THUS LOVE
Highly Anticipated Sophomore Album All Pleasure
Out Now on Captured Tracks
Rough Trade Album of the Month for November
TOUR DATES
(THUS LOVE by Shervin Lainez; L-R: Shane Blank, Echo Mars, Lu Racine, Ally Juleen)
“Dispensing with the dourness usually associated with post-punk, Thus Love’s take on the genre is paradoxically bursting with sincerity—and is perhaps the blast of sunshine needed to clear out the cobwebs of a sound that’s been annoying and samey and needlessly depressing for longer than anyone wants to admit. What’s wrong with not being mad all the time, I ask you? Some things are still worth being glad about. A real treat, then, that All Pleasure is exactly what it says on the tin. With bright production and not a drop of irony in their approach, Thus Love deliver a collection of bright and sparky songs reveling in the most elusive emotion of all after true love: happiness.”
- Bandcamp (Essential Releases)
“THUS LOVE are comfortably the best group to have come out of the U.S. in the last two years...As such they deserve – nay demand – your immediate attention and the inevitable affection that will follow.”
- Live4Ever
“Some people walk the walk, and some people talk the talk. THUS LOVE do both.”
- Loud & Quiet
“THUS LOVE are yet another Queer-peopled band giving compelling evidence that Rock and Roll is not dead. Their lean, stripped-down arrangement {on “On The Floor”} has a solid rhythm section underpinning riffs that pop and sometimes take flight. Vocalist Echo Mars reminds me of Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr.”
- Out In New Jersey (This Week Out Now LGBTQ songs)
“While ‘All Pleasure’ may be the third single from Thus Love’s second album, the band says it’s the first song it ever wrote collaboratively as a quartet. It’s a little amazing that this song is where they started rather than the result of years of practice. A bit more mellow than the album’s first single, ‘Birthday Song,’ it’s a surreal, borderline psychedelic song that plays into their strengths incredibly well.”
- RiFF Magazine (Tuesday Tracks)
“‘Birthday Song’ finds Thus Love adding a heavier, glam-tinged edge to the post-punk sounds that saturated their 2022 debut, Memorial.”
- Rolling Stone
“On the back of their first album Memorial, Thus Love garnered admiration from famous faces including Suede’s Brett Anderson and Mat Osman. On this second album, you can expect that selection of burgeoning admirers to grow even further. While that first album focused on introspective post-punk, this second album allows them to expand and deliver something that is altogether bigger in sound and scope. There’s the uniting grunge of ‘Birthday Song’, the fizzing energy of ‘Get Stable’ and, on the title track, one of their most affecting songs yet. It’s a huge step up from the group on a record that effortlessly broadens the horizons of their world.” - Rolling Stone UK (5 albums you need to hear this week)
“Indie bands have had a time of it recently, with the cost of touring and the pop-leaning tastes of the mainstream making the pursuit a lonely, penury-filled one. Surprisingly, this four-piece from Brattleboro, Vermont, have become a word-of-mouth hit. Echo and the Bunnymen come to mind in the band’s life-or-death approach to singing their hearts out over jagged but uplifting music, while ‘On the Floor’ recalls the doomy intensity of Joy Division. The Eighties alternative influences spill into Thus Love’s lifestyle choices too: they made the album in a remote barn, and on the grungy ‘House on a Hill’ they eulogise the benefits of getting off the internet and living your life. If it involves making noisy guitar rock that is totally out of step with modern trends, so much the better.”
- The Times (UK)
“The sophomore album from the Vermont post-punk band is here, rife with moments of anthemic hooks, taut grooves, soaring choruses and a level of Scott Walker-like sophistication that transcends genre tropes. It’s an album that rewards repeat listens, but is likely to win you over on the first one regardless.”
- Treble (Best New Releases)
“Brattleboro, Vermont-based band THUS LOVE has unveiled the vibrant title track from their upcoming sophomore album, All Pleasure, set to release on November 1, 2024, via Captured Tracks. The new single, an energetic, riff-driven anthem accented with tambourine, comes alongside a mesmerizing video directed by Wes Sterrs.”
