Legendary independent New York-based rock label Equal Vision Records and acclaimed punk veterans Hot Water Music and Quicksand are excited to announce the release of their brand new, four-song split EP (stream in full on all platforms HERE). Featuring classics covered by each band from Quickand’s Slip and Hot Water Music’s No Division, the new EP also features the unreleased tracks “Supercollider,” Quicksand’s first new song since 2021’s Distant Populations, and “Undertow,” a new Hot Water Music song lifted from its Brian McTernan-produced Vows sessions.
“Like many who grew up listening to hardcore and punk rock from early ages on, we were inspired and driven by a lot of work from all the members that make up Quicksand and of course by Quicksand themselves,” Hot Water Music vocalist/guitarist Chuck Ragan said. “Fast forward to 1999 when we had the honor of working with Walter Schreifels as he produced our record ‘No Division’. That experience went from surreal and intimidating to completely comforting and empowering. Our respect and admiration grew tenfold until we got the chance to tour with them. We already admired and respected them, now we love them like family.”
Ragan concludes, “Getting to know Alan, Walter and Sergio on the road and now doing a split together has been an incredible experience, and though we find ourselves in the most normal situations with these salt of the Earth souls, we’re still pinching ourselves from time-to-time.”
Quicksand’s Walter Schreifels adds, “It’s an awesome, full circle moment for me to be a part of this split with Hot Water Music. It wasn’t too long after Quicksand broke up that I got to meet and work with Hot Water Music as producer for their album ‘No Division’. It was an absolutely magical experience. We had so much fun, the album came out amazing, and at the very end of the last day of recording, I added a vocal to my fave song ‘Free Radio Gainesville’, which we covered for the split. I’m beyond grateful that all these years later Quicksand is back doing what we love along with our brothers in HWM, still playing with that same passion that drew us together in the first place. Feels like home.” Stream the Hot Water Music / Quicksand Split EP on YouTube HERE and on all platforms HERE.
In advance of Hot Water Music’s appearance at this past weekend’s The FEST 22 and its upcoming November tour of Europe with Quicksand, the band became the recipients of the coveted Key to the City of Gainesville, FL last Thursday, October 24, an honor given to the band by Mayor Harvey Ward at City Hall. Hot Water Music joins the likes of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Laura Jane Grace as recipients to the keys of Gainesville, and Thursday, October 24 was declared “Hot Water Music Day.”
Sacrifice. Loyalty. Camaraderie. These aren’t just words, they are the qualities that have defined Hot Water Music’s songs, lyrics and ideology for the past three decades. However, instead of celebrating 30 years of existence with a nostalgia lap or formulaic album, the band decided to mark this milestone with their most ambitious collection of songs to date. Correspondingly, Vows sees the band taking their pioneering punk sound to bold new heights via inventive arrangements, pop-friendly sensibilities and a new generation of musical guests that include Brendan Yates and Daniel Fang of Turnstile, Thrice, Dallas Green of City and Colour and Alexisonfire, The Interrupters, and Popeye Vogelsang of Calling Hours and melodic hardcore greats Farside. “The theme that kept coming up while working on this record was growth — how writing a song, recording an album, or being in a band is like planting a seed and helping it grow,” the band said. “We think a lot of that had to do with looking back and realizing that over 30 years, we’ve managed to make something special that we all really love.”
Formed in 1990, Quicksand made their full-length debut with Slip, a 1993 release praised by The A.V. Club as “a nearly flawless record that combines the irony and heaviness of Helmet with Fugazi’s penchant to dismantle sound in the most energetic ways.” Arriving in 1995, Manic Compression appeared at #1 on the Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records list from LA Weekly, who noted that “if there were any justice in the world, Quicksand would have been the biggest underground band of the ’90s.” 2021’s Distant Populations, just the fourth full-length album of Quicksand’s career, comes as a comparatively swift follow-up to Interiors, which itself came a full 22 years after Manic Compression. Critically lauded and deemed very much worth the wait, Interiors succeeded in reestablishing the band as the powerful and contemporary entity they had always been. “Our only conscious challenge for that period, really,” says bassist Sergio Vega, “was that we felt like we needed to make a record that was worth waiting that long for.” Its success proved that they met that challenge, and, he adds, “galvanized by that, we felt like we know what we are today. We know what fits in our template. And we can build off that and expand on that.”
Hot Water Music and Quicksand will be making the following appearances together this November in Europe. Dates below.
