War Tapes 'Continental Divide' album

As the summer season approaches, WAR TAPES—Neil Popkin (singer/rhythm guitar), his sister Becca Popkin (bass), Matt Bennett (lead guitar) and William Mohler (drums)—have just confirmed they will join alternative electronic rock and industrial icons VNV Nation on a 23-date North American run. At these shows, WAR TAPES will bring to the masses their self-proclaimed “heart-quaking doom pop,” timeless melodies, anthemic choruses and arena-ready sound as featured on their May 26 debut long-player THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE (Sarathan Records).

The tour will kick off on June 27 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles and take the Los Angeles foursome across the states to clubs and theatres including The Grand Ballroom in San Francisco, The Showbox in Seattle, House of Blues in Chicago, Nokia Theatre in New York, Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia, 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, Culture Room in Ft. Lauderdale and Granada Theatre in Dallas. The tour will wrap in Phoenix, AZ at the Marquee Theatre.

Meanwhile, fans of WAR TAPES can also catch their appearance on the ABC Family TV series “GREEK” June 15, as they perform their songs “Always Falling” and “Dreaming Of You” in a scene as the band at a frat party. The early buzz on War Tapes has earned the band airplay on such tastemaker radio stations as BBC Radio 1 and Live 105 in San Francisco, while “Dreaming of You” was aired on NBC’s “New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly.” To support the tour and album release, Sarathan Records will begin the WAR TAPES radio campaign with a special radio sampler going to Modern Rock Specialty Shows around the album release date. The sampler will include "Dreaming Of You," "The Night Unfolds," "Use Me" and "All The World's A Stage."

War Tapes tour dates
Wed 5/27 Los Angeles, CA Club Moscow- CD Release Party
Thu 5/28 Fullerton, CA Continental Room

w/ VNV Nation
Sat 6/27 Los Angeles, CA Club Nokia
Mon 6/29 San Francisco, CA Regency Center
Tue 6/30 Portland, OR Barbeti’s Pan
Wed 7/1 Seattle, WA The Showbox
Fri 7/3 Murray, UTMurray Theatre
Sun 7/5 Englewood, CO Gothic Theatre
Tue 7/7 Milwaukee, WITurner Hall Ballroom
Wed 7/8 St. Paul, MN Station Four
Fri 7/10 Chicago, ILHouse of Blues
Sat 7/11 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
Sun 7/12 Cleveland, OHPeabody's Down Under
Tue 7/14 Toronto, ON Phoenix Concert Theatre
Wed 7/15 Montreal, QC Le National
Fri 7/17 Boston, MAParadise Rock Club
Sat 7/18 New York, NY Nokia Theatre
Sun 7/19 Philadelphia, PA Theatre of Living Arts
Tue 7/21 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Thu 7/23 Atlanta, GAMasquerade
Fri 7/24 Tampa, FLThe Ritz Theatre
Sat 7/25 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
Mon7/27 Dallas, TX Granada Theatre
Tue 7/28 San Antonio, TX White Rabbit
Thu 7/30 Tempe, AZMarquee Theatre

more War Tapes 'Continental Divide' information
“We call it heart-quaking doom pop,” says Neil Popkin of WAR TAPES, the downtown Los Angeles group who are set to release their debut full-length release THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE May 26 via Sarathan Records. “We’re pushing the envelope in a few different directions by trying to create something dark and intense while at the same time to achieve a loud and heavy rock element in our sound. We feel very attached to bands that bring you somewhere else emotionally from where the music begins. We’ve always been striving to break ground in those two worlds, both emotionally and sonically, and I think we achieved it on this record.”

The Continental Divide is a potent work, and the foursome--which features Neil Popkin (singer/rhythm guitarist), his sister Becca Popkin (bassist), Matt Bennett (lead guitar) and William Mohler (drummer)--has been raking in rave reviews since their 2006 live debut.

Post-punk.com declared, “In essence, War Tapes are pure…bombast with a knack for incredibly catchy melodies, dissonant guitar assaults drenched in reverb and a front man who can sing his despairing tales with a reckless sense of nihilism even when he's at his most vulnerable.” National media outlets have also taken notice, with Outburn magazine calling War Tapes’ music “some of the most sublime gloomy rock to emanate from Southern California since the late ‘80s.”

The Continental Divide--appropriately titled for a band that comes together from opposite ends geographically as Neil and Becca are from Boston, Matt is from Hawaii and William is from L.A.--explores the emotional gamut from tortured love songs like “Dreaming of You” and “The Night Unfolds” to feelings of isolation in “All the World’s a Stage” to the air of anger and confusion in “Mind is Ugly,” creating a musical soundscape that emotes both impending emotional doom and romantic optimism. “It’s about the struggle between your past and your present and the two sides coming together as one,” states Becca. “It felt heavy and very important.”

Four tracks on The Continental Divide (“Dreaming of You,” “Mind is Ugly,” “Start Again” and “She Lied”) first appeared on the band’s self-titled EP, released in September 2008 on the Seattle-based indie Sarathan, but were remixed for the full-length. William, who co-produced the new record with Heroes and Villains, says, “For The Continental Divide, I wanted a bigger and clearer sound than our EP, but like our live show we wanted the record to be an emotional experience too. When it came time to mix, I knew we had to get Ryan Williams on board. From mix number one, we knew we had made the right choice and had created something very special. Ryan's mixes are exactly how we always wanted our music, so it was a very gratifying experience.”

The early buzz on War Tapes has earned the band airplay on such tastemaker radio stations as BBC Radio 1 and Live 105 in San Francisco, while “Dreaming of You” was aired on NBC’s New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly. The band has also played shows and/or toured with The Smashing Pumpkins, Tiger Army, Shiny Toy Guns, Moving Units, The Bravery, Longwave, VNV Nation and the Unseen. The band--which got together just two weeks before their first show in 2006 (Becca had never played bass and William had never played drums in a band before rehearsals for the first gig)--says their sound emanates not from their shared musical interests but instead from their diverse musical differences.

“The economy is shitty and our environment is being poisoned more every day by multi-conglomerate nameless corporations. If there was ever a time for a refreshing bit of air-filled romance, it is now,” says Matt Bennett of The Continental Divide, which slings together all of the world’s beauty and devastation in one unforgettable mix.

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War Tapes - Continental Divide