- Under The Radar
“Vermont’s musical torch continues to pass from one strong act to another — and now, it’s being carried by Brattleboro’s own Thus Love…Vocalist Echo Mars shines on the track {“Birthday Song”}, their slicked-smooth voice opening with one of life’s biggest questions: ‘Do you believe in love?’ But this isn’t a standard romantic love song — it’s an ode to friendship. Mars sings of all the ways love manifests in life, good and bad alike, while behind them coarse guitar balances it all out texturally.”
- Vanyaland
Today Brattleboro, Vermont breakthrough outfit THUS LOVE releases All Pleasure, the highly anticipated sophomore full-length out now on Captured Tracks. Mixed by Matthew Hall and Rich Costey (on “Birthday Song”, “All Pleasure”, and “Get Stable”) and mastered by Bob Weston, All Pleasure was recorded as live as possible, with a bare minimum of overdubs, capturing the sheer infectious ecstasy that comes from a group of people sharing space together, making a divine racket.
The album came out of a period of dizzying growth and transformation for the group. When they began work on it, vocalist/guitarist Echo Mars (they/them) and drummer Lu Racine (he/him) were still reeling from the runaway success of their 2022 debut full-length, Memorial—a set of lush, elegant post-punk that brought praise from The FADER, NME, and The Guardian, plus a leap from quiet Brattleboro to stages across the US and UK—along with processing the departure of founding bassist Nathaniel van Osdol. Meanwhile, new bassist Ally Juleen (she/they) and guitarist/keyboardist Shane Blank (he/him), longtime musical partners, had uprooted their lives to relocate to small-town Vermont and join a band that was a month away from recording the follow-up to a cultishly adored album.
THUS LOVE recently spoke with Vermont paper The Burlington Free Press and UK publication The Sun for illuminating pieces on the band’s metamorphosis, and the band has gotten the seal of approval from members of Suede (see at the 9:30 mark of this filmed interview), and local paper The Rutland Herald/Barre Montpelier Times Argus has proclaimed: “In short, All Pleasure is an instant classic from one of the most vital young rock bands around. And one gets the sense that this promising new four-piece lineup is poised for greatness.” Thus Love and All Pleasure have also caught the attention of the likes of Rolling Stone, NME, NPR, Brooklyn Vegan, Bandcamp, Treble, Dusted, Clash, Uncut, and many more, and Rough Trade has named All Pleasure their Album of the Month for November 2024.
August saw the release of lead-single “Birthday Song,” a grungy glam salvo that boldly celebrates their new era, accompanied by a video also directed by Augie Voss & Benni Shumlin, shot on location in Southern Vermont. According to vocalist/guitarist Echo Mars, “‘Birthday Song’ is a simple song about friendship and how we sometimes don’t give those kinds of platonic relationships the respect and care they need to thrive. We don’t have the same language that we do for romantic partnerships but I think those relationships are every bit as important in making us feel safe, secure and validated. When it came time to select the first single, ‘Birthday Song’ felt like the perfect way to introduce the new version of Thus Love and our new friends, Ally and Shane.” Upon its release, “Birthday Song” caught the attention of Stereogum, Northern Transmissions, and Rolling Stone, who named it a Song You Need To Know, noting the band’s “heavier, glam-tinged edge” and Brooklyn Vegan, who named it one of their favorite songs of the week.
September single “On The Floor,” is a song that concerns itself with “how we often have to look outside of formal schooling for true education and how easy it is to be complicit in systems of oppression," opening the album with a beautiful collision of guitars and resonant vocals from Echo Mars, accompanied by an electrifying video directed by frequent collaborators Augie Voss & Benni Shumlin. Treble named the song an Essential Track, stating: “With ‘On the Floor,’ they reveal just how far that ambition can go, with slinky, taut verses giving way to an infectious, eruptive chorus. Vocalist Echo Mars even evokes the abstract ’60s-era art-pop of Scott Walker in their croon, which is just one of the surprising elements that comes into play in this dynamic anthem.”
