FORTY FEET TALL Release New Album 'A Good Distraction'

Today, Portland-based angular rockers FORTY FEET TALL are proud to release their new album A Good Distraction today on all music platforms via Magnetic Moon Records. Forty Feet Tall's sound is hard and riff-based, aggressive and expansive, somewhere between The Strokes and Queens of the Stone Age, framing some of the most well-crafted rock songs out there with lyrics balancing between personal and political.

"All of these songs were written before the pandemic, but many of them already had a strong political bend and hopefully speak to all the bulls that we're going through now," says the band. "There are definitely love songs in here, but the overall theme for this album, or what it came to be, was some sort of semblance of a welcomed distraction in the midst of chaos. In the end though, no matter how tempting it is to turn a blind eye, we have to confront these ills - the racism, sexism, xenophobia, classism and outright fascism we see in this country and throughout the world. We try and walk a line making our music a blast to listen to, get you to a place where you can let loose, but simultaneously challenging the listener to survey and contemplate the state our world is currently in."

"Musically, it feels easy to just say it's just rock, but you can hear all the different influences, whether it's punk, grunge, psych or jazz," They continue. "We all have different likes and dislikes, but we come together on musical preferences where it counts and each one of us brings an element to the writing table. This album really showcases that. Since our move up to Portland, we desperately wanted to walk away from our blues-rock, riff heavy leanings when we were in highschool. Portland gave us a much more garage-y, fuzzy sound and that's definitely where everything else is headed."

"In a lot of ways, what we have now, though we kept the name, feels like a brand new band," the group adds. "The album has leanings to punk and psych and we started really diving into bands such as Parquet Courts, King Gizzard, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and the Oh Sees. There's also a lot of influence from early Elvis Costello records."

Formed in 2011 by a bunch of scrappy 15 year-olds from Los Angeles, Forty Feet Tall smashed together the alternative rock, grunge and classic rock they were weaned on and molded it into a frenetic and angular blend that twists and turns unexpectedly, bringing back the danger into the currently wilted music world. Collectively moving to Portland, OR for college and to allow their music to take root in the fertile Pacific Northwest musical soil, they added drummer Ian Kelly to form the compelling alt-rock-pop band they are today. Bracketed. riff-laden, and aggressive with enough pop melodies to hold it together, Forty Feet Tall's music is bursting with unbridled youthful enthusiasm and precise musical chops.

"All in all, though this album took a while to finally release, we're damn proud of it and can't wait to see what comes next."

Forty Feet Tall is Cole Gann (vocals/guitar), Brett Marquette (bass) Ian Kelley (drums), and Jack Sehres (guitar). A Good Distraction was self-produced and is out now via Magnetic Moon Records.

Listen here:

Photo Credit: Billy Fortier

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