Back in 2014, Geoff Rickly, leader of New Jersey arena-screamo greats Thursday, announced that he’d formed a new band called No Devotion. The bands’ other members had all been in Lostprophets, the Welsh nü metal band whose singer Ian Watkins had been sent to prison after the world found out that he was maybe the worst person in the history of the music business, a truly competitive title. No Devotion released one album, 2015’s Permanence, which was a little overshadowed by the circumstances of his release. (Collect Records, the label that Rickly was running at the time, was funded by Martin Shkreli, another not-great guy.) But now No Devotion are once again active, and their second album is on the way.
After their long-planned reunion finally panned out, No Devotion recently announced plans to release their sophomore LP No Oblivion, and they shared the early single “Starlings.” Today, No Devotion — now down to a trio, with Rickly joined by guitarist Lee Gaze and bassist Stuart Richardson — have shared “Repeaters,” their LP’s second single. Given Rickly’s history, you’d have to assume that the song’s title is a nod to Fugazi, right? The song is a majestic, slow-swelling synth-rocker, and it’s got a crisp, vivid black-and-white video. Check it out below.
No Oblivion is out 9/16 on Velocity Records. In other Geoff Rickly news, the man is on the cover of the new issue of The New Yorker. This week’s cover is a Nicole Rifkin illustration of Speedy Ortiz leader Sadie Dupuis. To the side of Dupuis, you can see a copy of Dan Ozzi’s great recent book Sellout, which tells the stories of a bunch of punk bands who signed to major labels in the ’90s and ’00s. One of those bands is Thursday. Rickly is on the cover of the book, which means he’s also on the cover of The New Yorker.
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