New Single – ‘Cocoon’ - September 15
Debut Album - The Balcony – September 15
London Koko – November 7 – SOLD OUT
Catfish And The Bottlemen will release new single ‘Cocoon’ on September 15, through Communion/Island Records. The track premiered recently as Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record In The World, and will be released in tandem with the four piece’s much anticipated album debut The Balcony, recorded with Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Peace). The four English lads from Llandudno are currently amidst a marathon run of over 30 summer festival dates including the likes of Latitude, Reading & Leeds, Bestival and Kendal Calling, plus opening for Jake Bugg at Ibiza & Mallorca Rocks. A London Koko headline for November 7 as part of a 16 date UK Winter tour is already sold out.
‘Cocoon’ follows previous single ‘Fallout’, a wry take on frontman Van McCann’s IVF conception which went on to make the playlists at Radio 1 (B list & Track of The Day), XFM Daytime, 6Music and Absolute. This new release, similarly shot through with McCann’s signature frank lyricism, took shape during a writing trip to New York last year. ‘I was living in this apartment block, and I used to go up to the rooftop for a smoke and look over the skyline which was beautiful every night,’ says McCann; I was away from home and missing the love of my life, and I just wanted to write a song about being together and fucking everybody off. So ‘Cocoon’ is about being madly in love with someone, your best friend or whoever, and people try to get inside that and fuck shit up for you’. The track’s spit-and-sawdust sentiment- ‘I cocoon round your shoulders / when you’re half-cut and you’re frozen’- takes on an altogether graver form in ‘Cocoon’’s official video, which, in a nod to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, refracts it through a psychiatric institution’s doomed love affair. Director James Moore says of the treatment; ‘The idea was to create an engaging narrative to complement the raw and slightly unhinged heart of ‘Cocoon’ – sometimes love can be all-consuming, to the extent that every waking moment is spent in the pursuit of recapturing it.’
‘Cocoon’ is the sixth single release in under a year from Catfish and The Bottlemen, following ‘Homesick’ (Zane Lowe Next Hype, XFM Evening playlist), ‘Rango’ (Radio 1 BBC Introducing Playlist, Zane Lowe’s 100 Hottest Tracks of The Year, XFM Daytime playlist), Pacifier (Radio 1 INMWT playlist, XFM daytime playlist), ‘Kathleen’ (Radio 1 playlist, 6Music Playlist, XFM Daytime playlist) and ‘Fallout’. The release of The Balcony this September sees the culmination of six years of tenacity and sheer bloody-mindedness from Van McCann (vocals/guitar), Billy Bibby (guitar), Benji Blakeaway (bass) and Bob Hall (drums). The turbo-charged last 18 months of this period was spent very much in the public eye, whilst the band signed to Communion/Island Records, performed at Radio 1’s Future Festival, had three consecutive singles playlisted at Radio 1, and headlined BBC Introducing at Radio 1’s Big Weekend.
Insouciant, hormone-fuelled indie-rock - The Times
Indie stars in waiting - Timeout
Like The Walkmen’s ‘The Rat’ realised as a full band - NME
Killer guitar skills and major charisma – Nylon
Managed the rare rock n roll feat of being simultaneously whip-tight and raucously atmospheric, and brought to mind the early, pre-stardom days of Arctic Monkeys. Expect to hear more from them - Daily Telegraph
Anything but anonymity beckons - Q Magazine
Armed with a repertoire of hectic, but undeniably catchy tunes, the band channel indie rock’s brightest moments of the last 20 years - Esquire Magazine
UK Live Dates:
1 August KENDAL Kendal Calling
2 August DERBYSHIRE Y Not Festival
8 August INVERNESS Belladrum Festival
9 August LEICESTERSHIRE Strawberry Fields Festival
10 August CORNWALL Boardmasters Festival
21 August BRIGHTON The Haunt
22 August READING Reading & Leeds Festival
23 August LEEDS Reading & Leeds Festival
29 August LODE Lodestar Festival
30 August BINGLEY Bingley Music Live
5 November CARDIFF The Globe
6 November PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms
7 November LONDON Koko SOLD OUT
8 November LEICESTER 02 Academy
9 November LEEDS Cockpit
12 November EDINBURGH Caves
13 November ABERDEEN Tunnels
14 November GLASGOW Classic Grand
15 November NEWCASTLE 02 Academy
3 December MANCHESTER Ritz
4 December BRISTOL Thekla
5 December STOKE Sugarmill
7 December BIRMINGHAM Institute
8 December OXFORD 02 Academy
12 December NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms
13 December LIVERPOOL O2 Academy
SOCIAL MEDIA
www.catfishandandthebottlemen.com
@thebottlemen