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Teen Suicide's New Single "The Stomach Of The Earth" Is a Danceable Ode to Purgatory

Hear the latest song from the Baltimore band's 'It's the Big Joyous Celebration, Let's Stir the Honeypot.'
Nick Hughes

Photo by Nick Hughes

Whether you're a fan of lo-fi country, ramshackle punk, or piano-heavy dance music, there's a Teen Suicide song for everyone. On April 1, the Baltimore band fronted by Sam Ray (a.k.a. Ricky Eat Acid) will release their first new music since 2012 (and last under the Teen Suicide moniker), the fantastically-titled 26-song double LP It's the Big Joyous Celebration, Let's Stir the Honeypot (via Run For Cover Records).

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Recorded over fourteen months with a "Robert Altman-sized group of collaborators and performers," we've already heard the rollicking "Alex" and today we're premiering the electronic-leaning "The Stomach Of The Earth."

"This song is about purgatory. There's a kind of purgatory that comes with being a drug addict, when you do the same things constantly every day and have only one goal and one desire at all times, and there's a kind of purgatory that comes with getting sober and being a normal person, when life consists of nothing but small, forgettable moments and places," Ray tells THUMP. "Sitting by a lake, getting your hair cut, going to the bank, even just deciding whether or not to shower on any given day, it all becomes the same boring, eternal thing. This song is mostly about that latter kind of purgatory, but also about purgatory in a more literal sense."

"So much of our record comes back to the idea of heaven (or any afterlife) being this really boring, mundane place. Sort of like Kurt Vonnegut's description of the afterlife in Slapstick, where heaven is so dull it's referred to as "The Turkey Farm" rather than "Paradise." Life might be this boring, mundane place, but it has a definite ending and there's a great exhilaration that comes with facing the unknown. Imagine everything dull and routine about life, now stripped of all possibility of change. I don't know why but I find that terrifying sometimes."

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Here's the song's lyrics:

"Will I rest my head in heaven / will I sleep in the stomach of the earth? / I'm not afraid of what might happen / getting dressed for work / I'm crying through my haircut / deep in the stomach of the earth / a quiet day, I show up drunk / to the Bank of America / the viciousness of the glee club / was legendary / the kind of thing you tell stories of / for the next few centuries / I watched the beauty of the world condensed / tipping too much on a twenty dollar check."

Pre-order It's the Big Joyous Celebration, Let's Stir the Honeypot and listen to Sam Ray's year end mix for THUMP.

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