SAVAK - Beg Your Pardon
We are super stoked to be working with the Ernest Jenning Record Co to licence the UK release of the new album by SAVAK, from New York City. SAVAK operate as a loose collective of players focused around the core duo of Michael Jaworski (The Cops, Virgin Islands) and Sohrab Habibion (Obits, Edsel) joined by members of killer bands such as Girls Against Boys, Bellini, Holy Fuck, The Make Up, Nation Of Ulysses and several million more. They totally blew us away when they toured with Grey Hairs earlier this year.
Here's what the band have to say about their new album:
"In 1964 The Trashmen sang, "A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word." And in 1966 a rock'n'roll tune quoted The Tibetan Book of the Dead (The Bardo Thodol for you squares out there). It's hard to imagine people would bother with an electric guitar by 1970, let alone 2018.
"So what do we have now? Fifty-four years after "Surfin' Bird" there are legit bands providing "exclusive content" for trillion-dollar, multinational technology companies. And most summer music festivals are programmed nearly identically to every other summer music festival. How about a crash course on using social media for "creatives"?
"It's a weird landscape. Almost weirder still that it's one in which I can almost guarantee you that if you buy Saccharine Trust's stellar Paganicons EP from the web store where you can also add a "Corporate Rock Still Sucks" t-shirt to your shopping cart, Joe Baiza will never, ever, ever see a penny from that sale.
"So where does SAVAK fit in? Three guys in our 40s, living in New York City, married with children. Who knows? We don't worry about it.
"We've been in bands for decades. Making records, playing shows, finding our way to places where there are other music people. Besancon, Brno, Lyon, Nottingham, Vernerovice, Zagreb. Taking notes, assembling lists, looking at maps. There's always some new place to check out, an LP to discover, a sandwich that's been assembled more perfectly than you could ever imagine a sandwich being assembled.
"This is what we like to do. And so we focus our attention on trying to do it as much as we can. To get better. To develop our own language. To reach the threshold of identity and time. Also to drink a few beers and have a laugh.
"Beg Your Pardon is our third album. We recorded it ourselves in our practice space and then gave the songs to Mikey Young (Royal Headache, Kelley Stoltz), Geoff Sanoff (Nada Surf, Luna), Ed Ackerman (The Jayhawks, John Wesley Harding) and Matthew Barnhart (Superchunk, METZ) to mix.
"It covers a lot of ground and we're happy about that. You get everything from noisy careeners and '80s hardcore nods to slightly glammy stompers and straight-up, New Zealand-inspired, guitar-pop songs. And that's just in the first 10 minutes of side one. Then there's some psych action, post-punk drone, etc. etc. …and a few tender jams too, including a beautiful horn outro at the end of side two that our friend Josh Sinton wrote.
"If, like us, you enjoy The Blues And The Abstract Truth as much as Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts and you're cool with "Faron Young" popping up on a mix tape as much as "Aloha Steve And Danno" or "Up Front," then dig in. And we hope to see you at our next show, wherever that is and wherever you are. Come say hello. Grazie, punk."