Listen: New !!! (Chk Chk Chk) - AM/FM

!!!(Chk chk chk) have released details of their new album titled Strange Weather, Isn't It? and are streaming opening track "AM/FM" over on their site: chkchkchk.net. The new album is out August 21st.

Press Release:

The new album by funk-friendly party band !!! is called “Strange Weather, Isn't It?”. Like one or two bands before them, !!! recorded part of the new album in Berlin and were influenced by Brian Eno. “Everyone wants to make their Berlin record, and everyone’s got a Berlin album in them, so we wanted to put ours out,” !!!’s lead singer Nic Offer says, with tongue partially in cheek, of the group’s fourth album. Following in the footsteps of artists like David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, U2 and Peaches, who have flocked to Berlin in order to mainline the city’s legendary dark energy, !!! Traveled to the German capital to produce a record that is simultaneously brooding and their glossiest, most immediate record yet.

The somewhat overcast mood isn’t solely due to the German capital’s gray chill and leftover espionage paranoia, though. After a number of personnel changes, !!! now consists of Offer, guitarist Mario Andreoni, saxophonist/percussionist Dan Gorman, drummer Paul Petrone, and vocalist Shannon Funchess. The group has also had to deal with the shocking death of former drummer Jerry Fuchs, who fell down an elevator shaft in November 2009. However, !!! is a closer, tighter unit as a result of these upheavals.

“Strange Weather, Isn’t It?” was co-produced by the band with Eric Broucek, who used to be the house engineer for DFA Records. The result is an album that is richer and more detailed and less spiky than any of !!!’s previous albums. “We’ve learned how to make records better,” says Offer. “In the early days we’d put something deep in the mix, so that kids on acid could hear it the 20th time they listened to it. Everyone wants Eno to produce their record, but he only has time for Coldplay and Paul Simon, so you have to use his adages as your thing. His one big thing is that every idea obscures another. So there was more focus on what was working. It’s fun for us to make something lush.”

Tracklist:

01 AM/FM
02 The Most Certain Sure
03 Wannagain Wannagain
04 Jamie, My Intentions Are Bass
05 Steady as the Sidewalk Cracks
06 Hollow
07 Jump Back
08 Even Judas Gave Jesus a Kiss
09 The Hammer