Last month NO JOY, the long-running project of Jasamine White-Gluz, announced their 5th LP Bugland. The album is her first since 2020’s Motherhood, which featured Tara McLeod of the prominent early ‘oughts nu metal band Kittie, was perhaps the most critically-acclaimed of No Joy’s career, receiving an 8.0 from Pitchfork who described it as “a shoegaze album with a rare scope and an even rarer sense of fun and imagination.”
Produced with the heralded Chicago experimental artist Fire-Toolz, No Joy’s latest is due out August 8th on Hand Drawn Dracula and Sonic Cathedral, and was announced with the album’s title track, which saw immediate praise from all quarters. The track was named best of the week by Pitchfork, BrooklynVegan, Exclaim and Stereogum, who called it “simultaneously gritty and beautiful, like tending to a garden that’s just about to bloom,” while declaring it “Bug Girl Summer,” and Pitchfork recently named the album one of the most anticipated releases of the summer, praising it’s “sprawling and askew shoegaze epics.”
Today No Joy is sharing a second preview of the LP, a single entitled “Bits”. The track arrives to coincide with the announce of No Joy’s upcoming North American tour dates.
“This song was inspired by excerpts from a letter I wrote to the music media as a child in 1994 defending Courtney Love, urging them to leave her alone, is the spoken word heard towards the end of the song. The original demo was built around me blowing out my guitar distortion using the Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander guitar pedal. Thematically I wanted to capture the feeling of running through tall grass, playing hide and seek behind big trees.” – White-Gluz
“Cocteau-esque harmonies and atmosphere amid raging, sludgy guitars” – BROOKLYN VEGAN
“16 New Songs Out Today” / “Favorite Songs of the Week” – BROOKLYN VEGAN
“58 Albums We’re Anticipating for Summer 2025 / weird, shoegazy goodnes” – BROOKLYN VEGAN
“No Joy release new single Bits” – NORTHERN TRANSMISSIONS
“Bits is the searing, satin-swathed brand-new single” – THE AUTUMN ROSES
“a shining supernova in its own right” – MUSIC IS TO BLAME
“Bits is a stunning and melodic track which switches effortlessly between Lush dreampop and L7-style grunge” – BIZZARRE
“as nostalgic as it is abrasive, combining digital noises and melodic passages with a distinctly narrative intent” – MINDIES
“THE HOTLIST / a playful, wide-eyed effort touching on everything from shoegaze to cyberpunk” – BANDCAMP DAILY
“endearing track has a worthwhile buildup to an unexpected but rewarding finale of sweeping, hazy guitars” – STEREOGUM
“Songs You Need In Your Life This Week / No Joy defiantly zags, spiking their punch with death metal, techno, and darkwave” – FADER
Bugland out August 8th
Hand Drawn Dracula Edition pressed on Chrysalis Blue Vinyl
Limited Edition of 100 Laurel Green Larvae Vinyl (Exclusive to Hand Drawn Dracula Bandcamp and the Levitation Store)
PRE-ORDER: VARIOUS / LEVITATION / BANDCAMP
Sep 03: Washington DC @ Comet Ping Pong
Sep 04: New York NY @ Trans Pecos
Sep 05: Philadelphia PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
Sep 06: Elizabethtown NY @ Otis Mountain Getdown Festival
Sep 13: Calgary AB @ Dandy Fest
Sep 26: Montreal QC @ POP Montreal
Oct 01: Ottawa ON @ 27 Club
Oct 02: Toronto ON @ Project Nowhere Festival
Oct 15: Manchester UK @ YES Basement
Oct 17: London UK @ Moth Club
Oct 18: Chelmsford UK @ Hot Box
Oct 19: Coventry UK @ Just Dropped In
Oct 20: Glasgow UK @ Glad Cafe
Oct 21: Leeds UK @ Headrow House
Oct 23: Rotterdam NL @ Left of the Dial Festival
Oct 24: Rotterdam NL @ Left of the Dial Festival
Oct 25: Paris FR @ Supersonic
Oct 28: Berlin DE @ 8mm
Nov 07: Seattle WA @ Freakout Festival
*** TICKETS HERE