BODEGA Release New Single 'City Is Taken' From Upcoming LP 'Our Brand Could Be Yr Life'

NYC's cultural commentators BODEGA return today with their latest single, “City Is Taken,” a song that further displays the true ambition and heart of their upcoming third album, Our Brand Could Be Yr Life, coming April 12 via Chrysalis Records. Pre-order here.

Tender, melodic, and with a narrative about the band's relationship to gentrification, it shows a different side to their upcoming record, and indeed the band, one that widens their growing sonic palette ever further, offering up a cohesive, moreish set of songs that are both stylistically diverse and irresistibly anthemic. 

Nikki Belfiglio, joint lead vocalist of BODEGA, and the lead on "City Is Taken," had the following to say about the themes behind their new single:

"'City Is Taken' is a song about my experience of moving to NYC in 2010. I came to view myself and my artistic role models as a force of gentrification caught in the invisible web on profiteering that follows artists wherever they go. My visual presence became an unwitting symbol of destruction; the antithesis of everything I sought to create."

"City Is Taken" is accompanied by a video from director Luca Balser that features Ben Hozie and Nikki performing the track throughout a nocturnal NYC in front of defunct venues from the city's storied musical past alongside the commercial banks and chain restaurants of today. The video works as a study of personal geography and archeology, unearthing the band's New York story up to now. 

BODEGA's Ben says of the video:

"It starts in front of what was Goodbye Blue Monday, where I played my first show in the city way back in 2009. The camera frames key DIY spots in BODEGA's history such as Party Expo, Palisades (where the release party for the original ‘Our Brand Could Be Your Life' happened in 2015), Silent Barn II, Sunnyvale (where the 'Endless Scroll' release party was) Shea Stadium, Death by Audio, 285 Kent, Glasslands, Monster Island, Aviv, and Cake Shop plus some classic punk spots from before our time such as Mercer Arts Center, Palladium, Tier 3, Mudd Club, and Max's Kansas City - the track references Patti Smith's recent dictum that young NYC artists should ‘pack (their) bags and move to Detroit'."

"City Is Taken" follows the fidgety pop sass of last month's "Tarkovski". BODEGA recently performed both tracks live on WNYC Soundcheck.

Both songs feature on the band's third and greatest LP yet, Our Brand Could Be Yr Life, a concept album about the current corporate mentality of underground/indie rock, where the band simultaneously desecrate and celebrate a certain indie rock cannon, hoping to redeem its' ‘fall from grace' like foolish missionaries who inherited a stained formal tradition that needs to change in order to become meaningful again.

The album will be available on digital, CD and a silver colored vinyl paired with a 20 page lyric booklet. Rough Trade will also have an exclusive run of 200 lino prints, handmade, numbered and signed by the band's own Nikki Belfiglio.

BODEGA will head to Texas for the SXSW Music Conference next month, celebrate with a hometown performance, April 12 @ Baby's All Right, before kicking off an Eastern half of North American tour, adding a new show April 26 in Philadelphia at The Latvian Society, along with new UK/EU dates below.

Tour Dates:

03/12-16 – Austin TX @ SXSW

04/12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby's All Right

04/19 – Boston, MA @ Rockwell

04/20 – Montreal, PQ @ Bar le Ritz

04/21 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison

04/22 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern

04/23 – Chicago, IL @ Schuba's

04/24 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Café

04/26 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Latvian Society

04/27 – Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong

04/29 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl

04/30 – Savannah, GA @ El Rocko

05/01 – Tampa, FL @ Hooch & Hive

05/02 – Miami, FL @ Gramps

05/03 – Jacksonville, FL @ The Walrus

05/04 – Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor

05/24 – Madrid, ES @ Tomavistas Festival

05/25 – London, UK @ Wide Awake Festival

05/26 – Walton-on-Trent, UK @ Bearded Theory Festival

05/27 – Manchester, UK @ New Century Hall

05/28 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2

05/30 – Paris, FR @ Le Trabendo

05/31 – Rennes, FR @ Antipode

06/01 – La Rochelle, FR @ La Sirene

06/02 – Orléans, FR @ Astrolabe

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