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Ex-Cult Need Plenty of Party Supplies And Think Everything Sucks Outside of Their "Shattered Circle"

Stream the new track from the "Midnight Passenger LP."

It's all about the live show, and, without a doubt, Ex-Cult has that blindfolded, on one-leg and with their arms tied behind them. The quintet's hook-y punk-influenced garage jams are fun and the band knows how to stir the pot on stage, making the indie kids attempt maiden stage dives and leaving the band's merch tables barren in the process. Their records are a must as well, and two years removed from their lauded self-titled debut, the Memphis band have returned to release the upcoming LP Midnight Passenger for Goner Records. Stream the latest track to emerge, "Shattered Circle," below and look for the LP on April 29th.

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We cornered the band formerly know as Sex Cult to ask them a few things about their process, touring agenda and how much they love Can, which you can check out below:

What were some of the pitfalls you wanted to avoid when recording the new album?
We wanted to avoid any shortage of party supplies. That was most important. We also wanted to make sure we entered Doug Easley's studio so locked-in that if this was the last record to ever be played before the world disintegrates that it's listeners would kill themselves in honor of how brilliant it was. Your last release hit in 2012 and you've been gaining momentum since, how much of this material was created for the record versus existing songs that didn't have a home previously.
All of the songs are new except for Sid Visions. That originally appeared on our first single as a B-side. We wrote all of the other songs over the course of 2013 on tour and at one of our two practice spaces in Memphis, Tennessee. Most of our album was written before hand but some of it was improvised in the studio. We wanted to make an album of ten songs that were meant to be heard one after another, not just a collection of new songs. That's why putting "Sid Visions" on Midnight Passenger made sense.

From your choice to record in mono, to your style of music… it all screams a certain old school aesthetic. Why romanticism about times past? Are there bands that inspire that? Do you feel like music in 2014 has in a direction, aesthetically, that you do not care for?
Midnight Passenger was recorded in stereo, but everything else we've done has been in mono besides one single. We aren't trying to do any kind of revivalist project. Shit sucked in the past just like it does now. If anything our Aesthetic is just to steal shit out of old magazines and art books and rearrange it. That's what we've done on every single, and that's what we did for the artwork on Midnight Passenger. We don't have a problem with the way current bands present themselves aesthetically. There's plenty of current bands with artwork we like, bands like Running and Destruction Unit have amazing artwork. It's more about what we want to create opposed to a response to what other current bands are doing. That being said, we all get annoyed with the irony or self-deprecating tactics that bands sometimes use in the "garage-punk" genre. None of us have ever been fans of ironic cover art or hiding behind something weird or immature as a means to get our music exposure. Honestly if people think our records look old, I take it as a compliment.

What are your plans for the next year, touring wise? You are confirmed for SXSW, but outside of that.
We are going to tour the East Coast this May and then we will be touring the West Coast later in the summer. We want to try to get to all the places we haven't been to yet. We are gonna hit some fests in between going on tour, maybe hit Puerto Rico? People seem to want us to come to Europe, hopefully that happens. Australia? There are five of us, so traveling overseas will take a bit of $$$ that none of us have.

You're hypothetically booking a full US tour, and you're in the supporting slot. All bands are available, Who is in the headline and support slots and why did you choose them?
We all agreed that CAN should be direct support for us, and then because this tour would be so incredibly amazing we each picked an opening band. You'll have to guess which member picked what. Here's the lineup for the MILLION DOLLAR TOUR:

EX-CULT would headline
Supporting would be:
CAN
Beautiful Bert & the Crotch Crickets
LA Dusseldorf
The Dicks
Dr Hook
Sun-Ra
Slickee Boys