The Los Angeles-based fearsome foursome Buckets are back with their long-awaited full length sophomore album, Horse To Water. The tracklist of 13 songs, officially out today via Slouch Records, elevates the band’s signature highly dynamic, raw and emotive sound, but brings a whole new life to the hard hitting outfit.
While their 2021 self-recorded, self-titled LP is filled to the brim with lofi charm and offkilter soundscapes, and their 2023 polished Good Luck Bad Dog EP explores the best parts of combining digital with analog in the studio, Buckets’ new record Horse To Water no doubt expands the band’s universe when it comes to instrumentational variety, sonic depth, and the boundaries of the indie punk genre. Available now on purple roan color LP, CD, and digital formats.
Fitting with the album name, tracks like ‘Harley,’ and ‘Honest’ see the band leaning into some well welcomed twang-tinged melodic themes. “I know what you did, because I did it to you” croons lead singer Tanner Houghton alongside guest vocalist Priscilla Parada (New Misphoria, Jenny’s Kitchen) on the country-goes-punk song ‘Mabian Hell,’ one track exemplifying how as the band dials in and improves their technical abilities when it comes to the music, they don’t sacrifice the intimacy or vulnerability of their lyrics that has been a through-line for the group.
Other songs like ‘Smokey’ and ‘Wishing’ see the rhythm section of Mitch Rossiter (bass) and Hiram Sevilla (drums) in their most instinctual form – loud, fuzzy, and unconstrained. The tones of the record, both audibly and metaphysically, are unquestionably the strongest of Buckets’ career, and can be heard maybe at their peak on ‘Jackknife,’ the band’s new gazey anthem, both sung and shredded by lead guitarist Sasha Massey.
Horse To Water is a testament to the Buckets’ 5+ years together – the chemistry is evident, the emotions are sincere, and the taste of stale Mexican lager and cheap tequila is palpable. While you can lead a horse to water but not force it to drink, it’s evident that Buckets have decided to fully cannonball into said water, horses and all.
From the band: Horse To Water is a collection of tracks that have been in our catalog for extremely varying amounts of time – “Oh Mamma” was written soon after our first album came out back in 2021 (it certainly feels like a classic Buckets tune), “Smokey” and “Wishing” have had their time on our setlists for the last year or so, and tracks like “Honest” and “OK” were pieced together about a week or so before we entered the studio to record. Being able to pull from a wide net of songs was integral to the record, I think.
It showcases not only the new era of Buckets and our hours of half-drunk writing sessions for the last year, but the consistency of our songwriting and chemistry as a group from our inception. We had the absolute pleasure of working with Kyle Biane and Peter Recine of The Market Recording on the album, and it really wouldn’t have come together without them. After they absolutely crushed the mixes on our singles ‘Slipping’ and ‘Naked’ last year, we knew we wanted to get into the studio with them for the next album – and their immense help with producing, engineering, and mixing really made the record what it is. Listen to these songs really loud, Buckets forever.
To celebrate, Buckets played a sold out show at Permanent Records Roadhouse in Los Angeles for their album release party presented by KCRW on Friday, June 12th. Supporting the band was touring act Lauren Lakis (Easy Rider Records) and local shoegaze act Marni (Pleasure Tapes). The wall-to-wall crowd was treated to a majority of the Horse To Water track list, many songs of which hadn’t been played live before.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
July 22 – San Diego, CA at Whistle Stop*
July 23 – Tucson, AZ at Che’s Lounge*
July 24 – Phoenix, AZ at Central Records*
July 25 – Las Vegas, NV at Voodoo Brewing*
July 26 – Los Angeles, CA at Oblivion*
+more TBA
*w/ RICKY
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