Fust at Billsville - Friday, April 4th
Event description
Fust โ the Durham, North Carolina-based band โ announce their new album, Big Ugly, out March 7th via Dear Life Records. Big Ugly arrives after the release of 2024โs Songs of the Railโโโone of the best alt-country compilationsโฆin a long, long timeโ (Paste) โโ and 2023โsstandout Genevieve, which unassumingly introduced new listeners to Fustโs unmistakable blend of โsmall-town poetryโ (Mojo) with a familiar yet probing โcountry-tinged folk-rockโ (KEXP) that made it โone of the most fun rock records of the yearโ (Pitchfork).
Big Ugly finds Fust taking its โgutsy, blue-collar Americanaโ (New Commute) further than it has before. Songwriter Aaron Dowdy pushes his obsessions with country-storytelling to more mystifying places, telling stories of Southern life teeming with utopian possibility that arises uniquely from the contradictions for which the south is infamously known. In this way, it is a record that could easily be filed on the record shelf alongside lyric-forward indie or Southern rock, as well as on the bookshelf amongst the throngs of Southern literature hellbent on proving the elegance of grittiness. Big Ugly is also Fustโโabove all a group of close friendsโโuncovering a freedom within their sincere form of loose and fried guitar rock, emboldened to deliver both\ their most intimate songwriting and biggest sound to date.
While perhaps โfew voices can write a song quite like Aaron Dowdyโ (Paste), it is clear upon listening that Big Ugly is an album of fully recognizable voices. One hears in the music the years of interplay between Avery Sullivan (Sluice) on Drums, Justin Morris (Sluice, Weirs) on guitar and vocals, Oliver Child-Lanning (Sluice, Weirs) on bass and vocals, Frank Meadows on piano, John Wallace (Colamo) on guitar and vocals, and Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) on fiddle and vocals. Big Ugly is also the second collaboration with the Asheville-based engineer Alex Farrar, recorded together throughout the summer of 2024 at Drop of Sun Studio. And with the help of many friends including Merce Lemon, Dave Hartley (The War on Drugs), and John James Tourville (The Deslondes), Big Ugly is exactly what one feels it to be: a huge group of people gathered together, stumbling upon songs amidst long days and even longer nights.
Special Guest Opener - Dead Gowns
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity