Weekends was formed in Baltimore in 2008 by Adam Lempel and Brendan Sullivan. They switch off guitar and drums and played with bands like Future Islands, Dan Deacon, and Beach House. In 2024, now living in New York (Greenpoint and Kingston) they are releasing a long-lost album recorded in 2014. The first Weekends song to be released in 10 years, “Royal Gum” is part of the lost Weekends album. Weekends were an integral part of the Baltimore music scene and played warehouses and the Whartscape Festival. “Royal Gum” is part of a collection of songs that were recorded in the summer of 2014 before Adam Lempel moved to Amsterdam. Brendan Sullivan and Adam never broke up the band, but now that they are both living in the state of New York, the time is right to unleash this music on an unsuspecting world.
It is insane how a band like Weekends can slip through the cracks for all these years. What is even crazier is how they can emerge seemingly out of nowhere and sound right at home. “Royal Gum” is the frantic come-back single for Weekends. A noisy garage rock record with soaring melodies that juxtapose the car-crash-style arrangement, “Royal Gum” is a chaotic trip back as the shoegaze influence is clear and helps add some lovely textures to this onslaught of pure punk bliss.
