POST-PUNK / SHOEGAZE / KCMO
Emmaline Twist returns just in time for Halloween with a haunting ode to 80's slasher films. Strange Pursuit is a rattly, atmospheric, post-punk creepshow that sews together Bat Cave Goth and John Carpenter soundtracks into a monster all its own.
Available on all streaming services
Emmaline Twist is thrilled to announce some upcoming shows that you won’t want to miss!
Check them all out here at our Shows page.
We’re excited to announce that we’ve got a new single, “ASPERA”! The song and video were premiered on KCMO’s 909 The Bridge on July 1.
Legendary Music Review Magazine The Big Takeover has just published a wonderful review of our new single “DRUGS”, and conducted an interview with Baritone Guitarist Krysztof Nemeth.
From the Article :
”“Drugs” inhabits a space that feels familiar, but also drips with modern sensibilities. The song sounds as if members of Joy Division, The Cure, and Sonic Youth formed a supergroup. The post-punk bones of the song provide the perfect home for McGrade’s haunting melodies. The repeated question “if drugs / which drugs” speak to total escapism.”
Enmaline Twist is excited to have been featured on Post-Punk.com for our new single “DRUGS”. Here’s an excerpt :
”The song is a child of the 90s, evoking the music of The Dandy Warhols, Pixies, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, with strong vocals popping out of the gauze of shoegaze guitar walls. It’s a catchy number, capturing the strange chaotic neutral times of altered states in a time of crisis.”
You can check it out, here.
Kansas City Radio Station 909 The Bridge premiered our video for “DRUGS” with a wonderful article introducing it to the world. Here’s an excerpt :
”Built on a vast atmosphere of keyboard textures and a scintillating baritone guitar, “Drugs” pulls the listener into an anodyne solace. Its accompanying music video — directed by Matthew Dunehoo at Elk’s Pride Pictures — stands in stark contrast, peering at the band through menacing distortions and frenzied angles. Emmaline Twist inhabits this in-between space impeccably, pairing a steady rush of rhythm and adrenaline with disquieting darkness.”
You can check it out, here.
Kansas City, MO – The new video single from Kansas City darkwavers, Emmaline Twist, is their first release since their 2018 debut LP, Dissimulation, on Kansas City record label cooperative Black Site. “Drugs”, the first song on the band’s upcoming album, chases a driving beat and soaring melody that rings out, and reflects on, the confusion and anxiety felt by all in this trying age...ultimately asking, “How do we cope?” The accompanying video from director Matthew Dunehoo at Elk’s Pride Pictures features the band playing at Kansas City’s recordBar. Utilizing a flurry of distorted close-ups and deep shadows, it’s a beautiful ride through the chaos of our times
To record “Drugs”, as well as the subsequent album, the band returned to the same team that gave Dissimulation its expansive, breathtaking sound. Paul Malinowski at Massive Sound Studios in Shawnee, KS engineered the recording while Mike Nolte at Eureka handled the mastering. Artwork and design for the single were created by the band’s lead singer and guitarist, Meredith McGrade.
Emmaline Twist’s next live performance will be at recordBar on Friday, August 20 supporting the album release for fellow Kansas City shoegazers, Monta At Odds.
mmaline Twist returns to Lemonade Park with their beautiful gloomy dark-wave. Knife Crime comes to turn you onto the just released album, 'Lovely Gary'. Dan Jones & the Squids have also just released their recorded live at recordBar gem, 'Serve Without Delay'.
Check out the details here
Emmaline Twist is thrilled to announce that the band’s album “DISSIMULATION” will be picked up by Shifting Sounds for EU distribution!
From Shifting Sounds :
We would like to welcome Emmaline Twist from KC/MO to the Shifting Sounds family! Their debut album / LP "DISSIMULATION" will be available in the UK in late August and also via our EU Distro Cargo Records Germany in September. The album is amazing - we are very excited!
Emmaline Twist returns to the Live Stage of Kansas City’s own Socially Distanced Venue, Lemonade Park, on Aug 22nd.
