Chicago-based postpunk trio Shellac, who play at Lincoln Hall this Sunday and Monday, have just announced details for their long-awaited new LP, Dude Incredible (no comma, “like Sir Duke or King Friday,” the Touch and Go Records website explains), their first since 2007’s Excellent Italian Greyhound. Fronted by legendary recording engineers and studio rats Steve Albini and Bob Weston, Shellac formed 22 years ago, and have since made incredibly minimal, rhythmic, aggressive art-punk on their terms alone. In that time they’ve made six LPs, one of which, 1997’s The Futurist, was pressed in an edition of fewer than 800 and given as gifts to friends (all of whom are listed on the jacket). They only play live sporadically, and they’ve got no use at all for digital recording technology.
Touch and Go hasn’t posted much about Dude Incredible yet—mostly just a track list, an entirely believable boast about “paramount” audio quality, and its outstanding cover, which depicts (again according to the label) “two high gloss, full color monkeys.” A preorder is in effect right now, and the LP’s official release date is Tue 9/16.
No preview material is available from the record at this point, but chances are Shellac will perform some of it at the upcoming Lincoln Hall shows—the title track has been part of the band’s set lists for years. Monday night is sold out, so hurry up and get on tickets for Sunday.
Here’s a video of Shellac playing “Dude Incredible” at All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2009. It’s a great track. Drummer Todd Trainer is like some sort of punk-rock John Bonham.
