Slaughter Beach, Dog Share Nine-Minute New Song “Engine”

Slaughter Beach, Dog Share Nine-Minute New Song “Engine”

Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling Due Out September 22 via Lame-O

Sep 05, 2023

By Mark Redfern

Philadelphia five-piece Slaughter Beach, Dog are releasing a new album, Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling on September 22, 2023 via Lame-O. Now they have shared the album’s fourth and final pre-release single, the nine-minute long “Engine.” Listen below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Slaughter Beach, Dog is led by Jacob Ewald, who had this to say about “Engine” in a press release: “This song keeps changing for me. First, I didn’t think it was about anything. Then I thought it was about the van. Then I thought it was about [Slaughter Beach, Dog bassist] Ian [Farmer], and I couldn’t figure out why the guitar solo kept making me cry. Outside the Sinclair in January, I saw a flyer for a house show and remembered how long we’ve been doing this. Then my heart was in my shoes. Ten years of thinking a different life was right around the corner, selling off all this heavy machinery and making spreadsheets for somebody, futzing with chickenwire, everything more simple.

“Lately this song feels like. a eulogy for the change that never came. Ten years gone and I’m still squirming under freedom’s thumb, too easily forgetting rock’n’roll, my great hulking vessel, a framework to swing from, a history to make home inside of. Forms to learn, rules to break, comrades to find, mysteries turned over ad infinitum, inexplicable monsoons of the heart. I’m still finding myself inside this song, still learning to accept that I lived it. Some of it spooks me. I can hear it in the pain of belonging—standing in one place long enough to not take leaving lightly. Staying put when the outlaws arrive at night. Saying very quietly to no one, this is where I live.”

Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling is the band’s fifth album.

Craig Finn of The Hold Steady offered this early praise for the album in the press release: “There’s beautiful space in everything. It’s patient and aware. I’ve always admired Jake’s eye for detail and it’s on full display here. It’s an album filled with gorgeous imagery and vivid worlds are built within each song. I see it all. Most impressively to me, he consistently finds the divine and sacred in the everyday,

“It’s my opinion that every record is about growing up—we all have to get a little older before we make the next one. Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling examines a particular weightlessness that is part of spreading wings, putting down roots, trying to grab ahold of something. This is how it feels when you’re making the moves that you make while becoming the person that you’re going to be.”

Previously the band shared three other singles from the album: “Summer Windows,” “Float Away,” and “Strange Weather.”

Slaughter Beach, Dog Tour Dates:

9/27 – Manchester Academy 2 – Manchester, UK*
9/28 – Leeds Irish Centre – Leeds, UK*
9/29 – Concorde 2 – Brighton, UK*
9/30 – Electric Brixton – London, UK*
10/1 – SWX – Bristol, UK*
11/1 – Buskirk-Chumley Theater – Bloomington, IN
11/2 – The Bluestone – Columbus, OH^
11/3 – Axis Club – Toronto, CA^
11/4 – St. Andrew’s Hall – Detroit, MI^
11/5 – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL
11/6 – First Ave – Minneapolis, MN
11/8 – The Gothic – Englewood, CO^
11/9 – The Granada – Lawrence, KS^
11/10 – Delmar Hall – St. Louis, MO^
11/11 – The Basement East – Nashville, TN^
11/12 – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA^
11/14 – Cat’s Cradle – Carrboro, NC^
11/15 – The Fillmore – Silver Spring, MD^
11/16 – Roadrunner – Boston, MA^
11/17 – Webster Hall – New York, NY^
11/18 – The Fillmore – Philadelphia, PA^
1/04 – House of Blues – Houston, TX#
1/05 – Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX#
1/06 – Emo’s – Austin, TX#
1/07 – Tulips – Dallas, TX#
1/09 – Meow Wolf – Santa Fe, NM#
1/10 – 191 Toole – Tucson, AZ#
1/11 – The Van Buren – Phoenix, AZ#
1/12 – Observatory North Park – San Diego, CA#
1/13 – Theatre at The Ace Hotel – Los Angeles, CA#
1/14 – The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA#
1/16 – The Catalyst – Santa Cruz, CA#
1/17 – Crest Theatre – Sacramento, CA#
1/19 – Revolution Hall – Portland, OR#
1/20 – The Showbox – Seattle, WA#
1/21 – Rickshaw Theatre – Vancouver, BC#

* = w/ Mo Troper
^ = w/ Bonny Doon
# = w/ Sun June

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.