There’s no audio from this yet and I don’t even know if Portland-based semi-psych experimentalists Sun Blood Stories are ‘working’ this release in terms of press, but whatever. Cool band does a thing is always relevant news where I come from, and while 2024’s Shadow Loud (review here) was plenty out there, A Different Kind of Future would seem to promise not only a couple songs that were left off that record, but a few remixes as well, reminding of the malleability of music and the band’s willingness to reside outside genre norms.

The title invokes either the hopelessness of our current age or the notion of perhaps a better tomorrow, I still can’t decide which (if it’s not both), but it’s probably safe to call it timely in any case, and it wouldn’t be the first time Sun Blood Stories engaged with social commentary. It’s the US. Everything here is politics. Usually also racism.

Apparently the band have new material in the works as well, as they discuss some of that below too. This comes from socials (note that the credits here are inherited from the album):

On 5/23 we’re releasing our ep “A Different Kind of Future*” and this is the album art!

This ep is a companion piece to our 2024 release, Shadow Loud. A Different Kind of Future features three Shadow Loud remixes and three tracks that ultimately got cut to help Shadow Loud reach its final form.

Amber “remixed” Kirsten Furlong’s gorgeous artwork that is Shadow Loud’s back cover to create the album artwork for Future (just testing this nickname out to see if it works so I don’t have to type “A Different Kind of Future” every time I want you to remember that we’re releasing an ep on 5/23. I don’t think the shortened name Future works though and I should probably continue referring to the ep with its full government name: A Different Kind of Future).

Tracklisting:
1. In Your Skin
2. Metal On Metal
3. A Different Kind of Future
4. New Ghost Cathedral (Endless Atlas Remix)
5. Falling in Feelings (B|_ank Remix)
6. No One’s Blessed (Odd Relics Remix)
7. No One’s Blessed (Odd Relics Remix) Radio Edit

We’re celebrating the release of A Different Kind of Future with a dope show on 5/23 at The High Water Mark where we won’t be performing a single song from the release that we’ll be celebrating. Hell yeah! We’ll be playing an entirely new set of songs that we’re writing right now plus a song so old it feels brand new. Here’s the set list – which song sounds most interesting to you (we’ll let you know if you’re right)

– Nothing Looks Back
– Ghost in the Gun
– Screen Door
– Desert4Days
– Say No to Us
– In the Wildflowers
– Mistakes
– An Otherwise Dark Scene

*(alt titles considered: “A Future in which we all survive” “Metal on Metal”)

Sun Blood Stories:
Vocals, Slide Guitar – Amber Pollard
Vocals, Guitar, Slide Guitar, Bass, Keys, Percussion – Ben Kirby
Bass, Guitar – Nik Kososik
Drums, Percussion – Wade Ronsse
Tape Effects – Matt Stone
Vocal Sample – Anna Wiley

https://www.facebook.com/sunbloodstories
http://instagram.com/sunbloodstories
http://www.sunbloodstories.com/
https://sunbloodstories.bandcamp.com/

Sun Blood Stories, Shadow Loud (2024)