Upper Wilds have caught a fever and they’re burning up. In case you haven’t been paying attention, the power-trio led by Parts & Labor co-founder Dan Friel have a new album coming out. It’s their latest since 2023’s Jupiter. The first single “Mercury” has been out for a while, you can listen to it below if you haven’t already.
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We’re giving you a taste of what else is to come… check out the video above, animated by Chris Mulligan, and read about the next offering from Mercury below.
‘Fever’ was inspired by The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, the influential science fiction novel about successful combat against climate change. The song was written to be about the need for widespread resistance to the oil and AI industries, but at this point it kinda feels like it’s about everything.
I think of it in the lineage of Iron Maiden-style ‘Book Report Rock,’ but also Fugazi’s ‘Burning Too,’ in terms of Unapologetic Climate Rock.
– Dan Friel of Upper Wilds
“My aim was to find color amidst something dark and ominous.
The riff and lyrics are very menacing to me “a fever that just won’t break,”
a relentless force that will consume us.
Before it does, can we celebrate?”
– animator Chris Mulligan
The album is available for pre-order on a mercurial metallic silver vinyl and CD.
All versions come with download coupons— order and get any available singles instantly, as well as automatically with the whole album on August 28th! Stay tuned for the full music video for “Fever” next week!
The Body are hitting the road NOW along with friends and collaborators BIG|BRAVE! This summer tour is a hot commodity: two killer bands and both with some incredible new music out this year! The Body’s Master, We Perish reissue is out later this month!!! In stores July 31st, shipping direct via mail order NOW!
Listen to “The Ebb and Flow of Tides in a Sea of Ash”:
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The long out of print 2013 EP, Master, We Perish, includes material from two super coveted 2005 7” singles. Whether you’re a discography completionist or this is your first time hearing the colossal EP that developed the sound The Body would come to be known for on later records (like No One Deserves Happiness and I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer), this record is an ESSENTIAL.
The Body’s landmark record Master, We Perish found the acclaimed duo at a crossroads in their career. Recorded just before the duo of drummer Lee Buford and guitarist/vocalist Chip King were leaving their longtime home of Providence for Portland and released in between their breakthrough albums All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood and Christs, Redeemers, Master expanded on the duo’s love of layered worldbuilding with more precision and a stronger emphasis on percussive samples than ever before. The seeds of the duo’s celebrated collaborative inclination are evident as the album features Assembly of Light Choir leader Chrissy Wolpert, choir member Reba Mitchell, Otesanek vocalist Leslie Weitz, and guitarist David Lifrieri. With the expanded edition, the album’s striking cover painting by Providence mainstay Manifester aka Matt Brinkman (Mindflayer, Forcefield) is finally rendered in its original form.
Master, We Perish is expanded with rare bonus tracks from The Body’s early days, taken from a pair of rare 7” singles Cop Killer/Dead Cops as well as a split with Get Killed. These storied singles mark the first time the band truly pushed the boundaries of sound in the studio and on record. It also marks the beginning of The Body’s practice of wielding the studio as a veritable weapon to translate their gargantuan sound with deeper impact on LP. The results are not only pushing the capacity of the album format but are sonically riveting. The bonus material was recorded at Machines with Magnets. The band described them economically: “NASTY.”
Master, We Perish (expanded) is pressed onto some very nice looking Smoke vinyl (not scratch-n-sniff) and housed in a jacket featuring the original version of the cover art by Manifester aka Matt Brinkman. Grab a vinyl version from our site and get a digital download for free, too.
ORDER MASTER, WE PERISH (EXPANDED)
We’ve also got plenty of The Body & BIG|BRAVE merch still in stock. BIG|BRAVE’s Thrill Jockey debut Leaving None But Small Birds has been repressed multiple times over the years to LP and CD, and a super nifty hat made by Lee is available.
We’ve also got some final overstock of B|B’s Lee-printed in grief or in hope hoodies - one hoodie available in size M, L, and XL.
Super grungy cyberpunk styles matched over a love of deep bass, distorted electronics and sampling when The Body and Dis Fig collabed for Orchards of a Futile Heaven.
With Chip at a noise / pedals table rather than his usual guitar setup & Dis Fig’s Felicia giving a super intense performance with shouts, shrieks, ethereal singing, and vocal manipulations, it translated into one of the best heavy live shows we’ve seen in recent years.
The Body & Thou. You Whom I Have Always Hated. You already know all you need to know about this. Two of the most influential titans of heavy music for the past 20 years, two CDs remain!
The Body + Full of Hell just wrapped up tour in Europe together in April - if you missed a chance to grab a CD at the merch table, get it now!
Always looking forward, what could be next for The Body….?
The praise for Marisa’s phenomenal new record The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music has not stopped, and for good reason… Marisa has clearly touched us all with her new record. We especially felt it when she visited Chicago and had everyone in the audience in tears. You can tune in to her latest interview with NPR on Think Out Loud here. You can listen to her interview on NPR’s New Sounds here.
She was also featured on Bandcamp’s best country albums of 2026 for the month of June!
Volume 1 of the Anthology sold out of the gorgeous Green Lion vinyl, but fret not! We repressed this highly coveted variant and it is back in stock and ready to ship as soon as you place your order!
All LPs come with a 4-page 12x24 booklet, CDs with a 12 page booklet, filled with cover images of the records that inspired it and details about the source material and overall creative process documentation by Marisa getting into the details of tracks’ origins, her interpretations and more.
LPs and CDs all come with a download coupon. Get an instant download of the whole album for keeps.
Elena Setien’s son made a wonderful short video for her latest single with Black Duck, “Connects by water” and we can’t get over how sweet it is! Watch it above.
“Connects by Water” was composed by the legendary Doug McCombs for the collaborative album Black Duck with Elena Setien that will be out on August 28th later this summer.
In honor of the very Doug track, we dug back into our playlists and found a favorite of ours–the inspirations for the multi-talented guitarist and Bass VI lover Douglas McCombs. Dive into the musical world of Doug and his past inspirations!
Tom Verlaine - The Blue Robe
Bill Orcutt - The Sun and Its Horizon
Jamie Branch - Theme 001
Richard Hell - Another World
Duane Eddy - Summer Kiss
The Cure, Mark Saunders - A Forest
Public Image Ltd. - Poptones
Rob Mazurek Pulsar Quartet - Spanish Venus
Ritchie Valens - Stay Beside Me
Broadcast - Tears in the Typing Pool
X - The Unheard Music
The Cramps - Goo Goo Muck
Sun City Girls - Esoterica of Abyssynia
Wipers - When It’s Over
Black Duck is Douglas McCombs (Tortoise, Brokeback, and so many more), Bill MacKay (BCMC with Cooper Crain) and noted jazz percussionist Charles Rumback (who you may know from his LPs with Ryley Walker). Based in Spain, Elena Setién has composed for film (Mirande) and television (Altsasu) and collaborated with Mary Lattimore, Steve Gunn, and Glenn Kotche. Together, they bring you their self-titled debut collaboration.
The cover of Black Duck with Elena Setién features the painting “Miller Beach with The Ladies” by Leslie Baum. It is available on limited Coke Bottle Clear LP and limited CD, cased in mini- gatefold package, and both versions include a digital download card. Buy it now and get two singles “Land of Many Eyes” and “Connects by Water” instantly, as well as the full album on the day of release.
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