English rock band The Cribs sound like the kind of music you’d hear at a 90’s house party. And boy do we love house parties. Their new single, “Rainbow Ridge” off forthcoming surprise album 24-7 Rock Star Shit, is so incredibly alternative – is that still a genre? – that it’s giving me high school flashbacks. In a good way. Listen up.

Recorded with Steve Albini in his Chicago Electrical Audio studio, the Cribs seventh album is the quickest thing they’ve ever recorded – “done and dusted in five days.” Which is crazy. But apparently the album’s been in the works for some time, and reveal a band at their most raw, with all the songs captured “as-live and straight to tape.” And, to top it all off, 24-7 Rock Star Shit was intentionally unveiled as a surprise and will drop August 11th on Sonic Blew, without all the usual lag and delay record labels normally dish out.

“We’ve been in a band a long time,” says Gary Jarman, singer and bassist. “You get to the point where certain parts of the machinations of the music industry become monotonous and laborious. But we’ve got the luxury of being quite autonomous, we’ve got a dedicated fanbase who’ve been with us for a long time and we thought, why not just cut out all the extraneous stuff for once? This way we bypass as much of the usual protocol as possible – we just want to get it to people as quickly and easily as we can.” Quick and easy may be two of our favorite words. So keep an eye on these guys, and check tour dates below. –Maya Eslami

The Cribs Tour Dates:

07/28 – Cornwall, UK @ Leopallooza Cornwall

08/05 – Newcastle, UK @ Times Square (w/ Manic Street Preachers)

08/27 – Oxfordshire, UK @ The Big Festival

09/07-10 – Wales, UK @ Festival Number 6 Portmeirion

09/14 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry

09/15-17 – Chicago, IL @ Riot Fest

09/16 – Detroit, MI @ Third Man Records

09/18 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Place

09/19 – Montreal, QC @ Fairmount

09/20 – Boston, MA @ Middle East Downstairs

09/21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

09/23 – Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall

09/25 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Cat’s Cradle

09/26 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl

09/29 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Upstairs

09/30 – Austin, TX @ Antones

10/01 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada

10/03 – El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace

10/05 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar

10/06 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom

10/07 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent

10/10 – Vancouver, BC @ Cobalt

10/11 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey

10/12 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre

10/19 – Mexico City, MX @ Sala Corona

10/21 – Monterrey, MX @ Live Out Festival