The Exploding in Sound roster feels so much like a family that sometimes it can be hard to tell where one band ends and another begins. For their newest release, the label's slapped together two sides of the same mutant coin. Bad History Month and Dust From 1000 Yrs each claim a side on Famous Cigarettes, a new full-length split that claws at extremes of isolation, dread, and loneliness. This isn't just two dudes with guitars working up a melancholy. This is some bad-trip-in-the-desert shit, some slowly-asphyxiating-in-deep-space shit.
Jeff Meff (formerly of Fat History Month) takes side A as Bad History Month (to avoid confusion). “You think you're flying, but actually you're just falling in love with views from heights you'll never reach again,” he drawls in the first line of the album's first track, “Thank God for the Ground”. The thing builds and it builds and then it stops. No warning, just void. Meff goes on to crash around between Califone and The USA Is a Monster—toothy, frayed, and somehow still desolate. He segues into Dust's side by covering two tracks from the Bloomington act's back catalog, and then it's all Dust, or really Ben Rector, the group's principal songwriter who goes by the name Bone. The music's bare and nods to death. It fits.
Dig a little past the first layer of ash on the record, though, and you'll find more than just country laments and memento mori. You'll find the weird paradox of the glow on the tip of the cig that kills you. You'll get to breathe it all in.
Exploding in Sound will release Famous Cigarettes on June 10. Stream the release below, and check out the dates for both bands' huge upcoming U.S. tour.
June
4 – Worcester, MA @ Distant Castle
5 – Peterborough, NH @ The Thing In The Spring w/ Magik Markers
6 – Lowell, MA @ Wilder Zangcraft w/ Big Mess
9 – Cambridge, MA @ Charlie's Kitchen w/ TMSL & Lady Bones
10 – Biddiford, ME @ The Oak and The Axe
11 – New Haven, CT @ Crunch House
12 – Meriden, CT @ Pearl Harbor w/ Florida=Death & Steve Hartlett (Ovlov)
13 – Brooklyn, NY @ Silent Barn w/ (New England) Patriots, Pile & Porches.
14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Great Indoors
15 – New Brunswick, NJ @ Candy Barrel
16 – Kutztown, PA @ Rattail Records
17 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Secret Spot
18 – Charlottesville, VA @ Tea Bazaar
19 – Parkersburg, WV @ The League Room
20 – Athens, OH @ Smiling Skull
21 – Cincinnati, OH @ The Comet
22 – Louisville, KY @ Dreamland
23 – Bloomington, IN @ Basement
24 – Dekalb, IL @ 7th Street Space
25 – Milwaukee, WI @ Quarters
26 – Rockford, IL @ House Show
27 – Chicago, IL @ The Observatory
28 – St Louis, MO @ Bank Projects
29 – Kansas City, KS @ Middle East
30 – Lincoln, NE @ The Tree House
July
1 – Denver, CO @ Rhinoceropolis
2 – Billings, MT
3 – Missoula, MT @ ZACC
4 – Moscow, ID @ The Ouija Hole
5 – Olympia, WA
6 – Bellingham, WA @ Alternative Library
7 – Seattle, WA @ The Josephine
8 – Portland, OR @ BBQ show w/ Binary Marketing Show
9 – Portland, OR @ Discourage Records w/ Post Moves
10 – Eugene/Arcata?
11 – Eureka, CA @ Ink Annex
12 – Oakland, CA @ Nerd Castle w/ Adult Wisdom, Fish Breath, Our Brother The Native
13 – San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock Tavern w/ Dennis & WUV
14 – Isla Vista, CA @ Biko Garage w/ Rob & Trash Berries
15 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lot 1, Echo Park
16 – San Diego, CA
17 – Arizona
18 – Santa Fe/Albuquerque
19 – Albuquerque
20 – Oklahoma City, OK
21 – Tulsa, OK @ The Yeti w/ Daddyos
22 – Little Rock, AR
23 – Conway, AR @ Zaza Fine
24 – Nashville, TN @ Neuhau5
25 – Carbondale, IL @ The Swamp
27 – Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop
28 – Columbus, OH @ Donato's Basement w/Stella
29 – Cleveland, OH
30 – Toronto @ The Smiling Buddha w/Animal Faces
31 – Montreal
August
1 – Burlington, VT
2 – Brattleboro, VT
4 – Boston, MA
