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May 15, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Silverbacks

Promising new Dublin five-piece Silverbacks have announced their debut album, Fad, and shared a new song from it, “Muted Gold,” via an amusing video for the track. Fad is due out July 17 via Central Tones. Check out the “Muted Gold” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art, as well as the band’s upcoming European tour dates (hopefully they happen).

Pegging the band’s sound is tricky. Daniel O’Kelly’s vocals at time resemble those of Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo. The band says the video for “Muted Gold” is inspired by Stereolab videos and the backing vocals bear a slight influence from those ’90s legends. But then there’s a post-punk/no wave/early ’80s NYC vibe.

In a press release O’Kelly had this to say about the “Muted Gold” video: “The video is loosely inspired by early Stereolab music videos. It’s a collection of clips from a few band outings we had near our practice space before the lockdown began. Fun fact, Peadar used to work in a bowling alley. Despite not having played in years he scored 192 on the day we brought the camera.”

Girl Band bassist Daniel Fox produced Fad. The band also features Kilian O’Kelly (guitar/vocals), Emma Hanlon (bass/vocals), Peadar Kearney (guitar), and Gary Wickham (drums).

A press release further describes the album and its themes: “Debut album Fad represents the sound of a band trying to make sense of a noisy and disjointed world—one that competes for your attention at every turn. For them, it has come to be a symbol of what it feels like to try and absorb the world through both fleeting moments in front of screens, and prolonged obsessive periods filled with focus. They pull apart pop-culture in search of new meaning, whether it’s a nod to The Simpsons (‘Fad 95’), imagining a lost John Hughes film (Klub Silberrücken), spiralling downwards into youtube deep-dives (‘Pink Tide’), or making sense of youth culture through The Urban Dictionary (‘Grinning At the Lid’). Much in the same way that modern life can be defined by its unpredictability, Silverbacks colorful, vivid and exuberant songs dismantle their source material and end up in places that you don’t think they will.”

Fad Tracklist:

1. Dunkirk
2. Pink Tide
3. Drink It Down
4. Fad ‘95
5. Dud
6. Klub Silberrücken
7. Travel Lodge Punk
8. Just In The Band
9. Grinning At the Lid
10. Muted Gold
11. Up The Nurses
12. Madra Uisce
13. Last Orders

Silverbacks Tour Dates:

August 27 - Kasbah Social Club, Limerick, Ireland
August 28 - The Grand Social, Dublin, Ireland
September 01 - The Crofter’s Rights, Bristol, UK
September 02 - The Victoria, London, UK
September 03 - Network 2, Sheffield, UK
September 04 - The Hug & Pint, Glasgow, UK
September 05 - Psych Fest, Manchester, UK
September 06 - Heartbreakers, Southampton, UK
September 08 - The Hope & Ruin, Brighton, UK
September 09 - Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, UK

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