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CD
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THRILL 659CD
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$14.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/28/2026
"Stargazing Brooklyn noise-rock cosmonauts Upper Wilds -- the power-trio led by Parts & Labor co-founder Dan Friel -- return with another set of lean anthems filtered through a flamethrower. Their speediest, most explosive album yet, Mercury, is a meditation on death, with Friel expounding on his brush with skin cancer, climate change, funerals, Henry Kissinger, and a world seemingly on fire. Buoyed by recent tours with acts like Pelican, Uniform, Psychic Graveyard and Savak, the trio's increased speed is met with a precision that gives every hairpin turn more wallop. Mercury's molten, non-stop riffing is captured with grit and punch by engineer Travis Harrison (Guided By Voices, The Men) and is bolstered by longtime collaborator/saxophonist and fellow-New York mainstay Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) and vocalist Erin Dawson of LA-based experimental black metal band Genital Shame. Jason Binnick's basslines shine brighter than before dancing in tandem with Friel's guitar licks on 'Death Song #3' and bringing equal parts melody and thunderous weight to 'Green-Wood Cemetery.' Jeff Ottenbacher's drumming oscillates between machine gun fills and sledge hammer pounding, giving each riff more momentum and bite. Upper Wilds' space-rock adventures through their recent albums Mars, Venus, and Jupiter came replete with stories of the heavens and humanity alike. On this fourth installment, the closest planet to the sun, things take a darker turn. The small, barren planet Mercury was named after the gods' speedy messenger and guide to the underworld, and the album syphons Upper Wilds' fuzz-pop aesthetics into concise, scorched anthems about the brevity and fragility of life with the ferocity of a band playing on the edge of extinction."
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LP
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THRILL 659X-LP
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$27.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/28/2026
LP version. Silver color vinyl. "Stargazing Brooklyn noise-rock cosmonauts Upper Wilds -- the power-trio led by Parts & Labor co-founder Dan Friel -- return with another set of lean anthems filtered through a flamethrower. Their speediest, most explosive album yet, Mercury, is a meditation on death, with Friel expounding on his brush with skin cancer, climate change, funerals, Henry Kissinger, and a world seemingly on fire. Buoyed by recent tours with acts like Pelican, Uniform, Psychic Graveyard and Savak, the trio's increased speed is met with a precision that gives every hairpin turn more wallop. Mercury's molten, non-stop riffing is captured with grit and punch by engineer Travis Harrison (Guided By Voices, The Men) and is bolstered by longtime collaborator/saxophonist and fellow-New York mainstay Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) and vocalist Erin Dawson of LA-based experimental black metal band Genital Shame. Jason Binnick's basslines shine brighter than before dancing in tandem with Friel's guitar licks on 'Death Song #3' and bringing equal parts melody and thunderous weight to 'Green-Wood Cemetery.' Jeff Ottenbacher's drumming oscillates between machine gun fills and sledge hammer pounding, giving each riff more momentum and bite. Upper Wilds' space-rock adventures through their recent albums Mars, Venus, and Jupiter came replete with stories of the heavens and humanity alike. On this fourth installment, the closest planet to the sun, things take a darker turn. The small, barren planet Mercury was named after the gods' speedy messenger and guide to the underworld, and the album syphons Upper Wilds' fuzz-pop aesthetics into concise, scorched anthems about the brevity and fragility of life with the ferocity of a band playing on the edge of extinction."
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