Model/Actriz – Glassman
Model/Actriz have been busy. Less than a year after releasing their second album Pirouette, the New York four-piece — Cole Haden (vocals), Jack Wetmore (guitar), Aaron Shapiro (bass) and Ruben Radlauer (drums) — have surprise-dropped Swan Songs, a three-track EP out now on True Panther and Dirty Hit. It’s not a pivot or a teaser for something bigger; just three songs that didn’t fit anywhere else and turned out to be worth sharing.
The EP was produced with Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the same setup as Pirouette, with additional recording at Studio G. Heba Kadry handled mastering. Haden describes it as “a capsule of experiments made in the aftermath of the Pirouette sessions that by chance formed this moody vignette that we’re happy to share.” That’s a fair summary. The three tracks don’t sound like outtakes — they sound like the band testing limits and landing on something coherent.
“Glassman” leads the EP and is the most straightforward Model/Actriz thing here: a 4-on-the-floor industrial banger about a weekend with a crush, built around aggressive beats and Haden’s vocals. The lyrics trace a weekend at the beach with enough specificity — chamomile, lemongrass, magenta sunglasses, swan lake — that it reads more like a memory than a mood board. The thing that intrigued me is how the chorus works: “I can’t wait to tell my friends about it” is such a plainly human sentiment dropped into all that industrial machinery, and it lands exactly right. The other two tracks open the range out considerably — “Thank You By Dido” is a slow, ambient ballad (and, to be clear, not a Dido cover), while “Majesty” closes things out with a half-time, more reflective feel.
Model/Actriz are mid-tour as this drops, with a run of North American dates supporting Interpol and headlining their own shows with Touching Ice and Agriculture before Coachella in April. A European summer run follows, including festival slots at Best Kept Secret, NOS Primavera Sound, and End of the Road. Swan Songs lands right in the middle of all of it — an EP that wasn’t planned but ended up saying something.
Tracklist:
- Glassman
- Thank You by Dido
- Majesty
Tour Dates:
North America:
- March 25 – Durham, NC – Motorco Music Hall (w/ Touching Ice)
- March 27 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival
- March 28 – Nashville, TN – The Blue Room, Third Man Records (w/ Touching Ice)
- March 31 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn (w/ Touching Ice)
- April 1 – New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa (w/ Touching Ice)
- April 3 – Austin, TX – Mohawk (w/ Touching Ice)
- April 4 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger (w/ Touching Ice)
- April 8 – Sacramento, CA – Channel 24 (supporting Interpol) SOLD OUT
- April 9 – Sacramento, CA – Channel 24 (supporting Interpol) SOLD OUT
- April 12 – Indio, CA – Coachella Music and Arts Festival SOLD OUT
- April 14 – El Paso, TX – Abraham Chavez Theatre (supporting Interpol)
- April 16 – Albuquerque, NM – Revel (supporting Interpol)
- April 17 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren (supporting Interpol) SOLD OUT
- April 19 – Indio, CA – Coachella Music and Arts Festival SOLD OUT
- April 22 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater (w/ Agriculture)
- April 24 – St. Louis, MO – Duck Room at Blueberry Hill (w/ Agriculture)
- April 25 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall (w/ Agriculture)
Europe:
- May 24 – Saint-Brieuc, FR – Art Rock Festival
- May 26 – Nantes, FR – Le Ferrailleur
- May 27 – Le Havre, FR – Le Tetris
- May 28 – Brussels, BE – Nuits Bota Festival
- May 30 – Rovereto, IT – Poplar Utopia Festival
- May 31 – Lausanne, CH – Le Romandie
- June 1 – Barcelona, ES – Primavera a la Ciutat
- June 5 – Nîmes, FR – TINALS Festival
- June 6 – Bordeaux, FR – Rock School Barbey
- June 9 – Paris, FR – La Station
- June 10 – Tours, FR – Aucard de Tours Festival
- June 12 – Eindhoven, NL – Best Kept Secret Festival
- June 13 – Porto, PT – NOS Primavera Sound Festival
- June 16 – Istanbul, TR – Blind
- September 1 – London, UK – ICA
- September 3 – Dorset, UK – End of the Road Festival
- September 5 – Manchester, UK – Manchester Psych Fest
- September 6 – Edinburgh, UK – Edinburgh Psych Fest
- September 8 – Nottingham, UK – Rescue Rooms
- September 12 – Heusden, NL – Misty Fields Festival
- September 15 – Athens, GR – An Club