Get all the details here.
ALBUM REVIEW: EMMALINE TWIST – “DISSIMULATION”
NATHAN CARDIFF — SEPTEMBER 13, 2018
Summertime blues got you down? Tired of heat waves? Sick of the sunshine? Take Dissimulation for a spin. Brooding shoegazers Emmaline Twist cool things off with eight stunners on their new record. Play them in the darkest room possible for full effect. Opener “Desperate Measures” sounds like the perfect soundtrack to an apocalyptic road trip. “I ain’t got time for promises unkept/Got a job to do, my measures are desperate” sings Meredith McGrade to set the mood perfectly. Things get a little bouncier on “The Call” with a sinister guitar creeping in and out at just the right moments. The aggression turns up on “Battle Flag” with McGrade punctuating every word making them all menacing (“My words become like fists, when swung”) and “Catch Like Fire” places them as the house band at a nightmare dance with just the hint of doomed romance (and a surf guitar that took me completely by surprise).
The b-side of Dissimulation lightens things up (musically speaking) with “Almost Blue” and “Starcrossed” (bringing that night surfing vibe back) before drifting back into the heavy dream pop of “The Golden Hour. This juxtaposition creates a great, dizzying feeling which is perfect for hypnotic closer “Oblivion.” We can all just spin into the darkness as the band sinks further and further with us.
Favorite Tracks: “Catch Like Fire,” “The Golden Hour,” & “Oblivion”
Read the full article here
Emmaline Twist had a great visit with Chris and Sarah over at Eight One Sixty on 90.9 The Bridge.
It’s a double-header this time on the Eight One Sixty! First up Emmaline Twist will be in the studio with us, hanging out and previewing their brand new album, "Dissimulation". The album comes out this Friday, August 24 and that night they’re celebrating with a big show at recordBar along with Sona and Ghost Bones.
After that Shaun Crowley of Manor Records will stop by and talk about the bands playing this Saturday, August 25 at Californos as part of the Manor Records Summer Showcase #2. We hear music from Toughies, PLANET WHAT and Scruffy & the Janitors.
Check out the full broadcast here
Too Much Rock captures Emmaline Twist closing the night at RecordBar for their "Dissimulation" album release show.
A great interview with Krysztof about how our new record was created, start to finish, on Flatland KC.
From the article :
Local post-punk band, Emmaline Twist will take a leap forward with the release of its new album, “Dissimulation”, tomorrow.
And though the album represents the band’s formal full-length debut, it is by no means the first rodeo for its veteran band members – Meredith McGrade (vocals, guitar) Kristin Conkright (bass) Jonathan Knecht (drums), Krysztof Nemeth (baritone guitar) and Alex Alexander (synths/guitar).
To new artists and those outside of the industry, the record release process may seem as simple as heading to the studio, recording the songs, and giving those recordings to distributors for sale. But artists who have walked that path know there is a lot more involved.
So, in anticipation of their release, the band’s principal songwriter, Nemeth, gave us a peek behind the curtain to see how the tracks on “Dissimulation” grew from rough recordings to a shiny new vinyl pressing.
Check out the full article, here
Press is starting to come in about the new Emmaline Twist album "DISSIMULATION", this time from UK music blog The Perfumed Garden.
Check out the full post, here.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 26, 2018
EMMALINE TWIST TO RELEASE DEBUT VINYL LP, DISSIMULATION, ON BLACK SITE
WHO : Emmaline Twist
WHAT : Debut LP – Dissimulation
WHERE : recordBar, Kansas City, MO
WHEN : Friday, Aug 24, 2018
Kansas City, MO – Kansas City dark wave band Emmaline Twist is proud to announce the release of its debut 12” LP, Dissimulation, August 24 on Kansas City record label cooperative Black Site. Combining the angular rock of post-punk acts like New Order, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Chameleons, and The Cure with the spacious, dreamy ambience of shoegaze bands such as Slowdive, Tamaryn, and Lush, Emmaline Twist creates a sound unique to Kansas City. The eight songs on Dissimulation are vast soundscapes that evoke the urgent, anxious energy of bustling cities enveloped by a sonic atmosphere that’s as wide as the prairie sky, yet always retaining the “workmanlike” spirit that is a hallmark of Midwestern rock music. These songs are not autobiographic revelations; they are universal announcements, intended less as personal stories and more as soundtracks to your own individual adventures.
