After twenty-five years of waiting, New York City cult indie favorites The Van Pelt have announced a March 17th release date for their upcoming fourth studio full-length, titled ‘Artisans & Merchants,’ which will be released jointly by Spartan Records in North America, La Castanya in Europe/World and Gringo in the UK.
The album was recorded and mixed in the Summer and Fall of 2021 by Jeff Zeigler (The War On Drugs, Kurt Vile) at Uniform Recording in Philadelphia, PA, and features guest appearances by Nate Kinsella and Ted Leo among others. In addition, the band shared the first single and video ‘Punk House.’
Frontman Chris Leo says, “When a bunch of old VHS tapes were unearthed, the band had them digitized and they turned out to be from US tours of the mid-90s. The footage is mainly of daily banalities: random purchases at rest stops, packing and unpacking the van, highway views that could be on the outskirts of Any Town USA. Yet there is a nostalgia to it that’s compelling. The song mirrors the mood in both sound and text. Lines like “The floor is filled with resin on the place where you’re to sleep / if you have enough to drink you can pretend that it’s a sheet” bring any musician back to the rougher side of days on the road – yet again, the subtext here is that the spirit of it all is to be longed for.”
‘Artisans & Merchants’ tracklisting:
1. We Gotta Leave
2. Image of Health
3. Artisans & Merchants
4. Punk House
5. Old Souls from Different Epochs
6. Grid
7. Cold Coconuts
8. Did We Hear The Same Song
9. Love Is Brutal
The Van Pelt has announced a series of UK, EU, and US shows in March and April. See the dates below:
March 16th – Warf Chambers – Leeds, UK
March 17th – The Old Cold Store – Nottingham, UK
March 18th – The Garage – London, UK
March 19th – Trix – Antwerp, Belgium
April 23rd – St. Vitus – Brooklyn, NY