UNIFORM RELEASE AMERICAN STANDARD COMPANION ALBUM, NIGHTMARE CITY TODAY VIA SACRED BONES
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TOURING WITH PHARMAKON DECEMBER + UK / EU NEXT MONTH – ALL TICKETS ON SALE HERE
Press Photo By Joshua Zucker-Pluda & Sean Stout
Pictured: Founding Members Michael Berdan (Vocals), Ben Greenberg (Guitar)
Not Pictured: Mike Sharp (Drums), Brad Truax (Bass), Michael Blume (Drums)
Rarely can a record be taken at face value. Although the finished product stands as a culmination of cohesive sounds, the individual threads that weave songs together often provide necessary nuance and exposition all of their own. Each isolated stem might be part of a greater story, but the whole cannot stand as intended without a complex series of seemingly disparate elements.
Throughout our existence, Uniform has never particularly cared for genre exercises. We thrive in a constant state of reinvention, making whatever kind of music we feel like making at any given moment. Some records lean into electronic and industrial tropes, while others borrow heavily from punk, metal, and avant-garde rock. This freewheeling spirit of creative liberty is what keeps the band together. If Uniform were bent on following a template, we’d get bored. The second we get bored, we cease to exist.
The creation of the American Standard album has absorbed several years of our collective life. We started writing it in early 2022, tracked most of the instrumentals in the Spring of 2023, and didn’t finish editing the final product until the dead of Winter of 2024. In many ways, it stands as the most organic record that we’ve ever made. Given that the core of the band is two drums, bass, guitar, and vocals, those are the elements highlighted in the final mix. However, stripping those elements away reveals an entirely different collection of songs.
A companion piece to American Standard, Nightmare City is essentially the same record devoid of the rock elements. By removing the presence of traditional instruments, the synths, lap steel, and pianos that sit beneath the surface of the proper album are allowed room to breathe and speak for themselves. The end result straddles the worlds of Basic Channel influenced dub, Tangerine Dream inspired soundscapes, and brutal death industrial.
The bedrock of American Standard stands upon the Nightmare City. It’s not the happiest of all places, but understanding the landscape yields its own rewards. We hope you enjoy your stay.
Praise For American Standard:
“It’s the year’s most intimate, most savage feel-bad music.” SPIN
“Pulverizing” STEREOGUM
“On ‘Permanent Embrace’, this cathartic emotional purge subsumes the physical” THE FADER
“a daring and more extreme sound...” CONSEQUENCE
“[‘American Standard’] it’s a breathtaking piece of music, which even offers a fleeting trace of atmospheric reprieve among the devastation, only to ferociously erase it with a beautiful and grim burst of blackgaze.” THE WIRE
“their fullest sound to date” FLOOD
“very ’90s industrial by way of grandiose noise rock” BROOKLYN VEGAN
“Uniform have no issue with aurally offensive sounds” METALSUCKS
“American Standard is true artistic expression.” METAL HAMMER
“a brilliant achievement… what metal is capable of at its best…” TREBLE
“It’s exuberant, cleansing, and punitive” NORTHERN TRANSMISSIONS
“If ever an album resisted sinking into algorithmic complacency, this is it.” SLANT
"Michael Berdan of Uniform Talks 'American Standard'" New Noise (Read Interview)
NIGHTMARE CITY TRACK LISTING:
1 - AMERICAN STANDARD (NIGHTMARE CITY MIX)
2 - THIS IS NOT A PRAYER (NIGHTMARE CITY MIX)
3 - CLEMENCY (NIGHTMARE CITY MIX)
4 - PERMANENT EMBRACE (NIGHTMARE CITY MIX)
Uniform Live Dates:
Oct 01: Manchester, UK - The White Hotel %
Oct 02: Newcastle, UK - The Lubber Fiend %
Oct 03: London, UK - Rich Mix %
Oct 04: Brussels, BE - Botanique %
Oct 05: Haarlem, NL - Patronaat %
Oct 06: Utrecht, NL - De Helling %
Oct 08: Hamburg, DE - Hefenklang %
Oct 09: Berlin, DE - Zukunft %
Oct 10: Warsaw, PL - Hybrydy $
Oct 11: Poznan, PL - 2Progi $
Oct 12: Prague, CZ - Underdogs %
Oct 13: Wien, AT - Chelsea %
Oct 15: Zagreb, HR - Mocvara %
Oct 16: Bologna, IT - TPO ^
Oct 17: Milano, IT - ARCI Bellezza ^
Oct 18: Fribourg, CH - Cafe XXe %
Oct 19: Paris, FR - La Java %
Dec 03: Washington, DC - DC9 ~
Dec 04: Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's ~
Dec 05: Boston, MA - The Armory ~
Dec 06: Montréal, QC - Cabaret Foufounes ~
Dec 07: Toronto, ON - Monarch Tavern ~
Dec 08: Detroit, MI - Small's ~
Dec 10: Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle ~
Dec 11: Columbus, OH - Ace of Cups ~
Dec 13: Richmond, VA - The Warehouse ~
Dec 14: Bethlehem, PA - National Sokols ~
Dec 15: Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
% w/ Bad Breeding
$ - w/ Bad Breeding and A Place To Bury Strangers
^ - w/ Bad Breeding and The Body & Dis Fig
~ w/ Pharmakon and True Body
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