Bully

Bully burst onto the scene in 2015 with their critically acclaimed album Feels Like. Today the band announces Losing. The album was engineered and mixed by lead-singer Alicia Bognanno in Chicago at Electrical Audio. Today, the band shared the first track “Feel the Same.” Losing is available for pre-order now from Sub Pop Records and the band’s webstore. LP pre-orders of the album from Sub Pop and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser Edition on clear vinyl with black swirls (while supplies last). Bully will head out on a US Tour beginning November 2nd. Highlights include Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 13th, Thalia Hall in Chicago in two nights at the Mercy Lounge in the band’s hometown of Nashville.

Fronted by Alicia Bognanno, Bully was born in 2013. Bognanno was an engineer who had cut her teeth working at Electrical Audio in Chicago. Together with guitarist Clayton Parker and Reece Lazarus on bass, they made adebut album received unanimous critical acclaim and Bognanno became a point of intrigue. A rock icon in the making, with her signature scream, messy blonde hair hanging in her face, with formidable skills as both a player and a engineer who prefers recording to tape. “The coarse Cobain head-scream of Bully singer, songwriter and guitarist Alicia Bognanno is its own resuscitating jolt of protest,” said Pitchfork. “She spends much of Feels Like tearing the house down with her howl.” The success propelled the band into an exhaustive touring cycle with spots on huge festivals such as Bonnaroo, Lollapallooza, Pitchfork Music Festival and ACL and a late night appearance on Conan.

“Feel the Same” is about being stuck in the claustrophobia of a manic state of mind. It’s Alicia’s favorite song to scream. “Seeing It,” she says, is about the unique anxiety and vigilance about personal safety that comes with being a woman: “Such a blurring place to be / stuck in your own body.” Lately Alicia has been lending her voice as an advocate for gun control, women’s rights and speaking out in support of animal rights. In some ways my generation were in a bubble in the 90s; I never gave any thought to what Bill Clinton was up to, for instance – but in 2017, Losing sounds like a personal and necessary call to arms to me; we need rock n roll now more than ever.

While Feels Like tumbled headlong into the precarious nature of Bognanno’s young adult life, Losing is a document of the complexity of growth: navigating breakups with sensitivity, learning not to run away from your troubles but to face them no matter how messy they may be. The debut single, “Feel the Same’ is the album opener. Like an electric-shock Bognanno is back in your face tackling the angst of a young person feeling their way through the world. The song describes the prison of a manic mind-set, being trapped in your own head. On “Seeing It” she addresses the issue of personal safety and navigating the world as a woman. On “Running” she focuses on personal relationships and the avoidance of facing the demise of a personal relationship.

Losing is an internal, carefully focused record, a universalized diary and an exorcism-not of any one specific demon, but the host of them that characterize contemporary anxieties. Bully are growing up, sure, but their fire is in no way diminishing.

Track Listing:
1. Feel the Same
2. Kills to Be Resistant
3. Running
4. Seeing It
5. Guess There
6. Blame
7. Focused
8. Not the Way
9. Spiral
10. Either Way
11. You Could Be Wrong
12. Hate and Control

Tour Dates:
11/02/17– St Louis MO – Off Broadway
11/03/17 – Iowa City IA – The Mill
11/04/17 – Minneapolis MN – Fine Line Music Cafe
11/06/17 – Madison WI – High Noon Saloon
11/07/17 – Chicago IL – Thalia Hall
11/08/17 – Detroit MI – Marble Bar
11/09/17 – Toronto ON –  Lee’s Palace
11/10/17 – Montreal QC – Bar le Ritz
11/12/17 – Boston MA – Great Scott
11/13/17 – Brooklyn NY – Music Hall of WIlliamsburg
11/14/17 – Philadelphia PA – First Unitarian Church
11/15/17 – Washington DC – U Street Music Hall
11/17/17 – Charlottesville VA – The Southern
11/18/17 – Durham NC – Motorco Music Hall
11/19/17 – Asheville NC – The Mothlight
12/06/17 – Little Rock AR – Stickyz
12/07/17 – Dallas TX – Club Dada
12/08/17 – Austin TX – Emo’s
12/09/17 – Houston TX – Walter’s
12/10/17 – New Orleans LA – Gasa Gasa
12/12/17 – Birmingham AL – Saturn
12/13/17 – Atlanta GA – Terminal West
12/14/17 – Nashville TN – Mercy Lounge
12/15/17 – Nashville TN – Mercy Lounge

BULLY – LOSING
BY PATTY SCHEMEL