His Clancyness releases a new album Vicious out next Tuesday 10/8 via FatCat Records. In celebration of the record release, His Clancyness shares a new track “Progress.” Check it out here. “Progress,” combines a beautiful blend of jangly rock guitars and melodic pop.

To accompany the album release, Jonathan Clancy has made a limited edition Vicious fanzine created by Secret Furry Hole, the Italian cult cassette, design and vinyl label, that helped His Clancyness release his first tape. This beautiful screen printed handmade foldout documents the band recording their album Vicious in Detroit, through photos, original notation sheets, scrapped lyrics and most of all the stories of what inspired and then became Vicious.

His Clancyness is the alias of Jonathan Clancy. Born in Ottawa and raised between Canada and Italy, Clancy moved back and forth between the two countries up until his late teenage years, when he finally settled in Bologna. Gaining early experience through playing in a number of hardcore / punk bands, and having toured the world in a couple of indie outfits, Jonathan struck out on his own back in 2009 and started to gain some early recognition across the internet when he began leaking out a series of bedroom-recorded psych-pop gems.

As an avowed rock and pop culture obsessive, Clancy cites a long and varied list of artists as influences – Swell Maps, Can, Bowie, Modern Lovers, Lee Hazlewood, Scott Walker, The Gun Club, Women, Stevie Nicks, Gastr Del Sol, Zombies and “just about every psychedelic pop nugget ever produced.” The new album, Vicious, was produced by Chris Koltay (Liars, Atlas Sound, Lotus Plaza, Akron Family, Dirtbombs) at High Bias Recordings in Detroit. Recorded as a trio (including Paul Pieretto and Jacopo Borazzo on bass and drums), the album marks the first time Clancy recorded with a band.

Clancy’s emotionally engaging lyrics augment the surreal dream-like quality of the album. Writing songs often functions as a form of escape for Clancy, something which is alluded to in the album’s title, as he explains:  “Vicious is how I overcome distance. I want to be vicious. I can’t be vicious. I can be vicious on an album made up of songs. Songs are marked by violence, general wrongdoing and finally peace. You can beat loss, escape territories and find new lands in a heartbeat. Those are songs I like to write. In a new city you can wear a mask, develop a new persona, change path. I’ve lived in twelve different cities. This is sort of what this album deals with for me. It’s the harshest things I’ve ever written, I wanted to go to places that are as far as possible from me.”

Vicious is out next Tuesday, October 8. Pre-order a copy on vinyl here. Clancy and his band will be touring Europe this fall and a full US / UK / EU tour is being planned for the Winter. On the road His Clancyness becomes a full band with friends Giulia Mazza (synths / keyboards / noise boxes / vocals / percussion), Emanuela Drei (bass, sampler, vocals) and Jacopo Borazzo (drums / percussion). Having embarked on high profile tours with Deerhunter and Widowspeak this year, they are a well-oiled and invigorating live act.

Tracklisting:

1. Safe Around The Edges

2. Miss Out These Days

3. Gold Diggers

4. Hunting men

5. Slash The Night

6. Run Wild

7. Machines

8. Avenue

9. Crystal Clear

10. Zenith Diamond

11. Castle Sand Ambient

12. Progress

Tour Dates:

Nov 07th – Cardiff @ Clwb Ifor Bach
Nov 09th – Bristol @ Start The Bus
Nov 12th – Manchester @ Fallow
Nov 14th – Glasgow @ Broadcast
Nov 15th – Leeds @ Belgrave Music Hall
Nov 16th – Birmingham @ Hare and Hounds
Nov 22nd – London @ The Lexington (with ATP)

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