“Headache” from Blessed’s new II EP simulates the essence of the song’s title without the annoyance or suffering of an actual migraine. It’s a fidgety post-punk jamboree with chord strums that cut like sharp-edged corners and mimic the sound of angrily joggling a locked or jammed door. “Headache” also contains clear, jarring guitar lines, arpegiated sequences convey euphoric urgency, and sporadic articulations of short phrases like “poor circulation” and “mass incorporation,” which could very well be the cause of the Vancouver quartet’s cranium irritation.

So, yeah, there’s a lot going on here. Guitarist/vocalist Drew Riekman gave us a clearer understanding of where his head was at:

I remember we were driving somewhere in Ontario when I was writing the lyrics on my phone. We had been driving for an immense amount of time, it may have been coming out of Northern Ontario which in my opinion is the worst drive in Canada, despite it’s beauty. If you’re not in the mood to be doing it, it can be grating. I was dealing with a general anxiety, a small headache, not enough water, passing by a bunch of identical houses and new developments entering southern Ontario. It was just sentence fragments that encapsulated a million tiny outside forces creating a single anxious feeling.

Listen to “Headache” below.

Blessed tour dates:
05/05 Mission, British Columbia @ Captains Cabin W/ Loans, Western Jaguar, Jenny Banai
05/06 Vancouver, British Columbia @ 333 W/ Mi’ens, jo passed, Dead Soft
05/10 Seattle, Washington
05/11 Portland, Oregon @ High Water Mark Lounge W/ U SCO, Hang The Old Year
05/12 Oakland, California – The Night Light
05/13 San Francisco, California
05/15 Santa Barbara, California @ FUNZONE
05/16 Fullerton, California
05/17 San Diego, California @ Che Café Collective
05/18 Pomona, California
05/19 Los Angeles, California @ The Smell
05/20 Tuscon, Arizona @ The Flycatcher
05/21 Phoenix, Arizona @ The Lunchbox
05/23 Albuquerque, New Mexico @ The Fly Honey Warehouse
05/24 El Paso, Texas @ Boomtown
05/25 San Antonio, Texas
05/26 Austin, Texas @ Beerland, Texas
05/27 Denton, Texas
05/28 Houston, Texas
05/30 New Orleans, Louisiana
05/31 Little Rock, Arkansas
06/01 Fayetteville, Arkansas @ Backspace
06/02 Memphis, Tennessee
06/03 Nashville, Tennessee
06/04 Birmingham, Alabama @ The Nick Rocks
06/06 Atlanta, Georgia @ 529
06/07 Durham, North Carolina @ The Cave
06/08 Raleigh, North Carolina @ Slim’s Distillery
06/09 Richmond, Virginia
06/10 Washington, DC
06/11 Baltimore, Maryland
06/13Philadelphia, Pennsylvania @ Kung Fu Necktie
06/14 Anywhere, New Jersey
06/15 New York, New York
06/16 Boston, Mass. @ O’Briens
06/17 Montreal, Quebec @ Turbo Haüs
06/20 Ottawa, Ontario w/ Dead Soft
06/21 Windsor, Ontario @ Phog Lounge W/ Baby Labour Dead Soft
06/22 Guelph, Ontario w/ Baby Labour
06/23 Toronto, Ontario @ Smiling Buddha Cabaret W/ Baby Labour
06/24 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
06/25 Akron, Ohio
06/26 Cleveland, Ohio @ Now That’s Class
06/27 Detroit, Michigan
06/28 Kalamazoo, Michigan @ Headquarters
06/29 Bloomington, Indiana
06/30 Champaign, Illinois
07/01 Chicago, Illinois
07/02 Milwaukee, Wisconsin
07/04 Madison, Wisconsin
07/05 Minneapolis, Minnesota
07/07 Winnipeg, Manitoba
07/08 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan @ Vangelis Tavern
07/09 Edmonton, Alberta @ The Buckingham W/ Gary Debussy
07/12 Lethbridge, Alberta
07/13 Calgary, Alberta @ The Palomino Smokehouse and Social Club
07/15 Victoria, British Columbia @ Logan’s Pub

II is out 4/28 via Kingfisher Bluez (Canada) and Cointoss Records (US). US pre-order is here, while Canadian pre-order is here.