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Jun 16, 2021 By Caleb Campbell

Brooklyn’s Toshio Band, a self-described neo noire rock’n’roll band led by singer/songwriter Tim Lavigne, returns next week with their new EP, Lock Your Doors. Inspired by cowboy antiheroes, classic artists of art rock like David Bowie, and celebrated songwriters like Tom Waits, the band released their debut EP, A Splash of Blood, in 2019 and have been following with singles from their upcoming neo-noire concept EP. Their latest single, “Cataclysm,” is out June 18th, but you can get an early listen to the track below, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Cataclysm” proves to be a fitting name for the band’s latest single. An undescribed cataclysmic event has befallen humanity and Toshio Band explores the dusty desert aftermath, backed by sweltering trumpet lines and lush guitar melodies. “Are you mad? / Or am I? / The machine will decide / Like a thief in the night / Cataclysms divide,” Lavigne sings, introducing the song’s apocalyptic landscape. Toshio Band’s smoky imagined world proves as cinematic and beguiling as its filmic inspirations, gradually brought to life by a towering swirl of desert rock instrumentation.

“Throughout history, whenever natural disasters happen, there’s political uprisings. I feel like we’re going through one of those moments now. I wanted to write about that without it being so overt,” says Lavigne. “I deliberately pushed things for the song. I added more tracks on it than ever before.”

Check out the song below and watch for the Lock Your Doors EP, out June 25th.