The queer, feminist punk band Team Dresch started in Portland in 1993, and they inspired a whole lot of people before breaking up in 1998. They didn’t stay broken up for long. Team Dresch played their first reunion show in 2004, and they’ve been touring sporadically since then. Back in 2019, they shared “Your Hands In My Pockets,” their first song in many years, and they covered Elliott Smith’s “St. Ides Heaven” a couple of years later. Now, they’re getting ready to release Furthermore, their first album since their 1996 sophomore LP Captain My Captain.
The current version of Team Dresch is a five-piece that includes both of the band’s ’90s drummers, Marcéo Martinez and Melissa York. Singer/guitarist Kaia Wilson explains the band’s decision to record a new album in comic form, so here it is:
Opening track “One Song” is a purposeful, welcoming anthem about why Team Dresch do what they do: “Some people say you only write one song, and that feels true/ And I do it for you/ The lonely young one that was me/ Who’s in me, and who may be in you.” Nina Landey directed the song’s video, and it stars singer/bassist Jody Bleyle’s daughter Twylo Landey. Here’s what the band says about it:
There are lots of layers to this song. It’s a love song to our young selves from our present selves. It’s a song of hope and power for all the young queers who are dragged into the struggle. It’s also a song for the elders who have built defenses from years of working and caretaking and being pounded by life.
The chorus starts, “They say there’s danger In the Night Kitchen/ But it’s a dreamland/ And it’s all for us.” In the Night Kitchen is a banned book written by our queer ancestor, Maurice Sendak, who creates magical dreamlands. And then as we wrote about what it’s like to be older, Mel [York, drummer] remembered a message from an elder queer going through the same things as us and that message inspired the second verse.
Young people are not only told that they’re IN a nightmare, they’re told that they ARE the nightmare. But actually, our queerness is a dreamland full of feral, playful joy.
Below, check out the “One Song” video, the Furthermore tracklist, and Team Dresch’s tour dates.
TRACKLIST:
01″One Song”
02 “Growing Underground”
03 “Heard A Bang”
04 “I’ve Really Become Some Thing”
05 “Jamie”
06 “Still Your Room”
07 “And Now Your Face”
08 “I Won’t Tell”
09 “(Where Do) I Belong”
10 “Every Owl Leaves”
11 “Last One At The Party”
12 “Protectors”
TOUR DATES:
8/18 – The Square @ Portland, OR ^
8/20 – Zootunes@ Seattle, WA ^
9/19 – Bern, Switzerland @ YEAH Fest, Reitschule
9/20 – Mainz, Germany @ Schon Schön
9/21 – Oberhausen, Germany @ Druckluft
9/22 – Berlin, Germany @ Neue Zukunft
9/24 – Bremen, Germany @ Tower
9/25 – Karlsruhe, Germany @ Alte Hackerei
9/26 – Köln, Germany @ Blue Shell
9/27 – Hamburg, Germany @ Betty
9/30 – London, UK @ Lexington
10/28 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall #
11/04-05 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill *
11/07 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon *
11/12 – Tacoma, WA @ Spanish Ballroom %
^ with Breeders
# with Altar Girl
* with Longstocking & The Third Sex
% with Neko Case
Furthermore is out 9/18 on Jealous Butcher. Pre-order it here.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source stereogum.com ’