NOVEMBER
07 — Munster, DE — Skater’s Palace
08 — Hannover, DE — Capitol
09 — Amsterdam, NL — Melkweg Max
10 — Antwerp, BE — Trix
12 — Stuttgart, DE — LKA Longhorn
13 — Munich, DE – Muffathalle
14 — Vienna, AT — Simm City
15 — Leipzig, DE — Felsenkeller
16 — Berlin, DE — Huxley’s
18 — Stockholm, SE — Debaser
19 — Gothenburg, DE — Musikens Hus
20 — Copenhagen, DK — Richter
21 — Hamburg, DE — Grosse Freiheit
22 — Wiesbaden, DE — Schlachthof
23 — Cologne, DE — Palladium
Hot Water Music / Quicksand Split EP track listing:
Fazer (Hot Water Music)
Free Radio Gainesville (Quicksand)
Supercollider (Quicksand)
Undertow (Hot Water Music)
“Like many who grew up listening to hardcore and punk rock from early ages on, we were inspired and driven by a lot of work from all the members that make up Quicksand and of course by Quicksand themselves,” Hot Water Music vocalist/guitarist Chuck Ragan said. “Fast forward to 1999 when we had the honor of working with Walter Schreifels as he produced our record ‘No Division’. That experience went from surreal and intimidating to completely comforting and empowering. Our respect and admiration grew tenfold until we got the chance to tour with them. We already admired and respected them, now we love them like family.”
Ragan concludes, “Getting to know Alan, Walter and Sergio on the road and now doing a split together has been an incredible experience, and though we find ourselves in the most normal situations with these salt of the Earth souls, we’re still pinching ourselves from time-to-time.”
Quicksand’s Walter Schreifels adds, “It’s an awesome, full circle moment for me to be a part of this split with Hot Water Music. It wasn’t too long after Quicksand broke up that I got to meet and work with Hot Water Music as producer for their album ‘No Division’. It was an absolutely magical experience. We had so much fun, the album came out amazing, and at the very end of the last day of recording, I added a vocal to my fave song ‘Free Radio Gainesville’, which we covered for the split. I’m beyond grateful that all these years later Quicksand is back doing what we love along with our brothers in HWM, still playing with that same passion that drew us together in the first place. Feels like home.” Stream the Hot Water Music / Quicksand Split EP on YouTube HERE and on all platforms HERE.
In advance of Hot Water Music’s appearance at this past weekend’s The FEST 22 and its upcoming November tour of Europe with Quicksand, the band became the recipients of the coveted Key to the City of Gainesville, FL last Thursday, October 24, an honor given to the band by Mayor Harvey Ward at City Hall. Hot Water Music joins the likes of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Laura Jane Grace as recipients to the keys of Gainesville, and Thursday, October 24 was declared “Hot Water Music Day.”
Sacrifice. Loyalty. Camaraderie. These aren’t just words, they are the qualities that have defined Hot Water Music’s songs, lyrics and ideology for the past three decades. However, instead of celebrating 30 years of existence with a nostalgia lap or formulaic album, the band decided to mark this milestone with their most ambitious collection of songs to date. Correspondingly, Vows sees the band taking their pioneering punk sound to bold new heights via inventive arrangements, pop-friendly sensibilities and a new generation of musical guests that include Brendan Yates and Daniel Fang of Turnstile, Thrice, Dallas Green of City and Colour and Alexisonfire, The Interrupters, and Popeye Vogelsang of Calling Hours and melodic hardcore greats Farside. “The theme that kept coming up while working on this record was growth — how writing a song, recording an album, or being in a band is like planting a seed and helping it grow,” the band said. “We think a lot of that had to do with looking back and realizing that over 30 years, we’ve managed to make something special that we all really love.”
Formed in 1990, Quicksand made their full-length debut with Slip, a 1993 release praised by The A.V. Club as “a nearly flawless record that combines the irony and heaviness of Helmet with Fugazi’s penchant to dismantle sound in the most energetic ways.” Arriving in 1995, Manic Compression appeared at #1 on the Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records list from LA Weekly, who noted that “if there were any justice in the world, Quicksand would have been the biggest underground band of the ’90s.” 2021’s Distant Populations, just the fourth full-length album of Quicksand’s career, comes as a comparatively swift follow-up to Interiors, which itself came a full 22 years after Manic Compression. Critically lauded and deemed very much worth the wait, Interiors succeeded in reestablishing the band as the powerful and contemporary entity they had always been. “Our only conscious challenge for that period, really,” says bassist Sergio Vega, “was that we felt like we needed to make a record that was worth waiting that long for.” Its success proved that they met that challenge, and, he adds, “galvanized by that, we felt like we know what we are today. We know what fits in our template. And we can build off that and expand on that.”
Hot Water Music and Quicksand will be making the following appearances together this November in Europe. Dates below.
NOVEMBER
07 — Munster, DE — Skater’s Palace
08 — Hannover, DE — Capitol
09 — Amsterdam, NL — Melkweg Max
10 — Antwerp, BE — Trix
12 — Stuttgart, DE — LKA Longhorn
13 — Munich, DE – Muffathalle
14 — Vienna, AT — Simm City
15 — Leipzig, DE — Felsenkeller
16 — Berlin, DE — Huxley’s
18 — Stockholm, SE — Debaser
19 — Gothenburg, DE — Musikens Hus
20 — Copenhagen, DK — Richter
21 — Hamburg, DE — Grosse Freiheit
22 — Wiesbaden, DE — Schlachthof
23 — Cologne, DE — Palladium
Hot Water Music / Quicksand Split EP track listing:
Fazer (Hot Water Music)
Free Radio Gainesville (Quicksand)
Supercollider (Quicksand)
Undertow (Hot Water Music)