MILITARIE GUN RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM
LIFE UNDER THE GUN OUT NOW
VIA LOMA VISTA RECORDINGS
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR WITH SCOWL
KICKS OFF THIS FALL
WITH STOPS IN MONTREAL AND TORONTO
"one of the best rock albums of the year" - BrooklynVegan
"Militarie Gun could take the rock world by storm at any moment" - Revolver
"frontman Ian Shelton isn’t afraid to turn his innermost fears and doubts into straight-up earworms” - Rolling Stone
“the most ambitious band in hardcore” - SPIN
"the catchiest, most energetic guitar-based rock ‘n’ roll out there"
- Stereogum
"the most impactful album to emerge
from the extended hardcore universe in 2023" - UPROXX
Toronto, ON – June 23, 2023 – Today, Militarie Gun releases their debut album, Life Under The Gun, via Loma Vista Recordings. The kind of debut album that feels like a true arrival, Life Under The Gun’s 12 tracks — including previously shared singles Do It Faster, Very High, and Will Logic, along with a new version of their 2022 track, Big Disappointment — take all of the best part of Militarie Gun’s earlier work and amp them up to the highest possible degree. Life Under The Gun is available on limited edition vinyl, CD, and cassette here. This upcoming Monday, June 26, Militarie Gun will do a Reddit AMA with r/indieheads to answer fan questions about Life Under The Gun.
Militarie Gun are presently in Europe to perform at multiple festivals - namely Outbreak, Kliko, Metropolis, 2000 Trees, Rock Werchter and Ieper. Next month, the band will perform at Chicago's The Rumble festival on July 21 and 22 along with a special performance in New York City's legendary Rainbow Room for indieballroom II alongside Soft Kill and Chromatic's Ruth Radelet on July 30. This September, Militarie Gun begins their 32-date North American Fall tour with Scowl in Los Angeles and sees both bands, with support from MSPAINT and Big Laugh, crossing the continent with stops in Montreal and Toronto, before wrapping up in Berkeley on October 21. See all upcoming live dates below and get more ticket info at militariegun.com.
Life Under The Gun is almost impossible to describe without bouncing between contradictions. Is it abnormally aggressive pop music or is it unusually catchy hardcore? Is it deeply intellectual or is it satisfyingly primal? Is it a vulnerable attempt to unpack lifelong cycles of hurt, or is it a collection of world-beating, absurdist punk anthems? In the end, the answer is obvious: it is all of it. It is Militarie Gun.
Since forming in 2020, the group have been releasing music and touring at a startling rate, and while Life Under The Gun feels like a culmination of this recent hard-earned momentum, the record is inextricably linked to Shelton’s past. “I grew up in a household with family members struggling with addiction,” he explains. “It was an oppressive force. We were always wondering, ‘Is it going to be a good day or a bad day? Are the cops going to come today? What am I going to come home to after school?'” The challenges of his homelife were only exacerbated by living in Enumclaw, WA, a sparsely populated rural suburb where Shelton spent his formative years longing for a way out. In this difficult and stifling environment, the roots of Life Under The Gun began to grow. As he began to pick up instruments, play in bands, and write his own songs, music quickly became a vital outlet for self-expression, but Shelton couldn’t shake the idea that it was also a literal escape route.
What followed was a flurry of activity that still hasn’t let up. After relocating to Los Angeles and forced to stay put during the 2020 lockdown, Shelton’s restless creative drive took over and he spontaneously wrote the first songs that became Militarie Gun. The sound was decidedly new for him: firmly rooted in punk and hardcore but more hook-driven, pulling from influences like Guided By Voices, Fugazi and The Jesus Lizard. Shelton quickly recorded Militarie Gun’s 2020 debut EP, My Life Is Over, by himself, then rounded out the lineup with guitarists, Nick Cogan and William Acuña, and drummer, Vince Nguyen (Max Epstein played bass on Life Under The Gun). 2021 saw the release of the dual All Roads Lead To The Gun EPs and the start of a seemingly endless run of tour dates. In 2022, Militarie Gun teamed up with Dazy for the critically-acclaimed collaborative single, Pressure Cooker, which was soon followed by the band signing to Loma Vista Recordings and releasing a deluxe edition of the All Roads Lead To The Gun EPs that included even more new material.
Militarie Gun soon had the makings of Life Under The Gun: a debut album forged by a lifetime of experience and effort that’s now allowed an artist to fully come into their own. Engineered by Taylor Young at The Pit Recording Studio, the 12-tracks sound massive without sacrificing the punk spark – full of driving drums, distorted bass lines, and of course Shelton’s instantly recognizable roar – only this time everything is bigger and even catchier. “This is what I thought we sounded like all along,” Shelton laughs. “It’s always felt like a melody-forward band to me, but I think now we’re finally achieving what I was always setting out to do.”
Listen to Life Under The Gun above and see below for upcoming live dates and more info about Life Under The Gun.
UPCOMING LIVE DATES:
6/23 - Manchester, UK @ Outbreak Festival
6/24 - Haarlem, NL @ Kliko Fest
6/26 - Antwerp, BE @ Kavka Zappa &
6/27 - Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje &
6/29 - Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
6/28 - Hamburg, DE @ Logo &%
7/1 - Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
7/2 - Rotterdam, NL @ Metropolis Fest
7/3 - Berlin, GER @ Hole44 #
7/4 - Cologne, GER @ Gebaude 9 #
7/5 - Haarlem, NET @ Patronaat #
7/7 - Cheltenham, UK @ 2000 Trees Fest#
7/8 - London, UK @ Electric Ballroom #
7/9 - Ieper, BE @ Ieper Fest
7/21-22 - Chicago, IL @ The Rumble
7/30 - New York, NY @ indieballroom II / Rainbow Room
9/8 - Los Angeles, CA @ 1720*
9/9 - Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction*
9/10 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge*
9/12 - Albuquerque, NM @ The Launchpad*
9/14 - Dallas, TX @ Cheap Steaks*
9/15 - Austin, TX @ The Ballroom*
9/16 - San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger*
9/17 - Houston, TX @ The Compound*
9/19 - Orlando, FL @ Conduit*
9/20 - Miami, FL @ Gramps*
9/21 - Jacksonville, FL @ 1904 Music Hall*
9/22 - Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5*
9/23 - Birmingham, AL @ Furnace Fest*
9/25 - Durham, NC @ The Pinhook*
9/26 - Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall*
9/27 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar*
9/28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts*
9/29 - New York, NY @ The Meadows*
10/1 - Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall*
10/3 - Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa*
10/4 - Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground*
10/6 - Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups*
10/7 - Detroit, MI @ The Sanctuary*
10/8 - Chicago, IL @ Subterranean*
10/9 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry*
10/10 - Omaha, NE @ Reverb*
10/11 - Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater*
10/13 - Salt Lake City, UT @ The Beehive*
10/14 - Boise, ID @ The Shredder*
10/17 - Seattle, WA @ Vera Project*
10/18 - Portland, OR @ Mission Theatre*
10/20 - Reno, NV @ Holland Project*
10/21 - Berkeley, CA @ 924 Gilman*
10/23-27 Miami, FL @ S.S. Neverender
& = with Soul Glo
% = with Code Orange
# = with Rival Schools
* = with Scowl