gash have released new single “holiday time,” the track is off their forthcoming album at least you know what you’re laughing at, out September 25 via Fire Talk’s imprint Angel Tapes.

gash began as an outlet for founding member Logan Nyberg, and quickly expended to its current lineup including Mitchell Smuhl (guitar), Eric Simmons (drums), Richy Christensen (bass/keys), and Breckelle Bathke (vocals/guitar/percussion). Through countless performances — often at Nyberg’s own home DIY venue — gash garnered a reputation for cathartic underground sets, and gathered supporters including Bon Iver, who declared gash as Eau Claire’s “great export” and tapped the band for the return of his Eaux Claires Festival earlier this summer. Anchored by Nyberg’s honed confidence as a producer, as well as the band’s years spent as friends and loose collaborators in the Eau Claire scene, at least you know what you’re laughing at commands its space with unflinching precision

“I feel like The Joker,” Breckelle Bathke giggles toward the end of “good and bad,” — the opening track from gash’s label debut at least you know what you’re laughing at — before unleashing a guttural scream that gives way for the Eau Claire band’s 8-track album. “I don’t know if we were recording or if you just wanted to scream,” gash founder Logan Nyberg recalls, the details of this session in Bathke’s car fuzzy from memory. It’s one of many moments across at least you know what you’re laughing at (and gash’s prolific discography at-large) which blur the line between recording session and sample, earnest accident or ironic impulse, the thin lace veil between music and exorcism.

“Sometimes I would just go in my car and scream,” Bathke recalls of the period in which at least you know what you’re laughing at was crafted, acknowledging the irrelevance of whether a moment was truly intentional or not. For gash, the immutable reactions to parsing through pain over time is essential, and the band situates the album among environments in which listeners have the space to sit with their thoughts. A solo camping trip, a drive along the Chippewa River, a bike ride as the seasons change. “Nature is fire, it’s kind of giving rebirth for me, it’s like…” Bathke trails as Nyberg completes: “It’s like change.”

pre-order at least you know what you’re laughing at HERE