To properly press to vinyl the complex nuances of the band’s sound, Emmaline Twist enlisted some of the most skilled professionals in the business. Dissimulation was recorded, mixed, and produced at Massive Sound by Paul Malinowski, mastered by Mike Nolte of Eureka Mastering, and mastered for vinyl by Chris Muth at Taloowa Corp. (The four tracks that had been released online last year have been remastered for this release.) Coupled with the beautifully delicate cover artwork of Kansas City painter, Amy Abshier, and the clean, minimalist design by the band’s drummer, Jonathan Knecht, Dissimulation is a physical document of a dark-yet-hopeful aesthetic that is truly a reflection of these anxious times.
To celebrate the record’s release, Emmaline Twist is throwing a party at recordBar on Friday, August 24 with Lawrence, KS dream weavers, SONA, and Ghost Bones from Arkansas.
Dissimulation can be ordered now at this publicly shareable link :
http://tinyurl.com/Em-Twist-Presale
CONTACT :
emmalinetwistmanagement@gmail.com
BLACK SITE is a record label cooperative created by Kansas City musicians interested in supporting regional punk and rock bands release their recordings on a physical medium. With the world around us becoming a deluge of digital l’s and 0’s, transient as a trust fund crust punk on a cross country excursion, tangible art is critical to maintaining connections to our past, our sense of place, and who we are as a people. Only WE can create the world we want to live in. Reciprocity and solidarity are the cornerstones of building long lasting, self-sustaining community power that pushes back against the commodification of culture. Music is not a business; Punk is not a brand, and DIY is not a lifestyle to be consumed. This is a way of life, and if we don’t hang together, we’ll surely hang alone.
"Desperate Measures", created for us by the fine talents of Matt Lepley Creative, KCMO.
For Immediate Release :
Kansas City Darkwave / Post-Punk / Shoegaze project Emmaline Twist have just released "Dissimulation 1" : four songs in digital format, their first since last year's release of "Vega" b/w "Moon Eyes".
Available for Listening, Purchase, and Download at CDBaby
Recorded, Mixed, and Produced at Massive Sound by Paul Malinowski, and Mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering, these four songs showcase the dark and driving nature of the Emmaline Twist sound, complete with all the mood and texture that the band has crafted through their live performances. Matched with compelling cover-art created by Amy Abshier, "Dissimulation 1" is perfect for nighttime drives, cloudy skies, and battle cries.
Emmaline Twist will celebrate their new release on Nov 2nd when they open up for legendary 80's Post-Punk group, Modern English, at Kansas City's famed RecordBar.
Get all the details about the show, here
For more press info or booking inquiries, please contact us here
Thank you to I Heart Local Music for featuring Emmaline Twist in your awesome blog.
From the article :
"Every guitarist in this band is a winner, impeccably executing rich full sounds under Meredith McGrade’s emotional lyrics. They’re just the kind of dark and moody music we need in today’s anxiety-riddled climate, with just a perfect amount of reverb-heavy, nostalgic sounds peppered in. If this were the 90’s, Emmaline Twist’s music would have likely made an appearance on the Buffy soundtrack. A lot of bands can’t pull off that type of brooding without sounding a little up their own ass, but Emmaline Twist carries an aura of coolness about them that has us feeling completely unworthy and carefree at the same time."
Check out the entire article here.
Via KC's Pitch Magazine, by Nick Spacek
Kansas City’s Emmaline Twist plays angular rock and roll, swirled through with post-punk influences. Think Interpol, had that band listened to more Wire than Joy Division. And the band’s own pedigree benefits from an eye-catching diversity of talent. Singer and guitarist Meredith McGrade comes from Admiral of the Red, bassist Kristin Conkright from Onward Crispin Glover, drummer Jordan Knecht from the Silver Maggies, and baritone guitar player Krysztof Nemeth from the Latenight Callers. The recombination yields a darkly melodic sound.
