Today marks the release of Gay Beast’s sophomore album, and first on Skin Graft Records, Second Wave. CB’s Josh Keller recently commented on its sound, recalling its “schizophrenic drums, electronic bleeps and hisses, pulsing rhythms and distant vocals.” But don’t call it spazz-rock… In a recent interview with City Pages, singer and keyboardist Dan Luedtke discussed the deviation in sound between this record and the band’s first, 2007’s Disrobics, “The aesthetic is more meaty and spooky and less spazzy. There’s more heaviness, and things are slowed down a bit. It’s less punk-sounding. We were trying to make the songs work more together. Two-thirds of the last one was a collection of re-recorded EPs. Also, Disrobic was all analog and this time we were less purist.”

And for those entirely unfamiliar with the band, Skin Graft drops a lot of knowledge in a small package:

Join us for the coming out dance party of the year as Gay Beast ride the Second Wave straight onto the streets! Formed in 2005 and renowned as Minnesota’s premier agit-prog queer band, Gay Beast cuts a careening groove between the prickly corners of tunefulness and musical density, danceability and controlled chaos. On Second Wave, their sophomore effort and first release on Skin Graft Records, the trio lets fly with utopic visions of second-wave feminism, exposing a mood-swinging musical reach heretofore unheard.

(“Disrobics (intro)” & “Exploding Knee” @ St. Paul’s Turf Club [09/07/2007] by muchosGatos)

This is the band’s fourth tour in as many years together.

05.27 Iowa City, IA: Glory Hole (w. Black Elf Speaks)
05.28 St. Louis, MO: Lemp Arts (w. We Are Hex)
05.29 Chicago, IL: No Coast Collective
05.30 Columbus, OH: Sky Lab (w. Black Elf Speaks)
05.31 Richmond, VA: The Triple (w. Acheronian)
06.01 Baltimore, MD: The Hexagon
06.02 Philadelphia, PA: Marvelous Record Shop (w. Satanized & U.S. Girls)
06.03 New York, NY: Silent Bard (w. Satanized)
06.04 New York, NY: Bruar Falls (w. Body Type[s] & Talk Normal)
06.05 New York, NY: Market Hotel (w. Child Abuse)
06.06 Boston, MA: Midway Cafe (w. Neptune)
06.07 Providence, RI: Dark Lady (w. Satanized & Holy Sheet)
06.09 Ottawa, ON: Leaky Pipes
06.10 Montreal, QC: Friendship Cove (w. AIDS Wolf)
06.11 Toronto, ON: Buy The Pound (w. Brides & Dead Wife)
06.12 Ypsilanti, MI: Dreamland Theater
06.13 Chicago, IL: Automatic Collective (w. Cacaw)
06.14 Madison, WI: High Noon Saloon (w. Screamin’ Cyn Cyn and the Pons)

Gay Beast “EEEXXPPPAAANNNDDDIIINNNGGG” (mp3)

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Also: Gay Beast “EEEXXXPPPAAANNNDDDIIINNNGGG”