altopalo have released their highly-anticipated, genre-fluid new album, frenemy today via Nettwerk. The band will celebrate the release with a hometown show in New York, as well as shows in Los Angeles and Chicago. Listen to it now below.
About frenemy, drummer Dillon Treacy says candidly, “this is the first album where I actually know all the lyrics. over the other albums I’ve always felt not necessarily unattached to them, but they always felt specific to whoever was writing them, which is great, but I believe this album really gets to how the four of us feel being in a band / friends in a way that the other albums have not, and it makes me happy.”
Veterans of the New York scene, the four members of altopalo – lead singer Rahm Silverglade, guitarist Mike Haldeman, bassist Jesse Bielenberg and drummer Dillon Treacy – have racked up tens of millions of streams and made fans at Pitchfork, FADER, Stereogum, Nylon, Billboard, Brooklyn Vegan, and more for disintegrating the boundaries of genre, folding in elements of R&B, electronica, ambient and jazz through their deconstructionist approach to guitar-driven music. All four are professional studio & touring musicians outside of the band as well, working alongside and fostering a growing community of incredibly talented artists including Dora Jar, Moses Sumney, L’rain, Bartees Strange, Jon Batiste, Amber Mark, & more.
frenemy, was in part inspired by the following but not limited to: freight trains that passed the house where they recorded the music – long long short long – and their horns, astroturf, a black Chevrolet express van named “honk”, sand dunes, Lake Michigan at sunset, being naked in the water, Settlers of Catan board game pieces, a big blue party bluetooth speaker, Taco Bell and more. Through today’s release, altopalo have done what they do best, creating meaningful, textured, indie-electronic collages that encompass their personal experiences, including overtures to friendships (“Altopalo”), and diss tracks to themselves (“love that 4 u ft. Bartees Strange”). Altruistically motivated to dissolve the confines of heteronormativity, altopalo has fashioned a vessel for open dialog between band-mates, friends and listeners alike.
altopalo on tour
Oct 8th – Brooklyn, NY – Public Records
Oct 11th – Chicago, IL – Schubas
Oct 15th – Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon