awakebutstillinbed – “airport” & “redlight”

San Jose’s awakebutstillinbed have a serious gift for internalizing the sounds and dynamics of intensely vulnerable ’90s emo and making it sound urgently new. They were a Stereogum Band To Watch in 2018, and they’ve shown serious power on past EPs like 2020’s stay who you are and hymns for the scorned, their 2022 split with For Your Health. Now, the band is finally gearing up for its first full-length in five years.

This fall, awakebutstillinbed will follow up their 2018 debut what people call low self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the way that other people is see you with the new album chaos takes the wheel and i am a passenger. The band recorded the new LP with Joyce Manor/Deafheaven collaborator Jack Shirley on engineering duties, and it was produced by Algernon Cadwallader/Hop Along member and Modern Baseball/Beach Bunny producer Joe Reinhart.

Today, awakebutstillinbed share “airport” and “redlight,” the album’s first two singles. On “redlight,” the band lands on a kind of raw-nerve power-pop sound. It’s sharp and tuneful but also angular and choatic, and it builds up to some serious screams from Shannon Taylor. With “redlight,” the band taps into a more frantic, expressionist post-hardcore sound, with guest vocals from For Your Health’s Hayden Rodriguez, but the hooks still shine through. Below, check out both tracks, as well as the tracklist for chaos takes the wheel and i am a passenger.

TRACKLIST:
01 “bloodline”
02 “road”
03 “far”
04 “streamline”
05 “airport”
06 “savior”
07 “clearview”
08 “enough”
09 “redlight”
10 “adapt”
11 “scramble suit”
12 “passenger”

chaos takes the wheel and i am a passenger is out 10/20 on Tiny Engines.