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Album Premiere: The Whimbrels - The Whimbrels (s/t)

The Whimbrels
26 June 2025

The Whimbrels Photo credit: Mark Richards

The Whimbrels is an outer-borough masterpiece. The sound is dense, polyrhythmic, hard, and sweet, hooks and riffs to save your soul pop out at unexpected moments. The album is being released on 12” LP vinyl, CD digital download and streaming platforms by Dromedary Records on June 27.



MEET THE BAND

ARAD EVANS (guitar, vox, primary songwriter) was a member, recorded and toured with Glenn Branca’s ensemble from the 1980’s until Branca’s death a few years ago. He is founder and still performs with Heroes of Toolik. In addition to Branca, he has played with Quiet City, Rhys Chatham, Ben Neill, John Myers’ Blastula, The SEM Ensemble, The New Music Consort, Virgil Moorefield’s Ensemble and many other groups.

NORMAN WESTBERG altered the course of rock as the main guitarist of the Swans over 35 years, contributing “overwhelming waves of volume with a mix of the rhythmically slashing and the harmonically sensual.” He has a busy career as a solo artist and with other projects, such as Heroin Sheiks, NeVah and Five Dollar Priest.

LUKE SCHWARTZ is a New York guitarist and composer to watch; he also toured and recorded with Branca, and he performs in a wide range of groups, including Rick Cox, Joh Hassell, Lotti Golden, Wharton Tiers and with several of his own projects, The Review and the improvisational Hive and Quiet City.

MATT HUNTER (bass, vox, songwriter) is a co-founder of New Radiant Storm King and plays or has played with a galaxy of cool projects, including J. Mascis & the Fog, King Missile, Silver Jews, SAVAK, and his own Matt Hunter and the Dusty Fates.

Drummer STEVE DiBENEDETTO, is a widely shown and collected fine art painter but also in in high demand for his music. (“The Spinless Yesmen” 1984—89, “Wonderama”,aka “The Shapir-o-Rama” 1990—95, Airport Seven from 2010 to 14). He frequently collaborates with Dave Rick (Bongwater, King Missile, Yo La Tengo, Phantom Tollbooth) and Kim Rancourt (When People Were Shorter and Lived by the Water).

LIBBY FAB (drummer on That’s How It Was) is a founding member of the noise duo Paranoid Critical Revolution. She was technical director of Glenn Branca’s Symphony 13: Hallucination City from 2006-09 and toured as drummer for his ensemble on the Ascension: The Sequel tours. Her own electro acoustic and video works have been featured in festivals in Europe, North America and the Caribbean.


The Whimbrels website
The Whimbrels on Instagram


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