UK-based quintet Squid has released the new single, “Undergrowth,” from their sophomore album, O Monolith, out June 9th on Warp Records, the “Undergrowth”-inspired video game by Frank Force, and announced a North American Tour. Renowned for their unerring experimentation, Squid continue their idiosyncratic sonic journey with “Undergrowth,” where dubbed-out bass grooves under cinematic synth chops explode into bursts of guitar and frenetic brass. Through the radical meld of textures and tones, Squid drummer and vocalist Ollie Judge still manages to create an earworm chorus, repeating “Ergonomic for the rest of my days, I’d rather melt melt melt melt melt melt away.” Themes of environmental peril, morality, and the natural world are all present on “Undergrowth” and further explored on the rest of O Monolith.
Judge explains, “I really got into animism, the idea that spirits can live in inanimate objects. I was watching Twin Peaks, and there was the episode where Josie Packard’s spirit goes into a chest of drawers. So ‘Undergrowth’ was written from the perspective of me being reincarnated as a bedside table in the afterlife, and how the thought of being reincarnated as an inanimate object would be dreadful. ‘This isn’t what I wanted/ So many options to be disappointed.’ Even though I’m in no way religious I don’t think anyone who isn’t religious is confident enough to not have had the fleeting thought of ‘Fuck, what if there is an afterlife? What if I’m going to Hell?’”
“Undergrowth” is accompanied by a visualizer directed by Squid’s Louis Borlase. In describing the story behind it, he says, “When we were writing O Monolith we rented a little studio in St Pauls and whichever way we’d walk home, the BRI Hospital chimney would always be standing there – jutting out in front of a disc of countryside beyond. Sometimes it feels like most folklore hides in the countryside’s nooks. At other times it comes in closer, lurking in the bins on the walk back from the shops.”
Following the band’s biggest UK and EU shows yet in support of O Monolith this fall, Squid will return to North America in 2024. This run sees them playing many cities for the first time. Tickets will be on sale Fri. April 21st at 10am local time.
Squid Tour Dates (New Dates In Bold)
Fri. May 5 – Wrexhman, WS @ Focus Wales
Sun. June 18 – Wicklow, IE @ Beyond The Pale
Fri. June 30 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
Sun. July 2 – Lars, DE @ Fusion
Fri. July 21 – Hertfordshire, UK @ Standon Calling
Sat. July 22 – Oxfordshire, UK @ Truck Festival
Wed. Aug. 16 – Portugal, ES @ Paredes De Coura
Fri. Aug. 18 – Brecon, WS @ Green Man
Sat. Sep. 2 – Vlieland, NL @ Into The Great Wide Open
Tue. Sep. 5 – Cologne, DE @ Katine
Wed. Sep. 6 – Esch-sur-Alzette, LU @ Rockhal
Thu. Sep. 7 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Fri. Sep. 8 – Utecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg ROnda
Sat. Sep. 9 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust
Mon. Sep. 11 – Aarhus, DK @ Voxhall
Tue. Sep. 12 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega
Wed. Sep. 13 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Fri. Sep. 15 – Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz
Sat. Sep. 16 – Zurich, CH @ Mascotte
Tue. Sep. 19 – Milan, IT @ Santeria
Thu. Sep. 21 – Barcelona, ES @ Sala Apollo 2
Fri. Sep. 22 – Valencia, ES @ Jerusalem
Sat. Sep. 23 – Madrid, ES @ Sala Copérnico
Sun. Sep. 24 – Bordeaux, FR @ Rock School Barbey
Mon. Sep. 25 – Paris, FR @ Elysée Montmartre
Wed. Sep. 27 – Rouen, FR @ Le 106
Fri. Oct. 13 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
Sat. Oct. 14 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
Mon. Oct. 16 – Birmingham, UK @ Town Hall
Tue. Oct. 17 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy Leeds
Thu. Oct. 19 – Manchester, UK @ New Century
Sat. Oct. 21 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom
Sun. Oct. 22 – Newcastle, UK @ Boiler Shop
Wed. Nov. 1 – London, UK @ Troxy
Fri. Feb. 2 – Austin, TX @ The Parish
Sat. Feb. 3 – Dallas, TX @ Dada
Mon. Feb. 5 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East
Tue. Feb. 6 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
Thu. Feb. 8 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Fri. Feb. 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Sat. Feb. 10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Wed. Feb. 14 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
Thu. Feb. 15 – Montreal, QC @ SAT
Fri. Feb. 16 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
Sun. Feb. 18 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Mon. Feb. 19 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
Fri. Feb. 23 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Sat. Feb. 24 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
Sun. Feb. 25 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
Tue. Feb. 27 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom
Thu. Feb. 29 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
Fri. March 1 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco
