While You Were Away: New Music From Better Lovers And Many Eyes, Issues Breakup, When We Were Young 2024, And More

Before you spend the holiday arguing with your family and stuffing your face, catch up with music news you missed with the latest edition of While You Were Away. This time we’re talking about new music from Better Lovers and Many Eyes, plus the end of Issues, When We Were Young 2024, and more.

Cage The Elephant share expanded edition of ‘Thank You, Happy Birthday’

Surprise! Cage the Elephant have shared the deluxe version of their second album, Thank You, Happy Birthday.

The expanded edition features two previously unreleased b-sides (Doctor Doctor Doctor Help Me Help Me Help Me and Carry Me In) along with three acoustic songs. Stream the deluxe album below.

Thank You, Happy Birthday deluxe will be released as a limited edition ultra-clear vinyl on January 12th, 2024. Pre-order it here.

HEALTH unveil new single ‘UNLOVED’

HEALTH have given us yet another preview of their upcoming album RAT WARS with new single “UNLOVED.”

The song comes with a gothic-inspired video directed by Mynxii White, who explains “Inspired by the many faces of goth culture across the globe, we celebrate decades of nightlife in the scene with an homage to black leather and heavy eyeliner that defined so many years of the ultimate underground movement. We loved the idea of many generations of goths in one video from multiple countries to bring the visuals together into one epic tribute.”

Watch the video below.

RAT WARS arrives December 7th. Pre-order it here.

Issues officially break up, announce final shows

Issues are calling it quits. In 2020, the band ousted singer Tyler Carter from the band after allegations of sexual assault and grooming emerged online. The band have remained silent since then, but recently broke the silence to reveal they’re breaking up after playing three final shows next year.

Remaining members guitarist Adrian Rebollo, bassist Skylar Acord and drummer/vocalist Josh Manuel will perform shows in Anaheim, Chicago, and Atlanta in January 2024. So far, no word on who will be filling in for Carter.

“Issues has been a central figure in our lives since 2012,” the band wrote. “We’ve played countless shows, toured almost every continent, met thousands of people, and made so many friends in our peers and travel companions.

“The importance of this band to our lives cannot be overstated. So many of you were right there with us.

“2020 hit us as hard as it could possibly hit a band. Tours canceled after we paid the deposits, new album cycle cut short, and the last any of you guys heard from us was when we fired our singer. All of these were incredibly traumatic experiences, not only for us, but also the fans to whom our music means the most.

Read their full statement below. Tickets on sale here.

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Hear Better Lovers’ new single ‘Two Alive Amongst The Dead’

Better Lovers, supergroup featuring ex-Dillinger Escape Plan’ Greg Puciato, Fit For an Autopsy’s Will Putney, and Every Time I Die‘s Jordan Buckley, Stephen Micciche, and Clayton Holyoak, have shared their new standalone single “Two Alive Amongst the Dead.”

The song was written during the band’s summer tour. Will Putney explains:

“We were having fun with the high-energy, aggressive material live, and that cathartic spirit carried into this song. This is a band that never stops having ideas and likes the challenge of showing new music to fans live, so it was performed and fine-tuned on our fall dates, and then immediately tracked in the studio between touring to make sure that fire stayed intact. There is no better feeling than capturing lightning in a bottle like this.”

“This song is about saying ‘fuck you’ to the societal and institutional pressure to fall for ‘me versus you’ / ‘us versus them’ divisional tactics and realising that we’re stronger when we remember the ways we’re the same, trying to find commonalities instead of differences,” adds Greg Puciato. “Understanding and finding compassion for one another instead of allowing ourselves to be separated and controlled. Brothers and sisters. Pieces of the same consciousness.”

Hear the song below.

Many Eyes reveal new song ‘Mystic Cord’

Former Every Time I Die singer Keith Buckley returned last month with new band Many Eyes. After sharing their first-ever single, the band is back with their new single “Mystic Cord.”

“Lyrically, the song is about untangling ourselves from the traditions that bind us to past trauma,” said Buckley of the single. “I hoped to express the idea that it’s not enough to just put up a boundary, there has to be the deeper, more difficult work of separating one’s entire life path from the path of those who harm us.”

Stream the song below.

Tours on sale this week

Twin Temple recently announced their 2024 “God is Dead” North American tour with support from VOWWS. The Satanic doo-wop duo kicks off the tour on February 13th in San Diego, California, and wraps up on March 13th in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tickets are on sale now.

NOFX have expanded their “40 Years, 40 Cities, 40 Songs Per Day” with 15 additional shows in North America next year, which includes their last ever shows as a band. New dates include shows in Fort Worth, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah; two gigs in Portland, Oregon; a pair of July concerts in Denver: a trio of Canadian shows in August; and a couple of Boston-area dates in late summer. The final three shows will take place October 4th-6th at Berth 46 in the San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles. Find the details here.

When We Were Young has revealed its 2024 lineup featuring My Chemical Romance, who will perform their seminal album The Black Parade in its entirety, Jimmy Eat World, who will play Bleed American, Dashboard Confessional playing Dusk and Summer, and Coheed and Cambria performing Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, October 21st. Get all the details here.

Dropkick Murphys’ annual “St. Patrick’s Day Tour” returns next year with special guest Pennywise. The tour starts February 13th in San Jose, California, and wraps up with a four-night stint in Boston from March 14th through March 17th. See all the dates here.

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