A few weeks ago we were in The Record Company’s Massachusetts Avenue studio space, previewing their upcoming Boston music compilation. Animal Flag, who appear on the comp, came up in discussion, and we boldly stated while listening to their contribution that they are maybe the best live band in Boston right now. We stand by the claim.
Now, the guitar-rock quartet are backing up the reputation with another type of compilation, this time in the shape of their debut album, out October 7 through Pittsburgh’s Broken World Media. The new LP, titled LP, will feature songs previously released digitally as Animal Flag’s 2014 EP, and last year’s EP 2, remastered and resequenced, and released on various formats (12-inch vinyl, cassette, CD, and digitally).
In advance of the release, the band has shared a remastered version of “Sensation”, which you can hear via the Broken World Media Bandcamp.
Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Matt Politoski breaks it all down in the note below, and clues us in on what to expect now and in the future:
The songs on EP and also EP 2 were primarily recorded over the course of one week in May 2014 and were initially intended to be released as a full-length album. The rest of it was completed in early 2015 with the current lineup of the band. Because of member changes, botched tours, and other various inconveniences, the record was split in half and the cohesive album as a whole wasn’t fully realized until now.
I wrote all of the songs on LP when I was between the ages of 17 and 21. These songs are snapshots of a version of myself that I am not entirely proud of and I view it as a deeply flawed work. It is a messy first sketch, sprinkled with some cringe-worthy lyrics, questionable musical choices, and a barrage of beliefs which I clung to helplessly as a child. I shed my former self throughout the process of writing this album. Through the mess, I hope some sort of beauty or truth came to exist in the form of these songs.
The history of Animal Flag has been a confusing one. The first Animal Flag record was a drone album made on my parents’ desktop computer in 2007. The genre shifted to folk for a handful of releases around 2010 followed by an electronic pop album out of the left field in 2013 (re-released under the moniker Bad Dreams), among others with different lineups and collaborators. For us, what is presented here as LP is the pivot point.
This current incarnation of the band is the final form of Animal Flag. We have been working on a completely new record to be released in 2017 which I feel is the first real representation of what the band has grown into over the past year and a half. If you have ever given a shit about Animal Flag and our music at any point over the past ten or so years, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. It only goes up from here.
-Matt
