LOWERTOWN
RELEASE VIDEO FOR NEW SINGLE “MICE PROTECTION”
AHEAD OF NEW ALBUM UGLY DUCKLING UNION OUT THIS FRIDAY VIA SUMMER SHADE
ANNOUNCE UK + EU TOUR DATES
Photo credit: Reno Silver
Praise for Lowertown:
“ever since coming out of the Atlanta DIY scene, Lowertown have always blurred the boundaries of genre, infusing folk, country, rock, and a punk ethos into their songs” – Rolling Stone
“Somber yet intense” – Stereogum
“Lowertown’s compositions are built around surreal, sometimes cryptic imagery and emotional revelations” – FLOOD
“Luscious lo-fi indie bops” – DIY
“Lowertown are in possession of a delicate talent” – Beats Per Minute
“The latest in a generation of artists determined not to be defined by genre” – Notion
“Something both strangely familiar and all the more enticing” – Our Culture
“Blends soft-spoken lyricism bordering on avant-garde poetry and experimental indie rock instrumentation” – Ones to Watch
Lowertown, the New York duo of Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg, release a video for “Mice Protection,” the final single from their anticipated new album, Ugly Duckling Union, out this Friday via Summer Shade. Rolling Stone, who profiled the band today, is saying “eLowertown have always blurred the boundaries of genre, infusing folk, country, rock, and a punk ethos into their songs.”
“The first song written for Ugly Duckling Union, the song starts with an exhale. After 2 years of extensive touring and emotional turmoil moving out of our childhood houses in Atlanta, we had to reevaluate our relationship within music and the band. Mice protection was the first time back in a basement studio and the first time we realized we knew the direction for the new album,” the band explains. “We called the song ‘Mice Protection’ to pay homage to Avsha’s rat infested house that all of Ugly Duckling Union was recorded in. Its lyrics are an introduction to some of the core themes of the album like the ambiguity of right and wrong, reality in the scope of different perspectives, and the darkness and light that exists and within an individual.”
Lowertown are currently on tour in support of Ugly Duckling Union, their riotous live show, which has been selling out shows across the tour, is not to be missed. The band have also just announced a new run of EU/UK tour dates including an appearance at Manchester Psych Fest and a headline show at London’s Oslo. All dates below. Tickets are available via lowertown.band.
WATCH “MICE PROTECTION” VIDEO
The songwriting partnership of Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg, the last few years saw the prolific pair teetering on the brink. From constant touring and a separation from their label to creative frustrations and an unhealthy attachment to one another, their artistic partnership and, more importantly, their friendship were on shaky ground—especially since these experiences were colored by the disorienting intensity of their late teens and early 20s. It became clear that the two had to revisit their roots.
Those roots trace back to Atlanta, Georgia: in the forests, the soon-to-be abandoned venues, the makeshift punk communities, to Weinberg’s family basement, but those roots also formed somewhere else entirely: the internet. The band grew up on Tumblr fanpages, Reddit forums, digital spaces that had not yet been corporatized. Places whose fandoms eventually leapt from the virtual to the physical, bringing people together to meet at concerts, coffee shops, and conventions to discuss their obsessions and connect over shared interests.
During the pandemic, they watched these places change, become commodified, and disappear; people no longer had these physical spaces to be solely amongst friends with shared interests where communities and fandoms could strengthen. Out of this vacuum, the Ugly Duckling Union was born.
On previous single “Big Thumb,” Lowertown showcase how far they’ve come since their early days in Atlanta. In an unkempt folk-jazz murmur, Weinberg slurs his words with palpable heart, while Osby’s lush vocal melodies and harmonica encircle to haunting effect. The track arrives with a surreal video directed by Jack Haven (I Saw The TV Glow). Lead single “I Like You A Lot” is a rare love song from the pair, detailing the physical sensations of infatuation over a spry drumbeat and lo-fi, twangy guitars. The country-tinged “Worst Friend” arrived with a video where the close knit duo killed time in a seemingly uninhabited small town. Watch videos for all three songs below.
