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For more than a half century, underground music revolutionaries have taken a whack at the
mundane mainstream like a piñata. England punks spat “NO FUTURE” at germ-free
adolescents. Ohio new wavers devolutionized mankind with whips. Athens art school students
chomped at hero worship. MetroCard-carrying riot grrrls rebirthed the bomp with a gasoline gut.
In 2020, Sweeping Promises read our pandemic minds with Hunger for a Way Out. In 2023,
they return with a new message: Good Living Is Coming For You. At first glance, this nouveau
wave slogan offers hope wrapped around relief. At first listen, we realize this may actually be a
warning. Darker still, a threat.
A band famous for their unfussy, monolithic anthems, Sweeping Promises elegantly ravage us
again with another future classic. They return as a fist of velvet rose petals roaring inside a
compact wrecking ball. Gone is the Boston brutalist ambience of their subterranean concrete
laboratory and the revelatory single mic recording technique. In its place, a retired and
resplendent nude painting studio in Lawrence, Kansas, bathed in light with high ceilings and
hardwood floors. Guided once again by their surrounding architecture, a reverb-rich space
remains the defining element at the heart of their highly stylized sound. A watery ghost from the
golden age of art-punk now wields sharper knives and more microphones.
If the mood of HFAWO was hungry, GLICFY is RAVENOUS. In 2023, appetite is addressed in
new ways: Power struggles are aired in “Eraser,” restraints are broken in “You Shatter,”
anguished exclamations sting in “Good Living Is Coming for You.” The taboo subject of aging is
(s)heroically dragged out into the open. Every line is delivered with such joyous, soaring layers
that each punch lands like a chef’s kiss.
Sweeping Promises are Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug. A chance meeting in Arkansas led to
a decade of playing in an eclectic assortment of projects together. Their relentless practice
made perfect. Bass playing Lira is an emotive bolt of thunderous energy with the iconic blast of
a girl group rolled into one robust throat. Caufield is an intentional guitar player and drummer.
No note or hit is extraneous. Together they are meticulous sound engineers, using space as a
key ingredient to their distinct sound. Controlling every aspect of their craft, from the first note
they write together, all the way through to the final mastering process, each record is an
unspoiled fingerprint unique to their dynamic chemistry.
Written before the pandemic, Hunger for a Way Out was released on Feel It Records in the
summer of 2020. These songs drip with the anxious urgency of a commanding live performance
yet their gauzy production transports us like the fading memory of a favorite song. This distorted
sense of time resonated with thousands of quarantined listeners who turned the album into a
life-saving floatation device and most beloved album of the year. This is when Feel It Records
(North America) and Sub Pop (everywhere else) joined forces to divide/unite and conquer;
beginning with the 2021 single “Pain Without a Touch” and now carrying through to Good Living
Is Coming For You.
The pandemic went on to trigger an absurd chain of events for Sweeping Promises. Under
financial strain, Mondal and Schnug uprooted their lives. They surrendered their studio in
Cambridge to take refuge with family in Texas. They completed over 50 demos between their
Austin bathroom and a Marfa abode, but feeling unsatisfied, they sought another fresh start.
When a disused church in Ohio proved too difficult to rehab, they ultimately found lasting
inspiration in Kansas. With their home and studio all under one roof, life is music and music is
life.
Good Living Is Coming For You ultimately reflects being thrust into a severely unpredictable
world. A capsized boat isn’t entirely bad. In fact, it can be the necessary push toward finding
solid ground.