The Kent / Norwich-based Stoner Alt-rock trio Jukebox Monkey announce the release of their upcoming second studio album ‘Smiles Becoming Teeth’, the follow-up to 2017’s debut full-length ‘Grey Skies Red Planet’, due for release July 28th 2023.
Formed in 2010, Jukebox Monkey have been ripping their way through the UK’s underground heavy music scene, building a reputation for their frenetic live shows and infectious party attitude. Defined by their signature monolithic sound, Jukebox Monkey combines the expansive low-end power of desert rock, with the heavy groove of southern sludgy metal and raw energy of 90’s alt-rock.
With two EPs and a debut album already under their belt, the band have received praise from the likes of Heavy Planet, Moshville, Outlaws of the Sun and Scuzz TV and has been awarded slots at festivals such as Hammerfest and Bloodstock.
Their upcoming second studio album Smiles Becoming Teeth is a true labour of love, pieced together in-between lockdowns, deaths, and personal upheavals. Wearing its scars like a badge of honour, the serious, aggressive, introspective and redemptive second album belies the trio’s usually affable nature, in favour of a darker avenue, leaning into the hardships that gave the album its identity. The head nodding stoner grooves and soaring choruses are still very much evident but this release sees a darker, edgier side, bringing to mind alternative rock bands of the early 90s.
Revealing their inspirations behind the album, the band state: “This album is about the disintegration of the family unit. The transitory nature of relationships, and that of families in particular, is the overriding theme throughout this record. Fountainhead explores the impact of one-sided paternal relationships, and Deathbed Convert deals with the end of the maternal, and questions what we leave behind as we face our own mortality. Swirl discusses how friends abandon us to form new families, as though they have ascended to a higher level of existence in deciding to breed. The tension between familial generations is discussed in Like 1973, where the older folk fail to take responsibility for the state of the planet, and leave the younger generation with nothing but a smoking crater, and the crumbs from the top-down economy. Tremble at the sound of my engine! There is an undercurrent of mental health issues woven throughout the record, most notably on Smiles Becoming Teeth and Something Meaningless. The former details the sickening of our self-image and public personas through social media, and the latter explores the journey through long term depression, and the eventual admittance that accepting help (perhaps from your family) may lead to some kind of redemption.”
Prior to the album’s release date is the leading single ‘The Never’, the ‘spiritual sequel’ to 2021’s single ‘Like 1973’. The single, available now, explores the fear of what we’re leaving behind for the next generation and the decision to not have children at all for this very reason.
Discussing the single the band state, “The Never is about being terrified at the state of a crumbling world, and having debilitating waves of fear at the thought of allowing a new generation to suffer in the quagmire of filth we have left for them.”
Smiles Becoming Teeth is due for release on July 28th 2023 and will be available on CD and all major streaming platforms.
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Images provided, courtesy of Memphia Music
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