Hometown Sounds

Priests started musical life in the hardcore punk tradition of many of DC’s most well-known cultural exports. But over the years the band, and their captivating sound, have matured and moved away somewhat from those well-known tropes, such that their newest album The Seduction of Kansas is a surprising genre shift. They self-describe simply as a “rock band”, and for the album’s third single “Jesus’ Son”, Priests present a live performance video evoking well-known bands like the Smiths, the Stone Roses, and Nine Inch Nails. The latter might resonate most, as co-directors David Ashton (manning the camera) and singer Katie Alice Greer lovingly homage NIN’s single “March of the Pigs” from 1994’s The Downward Spiral. There are still some tix left for Saturday night‘s late show at the 9:30 Club with openers Mock Identity, so get right on that.

Wow, this is not the Priests we remember from such post-punk bangers as “Doctor” and “And Breeding” from their epic 2014 EP Bodies and Control and Money and Power. Great bands are capable of startling evolution, and Priests, now a trio with the departure of Taylor Mulitz to play full time in Flasher, enlisted high profile producer John Congleton to help craft their second full length album The Seduction of Kansas with a new sound. Its title track is the debut single, a sexy dance punk number that still retains singer Katie Alice Greer’s acerbic wit in the lyrics. She also directed this music video with cinematographer Drew Hagelin, well-known on this site for helming vids from Pearie Sol and Bat Fangs. “The Seduction of Kansas” is truly gorgeous and quintessentially Lynch-ian with strange choreography and creepy hotel location, not to mention drummer Daniele Daniele’s resemblance to Sherilyn Fenn’s iconic character Audrey Horne. Keep your eyes peeled to grab tickets for Priests’s big hometown show at the 9:30 Club on Saturday June 15th.

Early in Priests‘ new music video for “Pink White House” the entire band is led in 80s style aerobic video workout by drummer Daniele Daniele, and believe me that things only get weirder from there. Frontwoman and video director Katie Alice Greer “wanted to do something playing on the notion that pop culture repackages your identity and sells it back to you for ‘entertainment'”, and that’s reflected in vignettes of each band member facing a dark reflection of their personal affectation in true camp style. Priests new full length album Nothing Feels Natural drops January 27th on their own Sister Polygon Records, and the nationwide tour wraps up at the Black Cat on March 11th.

Priests, the snarling, acerbic quartet driving a majority of the energy in the DC punk scene currently, today announced the release date of their new album Nothing Feels Natural and debuted its first single and accompanying video. “JJ”, directed by singer Katie Alice Greer, features the four musicians sitting peacefully as strange hands poke, prod, smear and playfully abuse their enigmatic faces. Sister Polygon Records, the band-run label behind recent music by Governess, Pearie Sol, Cigarette, Gauche, Flasher and Sneaks, releases the new Priests album on vinyl on January 27th.