The stomping, riff-driven, tambourine-infused title track was released as a single in October and according to vocalist/guitarist Echo Mars: "It’s no accident that we named the album after this song. ‘All Pleasure’ is the very first song we wrote collectively as a quartet and I think that collaborative spirit really comes through. The addition of Ally’s vocals as a counterpoint gives the song a very different energy and feel to it. I remember when we all listened back for the first time — it was one of those eureka moments when we all realized how special this new incarnation of Thus Love could be." The single release came with a video directed by Wes Sterrs who shared: "We shot the ‘All Pleasure’ video over two days in Portland, Maine, right after THUS LOVE got back from their UK tour. Staying true to the band's surreal visual universe, we pulled from a grab bag of aesthetics: Jean Cocteau’s surrealist films, Lynch-ian oddities, Giallo dramatics, chiaroscuro-ian lighting, and even a pinch of Scooby-Doo vibes. All those influences (plus a bit of jet lag courtesy of THUS LOVE) melt together into a weirdo fever dream of satin, fingers, and flowers."
THUS LOVE played overseas for a run of UK festival dates over the summer, wowing audiences at Reading, Leeds, and End Of The Road, and are about to perform in Vermont and NYC to celebrate the album’s release in early November, ahead of 2025 Tour Dates, including a run supporting The Vaccines that kicks-off in mid-January, some headline shows, and additional March/April EU/UK shows. SEE ALL DATES BELOW.
THUS LOVE - Tour Dates
& w/ Robber Robber
^ w/ The Vaccines
11/01/24 - Brattleboro, VT - The Stone Church &
11/08/24 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere Zone One &
11/10/24 - Burlington, VT - Radio Bean &
01/16/25 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer ^
01/17/25 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel ^
01/18/25 - Boston, MA - Royale ^
01/19/25 - Portland ME - Oxbow Blending and Bottling
01/20/25 - Montreal, QC - Studio TD ^
01/21/25 - Toronto, ON - Concert Hall ^
01/23/25 - Detroit, MI - El Club ^
01/24/25 - Chicago, IL - The Vic ^
01/25/25 - Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line ^
01/28/25 - Denver, CO - Summit ^
01/31/25 - Vancouver, BC - Hollywood Theater ^
02/01/25 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox ^
02/02/25 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom ^
02/04/25 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore ^
02/05/25 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Catalyst
02/06/25 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern ^
02/07/25 - Las Vegas NV - The Wall
02/08/25 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar
02/10/25 - Houston, TX - WOMH
02/11/25 - Austin, TX - Mohawk
02/12/25 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada
02/14/25 - Nashville, TN - Drkmttr
02/15/25 - Atlanta, GA - Vinyl
02/16/25 - Boone, NC - Lily's Snack Bar
02/17/25 - Durham, NC - Pinhook
02/18/25 - Baltimore, MD - Metro Gallery
02/19/25 - Troy, NY - No Fun
03/11/25 - Ghent, BE - Trefpunt
03/12/25 - Paris, FR - La Point Ephemere
03/13/25 - Belfort, FR - La Poudrière
03/14/25 - Milan, IT - Arci Bellezza
03/15/25 - Bologna, IT - Covo Club
03/17/25 - Vienna, AT - Flucc Deck
03/18/25 - Prague, CZ - Café V lese
03/19/25 - Berlin, DE - Urban Spree
03/21/25 - Copenhagen, DK - Vega Ideal bar
03/22/25 - Hamburg, DE - Nochtwache
03/23/25 - Rotterdam, NL - V11
03/24/25 - Amsterdam, NL - Tolhuistuin
03/26/25 - London, UK - The Garage
03/27/25 - Leeds, UK - The Attic
03/28/25 - Glasgow, UK - Stereo
03/29/25 - Salford, UK - The White Hotel
03/30/25 - Sheffield, UK - Delicious Clam
03/31/25 - Bristol, UK - Strange Brew
04/01/25 - Cardiff, UK - Club Ifor Bach
04/02/25 - Brighton, UK - Komedia
04/03/25 - Ramsgate, UK - Ramsgate Music Hall
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