WATCH PREVIOUSLY RELEASED VIDEOS FOR
“I LIKE YOU A LOT,” “BIG THUMB,” & “WORST FRIEND”
Tour dates:
May 18th – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
May 19th – Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club
May 22nd – Seattle, WA @ Baba Yaga
May 23rd – Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
May 26th – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
May 29th – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
May 30th – Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy
May 31st – San Diego, CA @ Quartyard
June 8th – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
June 11th – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
June 12th – Austin, TX @ 29th St Ballroom
June 13th – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
June 15th – Nashville, TN @ The End
June 17th – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade (HELL)
June 19th – Jacksonville, FL @ Hard Love
June 20th – Orlando, FL @ Conduit
June 22nd – Miami, FL @ Lincoln’s Beard
June 23rd – Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
June 25th – Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
June 26th – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
June 27th – New York City, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
September 1st – Dublin, IRE @ The Grand Social
September 3rd – Leeds, UK @ Belgrave Music Hall
September 4th – Glasgow, UK @ Nice n Sleazy
September 5th – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Psych Fest @ YES (Basement)
September 6th – Bristol, UK @ Exchange
September 7th – London, UK @ Oslo
September 9th – Paris, FR @ Chinois
September 12th – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso (Upstairs)
September 15th – Cologne, GER @ Bumann & Sohn
September 16th – Hamburg, GER @ Reeperbahn Festival
September 18th – Berlin, GER @ Urban Spree
September 19th – Copenhagen, DK @ Forbrændingen
September 22nd – Schorndorf, GER @ Manufaktur
September 23rd – Aarau, CH @ KIFF
September 24th – Torino, IT @ Spazio 211
September 25th – Milano, IT @ Arci Bellezza
September 26th – Rome, IT @ Wishlist
Guestlist available upon request
Ugly Duckling Union album art
Tracklist:
01 Mice Protection
02 Worst Friend
03 Echo of Desire
04 Forgive Yourself
05 Big Thumb
06 Cover You
07 I Like You A Lot
08 (I Like To Play With) Mutts
09 DIPSH*T
10 Anything Good Takes Blood
11 Found A
12 Some Things Never End
Inspired by the conceptual creativity of bands like Gorillaz and the emphasis on the communal concert experience of Fugazi, Lowertown’s new album, fittingly titled Ugly Duckling Union, is the conceptual world of Dale the duckling protagonist and his companions as they attempt to band together to defeat LBH, a tyrannical media corporation set on separating and isolating in their pursuit of control.
Through the band’s online connection with fans, their Discord server with channels for their community to share their own art and talk to the band, and their Instagram and Youtube pages, where they have built a cult following, they have already begun to bridge the gap between the digital and physical. Lowertown shows are often giddily attended by those who have met through their web of online fandom. Ugly Duckling Union, accompanied by a conceptual story, a playable Minecraft world, a handbook, plush dolls, and drawn comics by Doctor Nowhere (Silas Orion), is creating the space to be obsessed together again.
Ugly Duckling Union was fully written, recorded, produced, and mixed by Osby and Weinberg, and that insular, hands-on ethic is something they cherish—and has never waned. Although Lowertown are the sole caretakers of their art, their new album title is a celebration of the meaningful community they’ve built. “Our home has been the people who make us feel understood, and the music that makes us feel understood,” Osby explains. “I feel like Avsha and I have just been two misfits doing stuff together, and I feel like this music is for people like us—it’s for the misfit toys.” There’s a lot of freedom in being an outsider, and that’s ultimately what Ugly Duckling Union is about finding and freeing yourself through community. And what could be more freeing, self-confronting, and funny than making a beautiful record with your ride-or-die, misfit-toy best friend?
Connect with Lowertown:
Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | TikTok | Discord | Bandcamp | Laylo
