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Annihilation

by Footings

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1.
Tornado 01:21
2.
3.
Later Days 03:25
what can i say when i'm around you the lengths i have to go to play it cool the birds explode in ritual abandon while we enjoy perpetual reserve will we give the world another answer will we find a place to put the shit the animals all stare at us and wonder when we're gonna finally figure it each day is full of whimsical deference why do what could be done another day well i prefer eternal perseverance cause how will you ever know unless you stay?
4.
Bayou 02:41
your bayou is a tide pool and i remind you of someone on a bus that you may never talk to but you can't help thinking about us the dogs here all run wild with agendas and cadenzas all their own and the waves don't care about you and it's a struggle when you're all alone you can wonder why until your clothes are dry the only thing we know is the undertow
5.
Sleeping 00:35
6.
Heading West 02:50
7.
Arrow 02:28
8.
Annihilation 04:21
9.
Sometimes 01:47
10.
Lottery 02:01
11.
Only Half 02:24
12.

about

Pre-order the vinyl here: dontlivelikeme.bandcamp.com/album/annihilation

Limited to 500 copies on yellow "chick" vinyl available via Don't Live Like Me, Sophomore Lounge, and Feeding Tube Records

Estimated ship date is late July.

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Trailing Twelve Records presents Annihilation: the fourth full-length album from New-England-based outfit Footings set for release on July 28th. Striking a precise balance between guitar-driven edge and tenderness, Annihilation traverses meditations on redemption, connection, and parallel lives through the lens of kaleidoscopic Americana-Folk and cataclysmic Post-Rock stylings.

As a shapeshifting troupe of musicians spanning the Northeast, Footings is led by guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Eric Gagne alongside multi-instrumentalist Elisabeth Fuchsia. Gagne, previously touring with bands Death to Tyrants, Redwing Blackbird, and recording as a solo artist under the moniker Passerine, started the group as a collaborative extension of his personal works. Footings’ current iteration features fellow guitarist Candace Clement (Bunny’s a Swine), bassist Jordan Holtz (Rick Rude), and Mia Govoni (Gilliver) playing drums.

Across their discography, Footings’ workflow resembles a finely orchestrated musical bricolage; Gagne writes, records, and sends drafts to Fuchsia and other members of the group who then add instrumentation, refine demos, and pass their progress back and forth until a sense of finality is reached. Though the groups’ physical locations change over the years, which requires adjustments to their creative process, the results of Footings’ methodology consistently bears compositions that are strikingly profound and endearing. The band’s previous records have been championed as portraits of “enveloping melancholy” (Dusted Magazine), specifically pinpointing Gagne’s wry lyricism as a punctuation in Footings’ swirling song structures.

In title, Annihilation tips a hat to the 2018 Alex Garland science fiction film of the same name. After watching Annihilation, Gagne felt a certain connection with the word’s definition: total destruction, disappearance, and utter conclusion. Coincidentally, themes of Garland’s feature align with Footings’ system of creation; each song, much like the characters and environments in the film, slowly takes new form through a process of all-encompassing, unstoppable singularity. In Gagne’s words, their songs gradually become whole as each member instills their experience and expertise onto the writing process:

“We sort of attack the whole thing together, and it grows and changes as everyone interacts with it. Writing this album, as with anything, is just a facet of a physical manifestation of our values and experiences. It’s as much about raising a child in the face of existential dread as it is about jumping into water and drying off in the sun…the recording process gives everyone space and time to stretch out and try things. Every single song in its final iteration has parts that I never envisioned, or could never have imagined. So that process is always super collaborative.”

With the help of longtime collaborators, instrumentalists, and mix engineers Ben Rogers and Will Killingsworth, Annihilations various pieces were finessed together and finalized by mastering engineer Sarah Register in the winter of 2020.

Annihilation’s totality finds itself as a continuation of Footings’ stylistic signature, albeit a body of work that strikes audacity in structure and subtle violence in performance. Ephemeral folk-fused vignettes “Tornado”, “Wouldn’t It Be Something”, and “Sometimes” demonstrate the band’s ability to successfully experiment with narrative - each song orbiting around Annihilation’s longer traditional singles as connective threads for Gagne’s fleeting musings and cryptic storytelling. “Bayou,” in particular, perhaps best exemplifies the indefinite space in which his lyrics occupy – straddling real-world experiences, vivid abstraction, and references to lives far removed from the recordings themselves.

“I went on a surfing trip to the west coast of Nicaragua a few years back. One day, everyone took the trip to Leon to rattle around there on a day with choppy waves, but I stayed behind. I spent most of the day recovering from a night out drinking tequila, sitting on this creaky-covered porch overlooking the ocean. The beach was wild horses and packs of dogs playing in the shallow water. There were cops with machine guns stealing fish from the fishermen coming in from the morning work. I drank cold beer and smoked lousy weed, playing this old beat-up acoustic guitar, scratching down lyrics and chords as I went. Bayou was written right there, finished as the half-moon started rising, looking like a kid's drawing of a boat.”

“Later Days” and “Ordinary Night” showcase Gagne’s resonant vocal timbre - conveying a gritty, warm, tonal wisdom akin to Bonnie “Prince” Billy, David Berman, or Jeff Bridges. Annihilation perhaps best separates itself from the rest of Footings’ catalog in “Only Half” and the album’s expansive title track, all of which blend varying ambient qualities with robust, multi-dimensional Post-Rock and Americana sensibilities.

From start to finish, Annihilation displays Footings’ unique ability to pivot between disparate thoughts and memories, effortlessly navigating and integrating a collection of musical styles into singular cohesive harmony.

Annihilation, by Footings, will be available on digital formats worldwide Wednesday, July 28th, through Trailing Twelve Records and on physical vinyl LP through collaboration with Feeding Tube Records, Sophomore Lounge, and Don’t Live Like Me.

credits

released July 28, 2021

Eric Gagne - guitar / vocals
Elisabeth Fuchsia - viola / violin / guitar / farfisa
Candace Clement - guitar / vocals / synth
Jordan Holtz - vocals
Ben Rogers - drums
Will Killingsworth - pedals / tambourine

Recorded and mixed by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air, and Ben Rogers at Loud Sun

Mastered by Sarah Register

Drawings by Zadie Gagne

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about

Footings Peterborough, New Hampshire

Footings is an American rock band formed in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 2012. Footings is a vehicle for the songs of Eric Gagne, often in performance with Jordan Holtz, Candace Clement, and Mia Govoni.

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