[Cover photo credit to Laura Pleasants]
Since their 2004 self-titled debut, Pink Mountaintops has been the outlet for “the more arcane” interests of Black Mountain frontman Stephen McBean. On Peacock Pools, Pink Mountaintops’ first new music in eight years, the British Columbia-born singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist shares 12 songs stemming from his curiosity about “cultural artifacts”like the sci-fi body horror of David Cronenberg, Disney Read-Along Records from the 1970s, early Pink Floyd and mid-career Gary Numan , John Carpenter movies, Ornette Coleman live videos, a 1991 essay on the cult of bodybuilding by postmodern feminist Camille Paglia.
Peacock Pools arrives this Friday, May 6th, via ATO Records. The album will arrive in digital, CD, and vinyl. The album’s most recent single and video is “Nikki Go Sudden”, which pays homage to musician Nikki Sudden, the late Swell Maps and Jacobites singer/guitarist.
McBean comments:
I wrote that song just after Nikki Sudden died, a tribute to a fallen-rogue unsung hero who existed in his own weird outsider world.
The album features counterculture figures like Steven McDonald of Redd Kross and Dale Crover of Melvins and is Pink Mountaintops’ fifth full-length album, though their first with ATO. It was born out of the early days of the pandemic according to McBean:
I’d moved into this cool little ’50s rancher house outside L.A. and was just mucking about in my bedroom studio, and pretty soon I started reaching out to some friends who were also shacked up and craving broadband sonic collaboration.
Over the coming months, McBean began working remotely with musicians from the Indie-Rock and Psych-Pop and Garage-Punk worlds. The album was Produced by McBean and mixed in Vancouver by former Skinny Puppy member Dave “Rave” Ogilvie (David Bowie , Nine Inch Nails ).
Pink Mountaintops TOUR DATES w/ Ashley Shadow:
5.03 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux
5.06 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall – RECORD RELEASE SHOW
5.08 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
5.18 – Quebec City, QC @ L’Anti
5.20 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB
5.21 – Ottawa, ON @ Rainbow Bistro
5.22 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
5.23 – London, ON @ Rum Runners
5.24 – Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place
5.26 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East – Upstairs
5.27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory
5.28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
5.29 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
5.31 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi-Fi
6.01 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
6.02 – St. Paul, MN @ The Turf Club
