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Imperial Teen share new song “Don’t Wanna Let You Go” off forthcoming Now We Are Timeless

Today, Imperial Teen share “Don’t Wanna Let You Go,” a sexy jam for these hot summer days! The new single kicks off with the signature Imperial Teen breathiness and vocal play and joins previously released songs “Walkaway” and “We Do What We Do Best” in the run-up to the band’s triumphant return with Now We Are Timeless on July 12.

In strict keeping with Imperial Teen’s roots of creating seemingly clean, pop presentations as a springboard for dramatic themes of loneliness, triumph, success, and failure, Now We Are Timeless moves us into a realm of inevitability for the band. While their first album Seasick thematically touched on the queasiness of pop and beach and sun and glare and the optimism that lies beneath, the new release serves as a bookend of sorts in its portrayal of a world in crisis, with its artwork showcasing a frostbitten but melting iceberg, monolithic and stationary yet impermanent and resonant.

What has remained constant over the years is Imperial Teen’s indisputable knack for writing profound hooks as a framework for their musical memories. Their songs exhibit the realness, joy, and energy that only good friends can conjure.

Now We Are Timeless is available for pre-order on CD, LP, and limited-edition “blue ice” Peak Vinyl in the Merge store, or wherever records are sold, including Imperial Teen’s shows next month!

Imperial Teen on tour:
Jul 16 Denver, CO – Twist & Shout (free in-store performance)
Jul 25 Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right
Jul 26 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle (MRG30) [SOLD OUT] Aug 02 San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
Aug 03 Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
Aug 04 Palm Springs, CA – The Alibi

Imperial Teen announce first album in seven years, share first single “We Do What We Do Best”

Imperial Teen are back in a big way with Now We Are Timeless, their first album in seven years! Listen to “We Do What We Do Best” now, and pre-order Now We Are Timeless starting today on CD, LP, and limited-edition “blue ice” Peak Vinyl in the Merge store, or wherever records are sold.

Listen to & share “We Do What We Do Best” by Imperial Teen now

The four-headed hydra that is Imperial Teen provided this statement in unison:

Using our voice is all we can do. We step up, collective and proud, this family of ours that’s sustained and explored creatively for over twenty years. We’re not saying we do what we do better than anyone, but the individuality of our collective voice is all that we have and it’s what we do. We Do What We Do Best.

Imperial Teen’s releases over the past 20+ years have been pointed and specific diaries of musical celebration, windows into the hypersensitive personal drama of relationships within the band, individual conquests and failures, and collective, aspirational hopes, dreams, and perspectives. Roddy Bottum, Will Schwartz, Jone Stebbins, and Lynn Perko Truell—who they’ve become, how they are dealing, and what their lives are in 2019—all of this is on Now We Are Timeless.

The band wrote and recorded the new album in the cities the individual members have geographically gravitated to: New York City, the Bay Area, Denver, and Los Angeles. Themes of time and movement, averting and succumbing to crisis, dealing with loss and pain are all represented on the record, but what rings triumphant is the undeniable joy and catharsis that come from the band’s spontaneous and improvisational approach to making music together.

Imperial Teen have announced a handful of performances this year, including MRG30 in North Carolina, so do your eyes and ears justice by picking up tickets to the show nearest you, and pre-order Now We Are Timeless today!

Imperial Teen on tour:

Jul 25 Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right

Jul 26 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle (MRG30) [SOLD OUT]

Aug 02 San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop

Aug 03 Los Angeles, CA – The Echo

Brooklyn Vegan: Listen to Imperial Teen’s “We Do What We Do Best” from first album in 7 years

“Using our voice is all we can do,” say Imperial Teen about the first single from Now We Are Timeless, their first album in seven years. “We step up, collective and proud, this family of ours that’s sustained and explored creatively for over twenty years. We’re not saying we do what we do better than anyone, but the individuality of our collective voice is all that we have and it’s what we do. We Do What We Do Best.” That declaration, “We Do What We Do Best,” is also the title of the single, which is indeed what you expect from Roddy Bottum and the rest of Imperial Teen — crunchy, synthy, super-catchy indie rock. The song premieres in this post and you can listen below.

Now We Are Timeless is out July 12 via Merge and you can preorder it now. Imperial Teen will be playing a few shows this summer surrounding their appearance at Merge Records 30th anniversary fest, MRG30, beginning with a show at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right on July 25 (tickets). Then after MRG30, they’ll play San Francisco’s Rickshaw Stop on August 2 and Los Angeles’ The Echo on August 3. All dates are listed, along with album art and tracklist below.

Now We Are Timeless tracklist:
1. I Think That’s Everything
2. We Do What We Do Best
3. Don’t Wanna Let You Go
4. Walkaway
5. How We Say Goodbye
6. Parade
7. Somebody Like Me
8. Ha
9. The Girl
10. Timeless

IMPERIAL TEEN – 2019 TOUR DATES
July 25 Brooklyn, NY Baby’s All Right
July 26 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle – Merge 30
Aug 2 San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Stop – All Ages Show
Aug 3 Los Angeles, CA The Echo