The quartet has a single on the way from Middle Class Records and has made waves with knockout performances at the Outer Reaches Festival as well as clubs around town. I spoke with guitarist Nemeth by phone about the band’s music, and its involvement with the Get Loud benefit for KC for Refugees at the Record Bar, sponsored by Musicians for Active Justice
The Pitch: Emmaline Twist is still a relatively new band, yeah?
Krysztof Nemeth: At this time last year, Meredith and I weren’t sure what we were going to do. It wasn’t until that David Bowie tribute, at the end of January, that we had found the other two people to do it. Our first full band practice was in February — which is crazy, because so much has happened in that time. And man, we are so grateful. Think about this: Our first show was at the end of May, so we’ve only played, like, 10 times.
And you’re already signed to a label.
That happened two months into the process. Our discussions with Middle Class started at the end of August, beginning of September, because Don Simon had seen us at our first show, and then Steve Tulipana had seen us at our second show, so that was great, because when they started thinking about who they wanted to work with, we were at the top of the list. Plus, in their words, each of us individually had “paid our dues.”
We had all been in successful bands, so that helped when we started playing out, because people were like, “Oh, great — all these people’s new band!” The initial interest was there just because we had success before, but what kept people after that initial curiosity was that the music was interesting and engaging. That kept the momentum up.
Do you think it has something to do with the fact that there are recognizable elements of your past projects in Emmaline Twist?
Everybody in the band brings — and I’m using air quotes here — “their thing” to the band. Kristin’s work in Onward Crispin Glover: That was a heavy band. To hold down the low end in a three-guitar band? That takes something. I’ve been friends with John Knecht since we were in art school, and his work in the Silver Maggies — another band with a huge sound — he’s back there with a Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr sort of style that you just don’t see a lot of drummers playing.
And Meredith? The three of us talk about how much we love Meredith all the time, because not only does she have this incredibly interesting and intriguing vocal style, but she’s totally holding her own on rhythm guitar and finding her own place in this big sound the other three of us are making, and it just works so well. It’s a great thing to have all of the members of your team coming together to make something that is way bigger than the sum of your parts. It is the most happy that any of us have ever been with any recording process that we have ever done in our careers as musicians. There’s another thing to be completely grateful for, because … wow!
Is it that sense of gratitude that led to working on this KC for Refugees benefit?
I’ve been through a lot of shit in my life, and I’m in a really good place right now, with my family, with my job, with my fiancée, with the reputation that I’ve gained as a musician. It is my responsibility to help others because I am in a good position and can do something.
It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Donald Trump. I’ve made my feelings pretty clear on that for the past year. After the election happened, and everyone was so fucking shell-shocked by it, my first thought was, “What can I do? What can I do to help remedy this?” One of my things in voicing my concerns about this is to find your own power to resist it.
How’d it come together?
Within the week of the election, I saw that everyone I knew was flipping out. It was a rough time. I sent a note to Sandra Freeman. She does all the Apocalypse Meow and Midcoast Takeover [shows], and she’s a complete badass. I knew she was upset, too, so I sent her a note saying, “If anyone in this town can do anything, it’s going to be you. What can I do to help make that happen?”
We’re focusing that energy into something positive, because it’s really easy to get a bunch of folks together and get angry. It became apparent really quickly that our shared philosophy was to focus the energy on making a positive impact, locally. That’s what our community has always been able to do. That’s why we’re doing it on inauguration night: It comes down to the idea of empowering and energizing people to get out and do something, instead of sitting at home and watching that train wreck. We want to counteract what we see as the divisiveness of this dude’s rhetoric.•
Musicians for Active Justice: Get Loud
Benefitting KC for Refugees
With the Architects, Emmaline Twist, Hipshot Killer and (the) Medicine Theory
Friday, January 20, at RecordBar