Predecessor Container Ships was a memorably enraged, largely up-tempo affair, but art-damaged Bay Area noise quartet Kowloon Walled City have gone all-in on slow-burning bad mood for this year’s Grievances, due out October 9 on Neurot. The title track is the perfect encapsulation of their (successful and compelling) shift in approach.
“‘Grievances’ started with the investment bankers who threw a cocktail party overlooking an Occupy protest, and ended up at a 1911 shirt factory fire where dozens of employees died because the owners locked the exits and stairwells,” says frontman Scott Evans. “It made sense as an album title after we looked at all the songs on the record, and the album cover ties back to it too — look up Lewis Hine’s photography from the early 1900’s.”
