Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs have released “Judy,” the lead single from their self-titled Burger Records and Dine Alone debut. “‘Judy’ is a song about being young, sticking together and going the distance,” Coffey tells Noisey. “Growing up and starting to become self-aware in the suburban sprawl was a really important time for me (and I think for a lot of people) so it’s something that comes out pretty naturally when I write. If the whole album is a reflection on suburban blight and teenage isolation then ‘Judy’ is the thesis statement.

Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs have been working on this LP for almost two years. Their previous album, Gates of Hell, released on Oakland punk/garage label Southpaw Records (Ty Segall, Young Guv), and saw the band tour extensively, playing with Red Kross, Black Lips and Screaming Females, and becoming regulars in DIY scenes up and down the East Coast, but for their follow up the band sought to build upon the lo-fi aesthetic of their earlier releases and push themselves beyond their garage roots. They began working with producer Alex Bonenfant (METZ, Crystal Castles), who brought them into a proper studio for the first time, and they embraced their abiding love for, and near encyclopedic knowledge of 70’s power pop, in the process honing a potent brand of guitar music that draws influence from a broad swath of the genre’s history.

It’s a sound that at once revels in a rough and anarchic feel, best exemplified by Coffey’s untamed wail of a singing voice, while displaying a deft approach to songwriting and arrangement, collecting and repurposing ideas gathered from bands like Cheap Trick, Dwight Twilley, Teenage Fanclub, The Cars, Thin Lizzy, The Undertones, and The Exploding Hearts, in the service of songs about teenage isolation, petty criminality and escape, rooted in an unshakeable faith in honesty, love and the transformative powers of pop music. It’s an ambitious record, and one where obvious care has been taken to refine every element of the finished product, but it’s an ambition that even on the 9+ minute epic medley that makes up much of the record’s second side, never edges into pretension or obscures the band’s irrepressible enthusiasm.

Tracklist:
01) Talk 2 Her
02) Tough
03) Voicemail
04) Judy
05) Pressure
06) I: Ragnarock
07) II: Teenage Release
08) III: PhD
09) You Don’t Have To Be Nice

Tour Dates
April 27 – Brooklyn, NY – Alphaville
April 28 – Montreal, QC – Turbohaus
May 25 – Hamilton, ON – Club Absinthe #
May 26 – London, ON – Rum Runners #
May 27 – Madison, WI – Mickey’s Tavern
May 28 – Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock Social Club #
May 31 – Regina, SK – The Exchange #
June 1 – Calgary, AB – Nite Owl #
June 2 – Kelowna, BC – Habitat #
June 3 – Vancouver, BC – Venue Nightclub #
June 4 – Whistler, BC – Garfinkel’s #
June 7 – Edmonton, AB – Needle Vinyl Tavern #
June 8 – Saskatoon, SK – Amigos Cantina #
June 9 – Winnipeg, MB – Park Theatre #
June 10 – Thunder Bay, ON – Crocks #
June 12 – Timmins, ON – The Working Class #
June 13 – Sudbury, ON – Asylum
June 14 – Ottawa, ON – Zaphod Beeblebrox #
June 15 – Waterloo, ON – Maxwell’s #
June 17 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace #

# = w/ Flatliners & The Dirty Nil