Photo credit: Ismael Quintanilla III
Industrial hardcore duo, Street Sects, have just announced the upcoming release of Dry Drunk, their first new album in seven years. Alongside this, they are introducing their new band, Street Sex, and its debut LP Full Color Eclipse. Both albums, produced by Ben Chisholm (Chelsea Wolfe) arrive August 15th, via Compulsion Records, a new imprint started by HEALTH. Further, they have just shared the lead singles from each album – Street Sects’ visceral “Splitting Images” & Street Sex’s dance-ready “Turn Blue” – with an extended, double video animated by Ben Carlson. Watch it below and read more.
Pre-order Dry Drunk here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/streetsects2/spitting-images
Pre-order Full Color Eclipse here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/streetsex/turn-blue
On Dry Drunk’s searing “Spitting Images,” a narrator projects his self-loathing and hurts everyone around him. “Spitting Images” is about a man who is in the absolute depths of Dry Drunk Syndrome. He hates himself, and he projects that hatred onto his family in the worst possible way,” explains Leo Ashline. “One thing I wanted to express on Dry Drunk as a whole was a kind of ugly, belligerent rage, and this character embodies that. He is stupid and hateful. He might have gotten sober, but he hasn’t changed. Not counting the exaggerated violence, I have been this person at times. I think many people in recovery have.”
A shimmering track with pummeling percussion, “Turn Blue” introduces Full Color Eclipse’s weaponization of pop conventions to tell a story about indulging in fantasy and exploration without fear of consequence. ““Turn Blue” is kind of a comical, hedonistic anthem. It’s about letting go of repression, self consciousness, and crippling insecurities,” Ashline says. “It’s about submitting to your basest urges without shame, and feeling a weight lift off of you as a result. It’s a little dark, but it’s also kind of joyful, in a slightly insane, ridiculous way. Lyrically, I’ve never written anything like this before. I had a blast working on this song, and that’s not often the case when I’m writing.”
While Dry Drunk finds Ashline and Shaun Ringsmuth pushing Street Sects’ familiar abrasive sound to new extremes–lyrically, it details a period of hellish sobriety following Ashline’s relapse and recovery from crack cocaine addiction–Street Sex’s Full Color Eclipse introduces the pair’s radiant new outlet for their shared love of pop, melody, hooks, and higher production values.
The idea to work on two albums at once came after a difficult period for the duo: following Ashline’s 2020 relapse, Street Sects broke up for a year and a half. Working on both the new Street Sects album and their new Street Sex project with producer Chisholm helped rebuild their bond. “Ben brought a fresh perspective that revived the process and saved the band in many ways,” Ringsmuth says. “Since Ben had no history with the band, his contributions gave the project a new perspective, revitalizing the approach, and we found ourselves communicating easily.”
Where Dry Drunk documents restlessness within stagnation, the characters on Full Color Eclipse instead go overdrive in embracing what Ashline calls “the everyday, commonplace desires that we’ve been conditioned to conceal and feel ashamed of.” The next Street Sex album is already in the works, and it’s likely to be the next release from Ashline and Ringsmuth. A brighter future is on the horizon: “I’m hoping Dry Drunk will be the final chapter in this addiction-focused narrative that has been at the heart of so much of our work,” Ashline says. On Dry Drunk and Full Color Eclipse, the duo face the valley between stability and reckless abandon together, emerging on the other side united with their best music to date.
Dry Drunk LP tracklisting:
01 A List of All Persons I Will Harm
02 The Glass Shithouse
03 Entertainment Law
04 Spitting Image
05 Love Makes You Fat
06 Playboy Body
07 Baker Act
08 Eject Button
09 A Dying Wage
10 Riding The Clock
11 Murphy Artist
12 The Rooms
Full Color Eclipse LP tracklisting
01 Timing Belt
02 Coming of Age
03 Perpetuity
04 Turn Blue
05 Half Laugh
06 Rock Salt
07 Going Up
08 New Braunfels
09 Short Cut
10 The Squeeze
11 The Pretense
12 The Arrangement
13 The Big Heat
Follow Street Sects/Street Sex:
http://streetsects.komi.io/
https://streetsects.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/streetsects/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/61jq0F04ecataLAuDADgnF
https://bsky.app/profile/streetsex.bsky.social
https://www.youtube.com/@streetsects3703
https://www.tiktok.com/@street_sects
https://x.com/streetsects
https://www.facebook.com/streetsects/