Yesterday, Seattle band Chastity Belt shared “Caught in a Lie,” the second single from their highly-anticipated new album I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, out June 2nd on all formats and streaming services. The track, which maintains the reflective, cathartic, and poignant tone of previous single ‘Different Now,’ can be streamed here.
Additionally, the band has announced both a UK and EU tour for this coming autumn and a North American summer tour.
North American tour
1st June – Seattle, WA – Record Release show at The Crocodile
14th June – Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club
15th June – Chicago, IL – Subterranean
16th June – Detroit, MI – Jumbo’s
17th June – Toronto, ON – Longboat Hall at the Great Hall
18th June – Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz
19th June – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
20th June – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
22nd June – Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMOCA
23rd June – Washington, DC – Songbyrd
24th June – Durham, NC – The Pinhook
25th June – Asheville, NC – The Mothlight
27th June – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade (Purgatory)
28th June – Nashville, TN – DRKMTTR
29th June – St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway
30th June – Iowa City, IA – Gabe’s
1st July – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry
UK/EU tour
4th September – Margate, UK – Cliffs
5th September – Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club
6th September – Manchester, UK – Star and Garter
7th September – Newcastle, UK – Cluny
8th September – Glasgow, UK – Broadcast
11th September – Bristol, UK – Exchange
12th September – Nottingham, UK – Bodega
13th September – Brighton, UK – Green Door Store
14th September – London, UK – Garage
15th September – Brussels, BE – Witloof Bar
16th September – Cologne, DE – King Georg
17th September – Berlin, DE – Kantine Am Berghain
19th September – Vienna, AT – Arena
20th September – Lausanne, CH – La Romandie Club
21st September – Paris, FR – Espace B
22nd September – Rotterdam, NL – V11
23rd September – Utrecht, NL – ACU
ABOUT THE RECORD:
A few years ago, while in a tour van somewhere in Idaho, the members of Chastity Belt—Julia Shapiro, Gretchen Grimm, Lydia Lund, and Annie Truscott—opted to pass the time in a relatively unusual fashion: They collectively paid one another compliments, in great and thoughtful detail. This is what we like best about you, this is why we love you.
I think of that image all the time, the four of them opening themselves up like that, by choice. It’s hard to imagine other bands doing the same. But beyond their troublesome social media presence—see: the abundance of weapons-grade duck face, the rolling suitcase art—and beyond the moonlit deadpan of say, “IDC,” lies, at the very least, an honesty and an intimacy and an emotional brilliance that galvanizes everything they do together. Which is a fancy way of saying: They’re funny, but they’re also capable of being vulnerable. “Giant Vagina” and “Pussy Weed Beer,” two highlights from their aptly titled 2013 debut, No Regerts, were immediately preceded by a sublime yet easily overlooked cut named “Happiness.” I saw a younger, still unsettling version of myself all across 2015’s Time to Go Home.
This June marks the release of I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, their third and finest full-length to date. Recorded live in July of 2016, with producer Matthew Simms (Wire) at Jackpot! in Portland, Oregon (birthplace of some of their favorite Elliott Smith records), it’s a dark and uncommonly beautiful set of moody post-punk that finds the Seattle outfit’s feelings in full view, unobscured by humor. There is no irony in its title: Before she had Chastity Belt, and the close relationships that she does now, Shapiro considered herself a career loner. That’s no small gesture. I can make as much sense of this music as I can my 20s: This is a brave and often exhilarating tangle of mixed feelings and haunting melodies that connects dizzying anguish (“This Time of Night”) to shimmering insight (“Different Now”) to gauzy ambiguity (“Stuck,” written and sung by Grimm). It’s a serious record but not a serious departure, defined best, perhaps, by a line that Shapiro shares early on it’s staggering title track: “I wanna be sincere.”
When asked, their only request was that what you’re reading right now be brief, honest, free of hyperbole, and “v chill.” When pressed for more, Truscott said, “Just say that we love each other. Because we do.”
