through the tender heart of the Midwest, Frankie and the Witch Fingers found themselves clamped down on the fried edges of Los Angeles, carving out a niche that’s equal parts molten tar pit teardown and cataclysmic careen. Following releases on Hypnotic Bridge, Let’s Pretend, and Permanent, the band landed between the twin barbs of Greenway and The Reverberation Appreciation Society, a perfect fit for their frenetic blend of rhythmic whiplash and sonic soul shake. Anchored by songwriters Dylan Sizemore and Josh Menashe, the band has kept a rotating door of friends and collaborators moving through their midst over the past few years, coalescing post-pandemic into a symbiotic stage beast that’s become the beating heart of their new album, Data Doom. Bassist Nikki “Pickle” Smith and drummer Nick Aguilar have been road-hardened and readied over the last year, laying the groundwork for the new record’s 300 pounds of pummel and propulsion.
That heft was hurtled onto tape in the band’s Vernon, CA studio space. The locale let the city’s grit creep into the crevices of their new record, a wild swing at the sternum that hits the listener like an adrenaline shot to the heart. Wiping away the haze of stoned-ape psychedelics that permeated their opus Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters… the band favors an asphalt assault of rock, riff, and amphetamine rhythm. As they’ve wound out of the last phase, their sound, over a series of singles, has begun to thicken and throb. It’s coalesced into a darker strain that ingests the explosive impulses of gas-crisis-era proto-punk, the rhythmic insistence of 70’s German Progressives, and the elasticity of funk fusionists alike. They’ve welded their arsenal of influences to a chassis of nail-bitten bombast that drives Data Doom into the midst of the maelstrom.
The band has shared bills with Kikagaku Moyo, Ty Segall, Oh Sees, Cheap Trick, and ZZ Top, churning their stage-side scorch into household recognition — burning through a barrage of multicolored vinyl pressings and sparring with indie heavyweights for Billboard chart positions. Data Doom looks to cement that status, a sinewy slab cut on the stone of social collapse and licking the blade in anticipation of what’s to come. “Never name the darkness itself,“ intones Sizemore, but the darkness is already here, embedded in every moment, inextricable from the capital, sabbatical, sustenance, and solace of the modern age. Data Doom is the elixir and the exorcism, it’s the reformation rendered in rock ’n roll.
Data Doom is out September 1st via Greenway / The Reverberation Appreciation Society on Deluxe LP w/ Die Cut Jacket, CD & Cassette
EUROPEAN TOUR 2023
June 15 • UK • Brighton • Patterns
June 16 • UK • Liverpool • Jimmy’s
June 17 • UK • Manchester • Projekts MCR Skatepark
June 18 • UK • Newcastle • The Cluny
June 19 • UK • Glasgow • Stereo
June 20 • UK • Birmingham • Hare & Hounds
June 21 • UK • London • Oslo
June 23 • DE • Munich • Milla Club
June 24 • DE • Berlin • Astra
June 25 • FR • Lille • L’Aéronef
June 26 • BE • Brussels • La Source
June 29 • FR • La Rochelle • La Sirène
July 1 • ES • Barcelona • Upload
July 2 • ES • Madrid • Wurlitzer Ballroom
July 3 • ES • Zaragoza • Lata de Bombillas
July 5 • FR • Paris • Petit Bain
July 6 • FR • Lyon • Sonic
July 7 • FR • Six-Fours-les-Plages • Pointu Fest
July 12 • FR • Bordeaux • Relâche Fest (𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄)
July 14 • DE • Idar Oberstein • Rock Im Daal Fest
July 15 • NL • Nijmegen • Valkhof Fest (𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄)
July 29 • FR • Binic • Binic Folks Blues Fest
August 8 • CH • Martigny • Palp Festival
August 11 • PT • Vila Praia De Âncora • Sonic Blast Fest
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