Bitch, he's a cow! Kyle Thomas, the psychedelic garage rocker who goes by the name King Tuff, is coming back with a new album this spring, and he's calling it MOO. Thomas recorded the follow-up to 2023's Smalltown Stardust after moving back to his Burlington, Vermont hometown, and it looks like he's taking a back-to-basics approach this time around — not that he ever got too far from basics in the first place.
According to a press release, Thomas recorded MOO on the same Tascam 388 that he used when he made his 2013 debut album King Tuff Was Dead. He also made the newspaper, The Daily Moo, that comes with every copy of the record. In that aforementioned press release, there's a Thomas quote that almost looks like a manifesto:
I stopped caring if there were mistakes. There’s not enough mistakes. I wish it sounded even worse. Rock & Roll is the music of rodents and bugs. It should sound like it crept from a decrepit trashcan or a crypt or a toilet. It is not chill or vibey, autotuned or on the grid. It is not perfect, which is why it’s perfect. And I don’t care if it’s dead or alive, cool or uncool: when I hear it, and when I play it, as a chubby and balding 43 year old punk weirdo, I FEEL ENERGIZED
The album's lead single and opening track "Twisted On The Train" is a fun, spirited rocker about being way too high in an Amtrak observation car, and Kyle Thomas directed his own scratchy black-and-white video for the track. Here's what he says about the track:
I wrote and recorded the whole dang song in the span of a few hours, which was basically the opposite of how I had been working in the computer. Spending hours moving waveforms around like a zombie, comping vocals, second guessing, trying to make things sound not lifeless, trying to make anything sound good at all, took months. But here on the tape, it was so much more alive. More like painting or collaging. More like making actual music. Every move I made stuck like super glue. It was effortless. It was pure joy.
Along with the new single and the album announcement, King Tuff has also unveiled plans to head out on a North American tour this spring. Below, check out the "Twisted On A Train" video, the MOO tracklist, and the dates for that tour.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Twisted On A Train"
02 "Stairway To Nowhere
03 "Invisible Ink"
04 "Landline"
05 "Crosseyed Critters"
06 "Oil Change"
07 "East Of Ordinary"
08 "Unglued"
09 "Delusions"
10 "Backroads"
TOUR DATES:
4/16 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg *
4/17 - Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s *
4/18 - Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie *
4/19 - Washington, DC @ Songbyrd Music House *
4/21 - Raleigh, NC @ Kings *
4/22 - Atlanta, GA @ The EARL *
4/24 - New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa *
4/26 - Austin, TX @ 29th Street Ballroom *
4/29 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah *
4/30 - Los Angeles, CA @ Sid The Cat Auditorium *
5/01 - Ojai, CA @ Ojai Women’s Center *
5/02 - San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel #
5/04 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza #
5/05 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
5/07 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge #
5/09 - Denver, CO @ Globe Hall #
5/12 - St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
5/13 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall ^
5/15 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme ^
5/16 - Toronto ON @ Sound Garage ^
5/17 - Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB ^
5/19 - Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground ^
5/20 - Portland, ME @ SPACE ^
5/21 - Hamden, CT - Space Ballroom ^
5/22- Boston, MA @ Middle East Upstairs ^
5/23 - Brattleboro, VT @ Stone Church ^
* with Morgan Nagler
# with Gabriel Bernini
^ with Mod Lang
MOO is out 3/27 on Kyle Thomas' own MUP Records, via Thirty Tigers. Pre-order it here.
