the world is still here and so are we

new mclusky album to be released 9th may 2025

hey there (multiple) partner(s), how you doing?

here are some words about events about the thing that you signed up for (let me know if that’s no longer needed). it’s presented in two sections, the first shortish and fact-based (this will do for most if not all readers), the second a slightly indulgent 800 words or so on how it feels to release a new record after 21 years. please read on armed with that knowledge - or fuck off armed with it, you do you.

1. FACTS

1a. record facts

mclusky are releasing a new album with/via/on ipecac recordings on may 9^th 2025. it is called ‘the world is still here and so are we’. it contains thirteen songs (*1)

these songs are -

1. unpopular parts of a pig

2. cops and coppers

3. way of the exploding dickhead

4. the battle of los angelsea

5. people person

6. the competent horse thief

7. kafka-esque novelist franz kafka

8. the digger you deep

9. autofocus on the prime directive

10. not all steeplejacks

11. chekhov’s guns

12. juan party-system

13. hate the polis

it is available for pre-order along with a very nice t-shirt designed by michael byzewski at aesthetic apparatus if bundles are your thing. there are several options there plus i’m sure your local record store can pre-order for you and keep shipping costs to a minimum / nothing.

the record will also be available in shops, so no rush (but if you can pre-order, especially from ipecac/townsend direct, it helps).

way of the exploding dickhead has also been released as a single, if you can imagine such a thing. the video for it is located here. i had a lot of fun filming it by which i mean i was there for an hour and a half and everyone was sweet as hell and i had a lovely sandwich on the train back. the time i looked at the youtube the first comment helped me finally understand the international jihad. unpopular parts of a pig has also been released as one of these single things, for anyone - and i know that’s not any of you - who missed it the first time round.

1b. live facts

shows are coming in at the moment, being talked about, in the process of being confirmed - we’ll let you know about them the second we do. at the moment we have -

britain/europe 2025

may 8 - wrexham, uk the rockin’ chair

may 16 - tourcoing, fra le grand mix

may 18 - brussels, be les nuits botaniques (w/the jesus lizard)

may 23 - manchester, uk gorilla

may 24 - leeds, uk brudenell

may 29 - london, uk electric ballroom

may 31 - bristol, uk swx

australia 2026

jan 6 - corner hotel, melbourne

jan 9 - lion arts, adelaide

jan 10 - factory theatre, sydney

jan 11 - crobar, brisbane

ticket links to all these shows are up on our linktree

by the way, there will be a few more singles out before the record. i’ve just noticed they all have swearing in them which is probably not the best idea but simply confirms the existence of the self-sabotaging instinct which lies at the centre of this whole enterprise. fun fact (for me at least) - ‘to hell with good intentions’ was solely earmarked as a single back in 2002 because it was one of the few songs on the record without a man shouting ‘fuck’ on it.

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2. A MIDDLE-AGED MAN REVEALS NOTHING OF WORTH

the last time mclusky released an album i had not yet discovered - and i mean, really discovered - my love for pesto, was not allergic to bananas and had never heard an actual grandfather say ‘fam’. fascists had the politeness to be embarrassed by the fact and jack used to store open bottles of beer in his jacket packets during venue load-outs. damien was like three (*2). the last time - 2004 time, ‘the difference between me and you is that i’m not on fire’ time - was mucky and disjointed and dour and just fucking disappointing all round. there were no physical fights, i’m afraid, and we all know that thick, basic kind of shit is the only stuff you can monetise. it’s very difficult to write passive-aggression. it’s easier to do it.

i always do a big laugh - a big idiot’s laugh - when internet people tell you how well we were regarded. that last US tour of the original run, late 2004, was pretty sparsely attended - i think the big cities came out but everyone else just shrugged us back into the night. i had a very bad time. it was one million units of awful. it would have been better to be punched in the face (and back then i did get punched in the face a lot, so i know what i’m talking about(*3)). in 2004 nobody - or at least nobody i talked to - cared about the final record(*4). this repeats through history. some people will now care only about the final record. they have just managed to fully assimilate it. it has taken them 21 years. i both understand and deplore this. most of all, though, i love using the word deplore. behind gloom and onomatopoeia it is my absolute favourite.(*5)

this is a very strange way to tell you how excited i am about the new record. i am! i am excited. i am so excited i rarely think of anything else (outside of dad’ing and sport). i am wary too of trying to sell it to people too much. of posting up too much shit. it’s important not to cos-play the past but to coexist with it. if you think, as a fan (and i use that term with due reverence) that you don’t want your memories split in two, your formative musical experiences mocked, then join the club. damien - and you can really get a flavour of the fella on our instagram page, which he (mostly) runs - brings a different (some would say incredible(*6)) perspective to the thing. he is determined not to present at the ruin of his favourite band (*7). songs have been thrown out because they sound too much like future of the left, rightly, but then again he wanted a song called hi! we’re on strike on the record and that’s the most fotl-y of all (you’ll hear this song sometime, i don’t doubt, and you’ll agree with me). we have fought about these songs like (polite) dogs. we have recorded them. it’s been so much fun. the only real pressure comes from not wanting it to end. the only pressure comes from knowing it does not deserve to.

still, deserve smeserve. that word doesn’t belong in the real world, as i’m sure you know fine well. we’ve booked shows - some bigger than we’d usually book - in the sincere hope that people will come and we’ll find out if the band, in the public-facing sense, is mostly just a trip back to the early 2000s for people with jesus lizard tattoos or something else. either is fine. young bands look to the future - how can they not? they’re young. they have notionally working bodies. they have dreams. we do not have dreams. we do not have time for them. we have this record, which we love exactly as much as air. we have moments we are rushing towards, living in them, drinking them in (sometimes literally). we want to turn up places, make friends and melt faces (this one not literally).

more soon, i expect. you’ll have to accept my apologies for the self-promotion over the next few months - i’ll try and keep it to appropriate levels.

falco x

(*1) you can say tracks if you like but i’ll pretend i can’t hear you

(*2) he was 20

(*3) only by strangers

(*4) by the way the second record is called mclusky DO dallas, not DOES dallas. it’s not the most important thing in the world - good cheese is - but please bear in mind the word ‘do’ was chosen deliberately

(*5) also back-scuttle

(*6) himself

(*7) although he is also in another his-favourite band, the st.pierre snake invasion