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Listen to “Gonna Be A Riot” on the bands bandcamp or wherever you prefer to stream!

https://jessethorson.bandcamp.com/

Minneapolis punk band The Slow Death will release their sixth full-length, Yesterday's Numbers, on Friday, November 20. The eight-piece features Jesse Thorson, his wife, Annie Sparrows (The Soviettes, Panel), and a group of Minneapolis friends. The album will be co-released by their label Don't Sing and friend Ryan Young's label, Anxious and Angry.

Alongside the announcement, the band is premiering the first single, "Gonna Be A Riot," exclusively via New Noise Magazine. A dark, driving song, it pulls its lyrics entirely from the 1967 film Riot on the Sunset Strip, a B movie about the Hollywood curfew riots. "I had the music for this song in my audio notes for years and was unable to turn it into a full song. At practice, we tried it out. It sounded great and came together easily. I'd mumble nonsense for lyrics because I couldn't come up with any, so I eventually just used quotes from the movie," explains Thorson.

Formed in 2009, The Slow Death have put out five albums and toured extensively across the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia along the way. But Yesterday's Numbers is something different: a collection of songs written over more than 15 years that lean harder into classic soul and rock than anything the band has released before.

Soulful vocals and throwback group harmonies, blistering guitar leads, tastefully unhinged drums, and masterfully played swirling organ drive fun party songs about nothing and everything. The songs draw on familiar rock and roll tropes, with lyrics a bit more clever than most and a touch of Americana.

The record's origins trace back to 2010, when frontman Thorson recorded a demo of "Opposite of Jesse's Girl," the oldest song on the album. His friend Ryan Young (Off With Their Heads) heard it and suggested he write a whole album of songs like that. Thorson put it off for more than a decade.

"I have been wanting to make this record for so long that I kinda can't believe that it's finally being pressed," says Thorson. "There was always some reason not to. There was always something in the way: 'Once this tour, this single, this album, this month, this year, this decade is done I will make the rock and roll record.' It's done and it's better than I thought it would be, and as anyone who knows me will tell you, I am a super optimistic fella. Everyone who had anything to do with this record absolutely killed it and, coincidentally, I found the right conditioner to give my hair the appropriate body and bounce for the back cover."

Thorson assembled a group of talents who suit the material perfectly. The lineup includes Thorson on lead vocals and guitar (Pretty Boy Thorson & the Falling Angels), with harmonies from Sparrows, Kat Naden, and Saumer Kinsey, all of The God Damn Doo Wop Band. Sam Beere plays lead guitar and Luke Lecheler organ, both of Nato Coles & the Blue Diamond Band, rounded out by Dylan Richie on bass (Teenage Strangler) and Shawn Walker on drums (Gay Witch Abortion, Chooglin).

Sparrows, a fixture of the Minneapolis scene, sings and co-writes on the record, and the couple run the recently launched label Don't Sing together. Don't Sing's previous releases include The Slow Death's No Light To See; a split between The Slow Death and Rivalry, a gritty and melodic punk rock band from the UK; and the debut from Sparrows' alternative punk and power-pop band Panel, A Great Time to Be an Empath.

"Being on your own label is the best way to put out records. Everything is either your brilliant idea or your fault. Don't Sing only exists because of my wife, Annie. She's the real brains of the operation and I'm just some guy with a glue stick," says Thorson. "This is also our fourth release with my buddy Ryan from Anxious and Angry. When we were a brand new band, he took us on tour and set up the recording of our first demo. Without him, no one would know we existed or care."

"Jesse and I have tried to make this record before," says Sparrows. "A lot of the songs he wrote for it have lived in various forms without a real home forever, and it's all clicked. Last year he called our friends over, we started working on the songs live in the basement, then recorded at TreeSpeak here in Minneapolis. We're super happy with how it came out and we've been having a blast playing shows with this lineup."

Over the years, the band's ever-changing lineup has included Mikey Erg (The Ergs) and Paddy Costello (Dillinger Four), among others. "The Slow Death famously has like 90 members," explains Sparrows. "You play with 'em once, and you're a member for life, and I can safely say for all of us, it's never a dull moment being a small part of it all."

Yesterday's Numbers was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Andy Mathison at TreeSpeak Studios and will be issued on black vinyl, limited to 300 copies, and digitally on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms. Vinyl is available for pre-order now through Anxious and Angry.

The Slow Death will celebrate the release with a show alongside Off With Their Heads on November 28 at the Uptown VFW.