Broken Water are the latest export from Olympia, Washington’s verdant and creatively-rich environs, and today sees the release of their new full-length epic, Tempest. Available in vinyl, CD, and digital editions, Tempest is ten tracks of searing, blissful throwback rock in the tradition of Cascadia’s finest pre-millennial alt-rock greats. The acclaimed DIY three-piece cites “Russian punk-rock poets, the ocean, drowning, the Occupy movement, touring, nightmares, dreams, memories; relationships to privilege, substances, and other powers” as their primary inspirations for this record, and the cover features guitarist Jon Hanna’s interpretation of an LSD “tripping room” from a 1966 issue of LIFE Magazine.

This winter, Broken Water recorded ten songs with Stan Wright which find the band at their best: moving forward, honing their sound, filtering new ideas through a songwriting process that has become increasingly collaborative. The trio expanded its version of musical chairs with Pooknyw and Ingram continuing to share bass and drum duties, as well as an increased division of labor among the vocals.The band credits a panoply of inspirations for the feel of the album: Russian punk-rock poets, the ocean, drowning, the Occupy movement, touring, nightmares, dreams, memories; relationships to privilege, substances, and other powers. This way of conceiving a record—creating a tight structure while allowing space for the inevitable appearance of the ghosts that can’t help but haunt your daily life—bears a direct correlation to the community in which these musicians live and work. Broken Water is a band unafraid to wear its influences on its sleeve, because—as the new album shows— there’s always another day, another shirt, another sleeve, another sound.

Broken Water
Tempest
CD/LP/digital
May 29, 2012

01. Drown
02. Coming Down
03. Orange Blossom Stains
04. Yanka Dyagileva
05. Underground
06. Thread to Connect
07. Paranoid
08. River Under River
09. Chantal Seder
10. When You Said

Tour dates:

05.29.12 – Riverside, CA – Life Arts Building #
05.30.12 – Phoenix, AZ – Meat Market !
05.31.12 – Flagstaff, AZ – TBD
06.01.12 – Las Vegas, NV – Yayo Taco
06.02.12 – Reno, NV – Holland Project
06.03.12 – Eugene, OR – The Wandering Goat
06.04.12 – Portland, OR – The Laughing Horse
06.13.12 – Seattle, WA – Black Lodge +

# – w/ Heavy Flow
% – w/ Dunes
! – w/ Gun Outfit
+ – w/ Nu Sensae, Naomi Punk