After conquering the world with their 28th studio album MAD!, the eternally-creative Ron and Russell Mael are releasing the first EP of their illustrious career.
“Not wanting the Mad!ness to end and buoyed by the phenomenal reaction to MAD!, we made a hasty but intense retreat to the studio to record a Sparks first: an EP, MADDER!, a four-song companion piece to the album, is for everyone who isn’t yet MAD! enough. We hope these new songs will take you to an even MADDER! place.”
The worldwide release of MADDER! is October 3, although physical copies – on CD, black vinyl and picture disc – will be on sale to fans during Sparks’ North American tour in September. The first single from the MADDER! EP is ‘Porcupine’, released today, a song of a guy’s fascination with a woman who possesses, shall we say, a prickly personality, all to a verse with a highly infectious organ riff that yields to heavy guitars in the choruses. “She’s a porcupine,” Russell croons—a metaphor or something more troubling?
Listen to Porcupine HERE
The other tracks on the EP are ‘Fantasize’, ‘Mess Up’ and ‘They’, and the new material is in the pioneering spirit of the MAD! album, which was greeted with rave reviews, including five-star ratings from Record Collector (“…further proof of genius”) and the Daily Telegraph (“The gold standard for left field pop”).
Sparks’ recent European tour, with the usual eclectic selection of the Mael brothers’ work, set against a stunning production, has also been an unqualified success, with Louder Than War describing the show as “a hundred minutes of energetic, thrilling pop songs spanning half a century” and Classic Rock Magazine writing “Wit, pathos and brutality….a hugely thrilling injection of joy and power”.
MAD! Tour Dates:
Fri. Sept. 5 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
Sat. Sept 6 – Raleigh, NC – Hopscotch Festival
Mon. Sept. 8 – Philadelphia, PA – Keswick Theatre
Tue. Sept. 9 – Washington, DC – Lincoln Theatre
Thu. Sept. 11 – Boston, MA – Berklee Performance Center
Fri. Sept. 12 – Brooklyn, NY – Kings Theatre
Sun. Sept. 14 – Columbus, OH – The Athenaeum Theatre
Mon. Sept. 15 – Cleveland, OH – TempleLive at Cleveland Masonic
Wed. Sept. 17 – Toronto, On – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Fri. Sept. 19 – Chicago, IL – Riot Fest
Sat. Sept. 20 – St. Paul, MN – Fitzgerald Theater
Tue. Sept. 23 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
Wed. Sept. 24 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
Fri. Sept. 26 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
Sat. Sept. 27 – San Francisco, CA – Golden Gate Theatre
Mon. Sept. 29 – El Cajon, CA – The Magnolia
Tue. Sept. 30 – Los Angeles, CA – The Greek Theatre
Dec. 5-7 – Hong Kong – Clockenflap Festival
MADDER! Tracklisting:
Porcupine
Fantasize
Mess Up
They
Sparks Online
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Stream/buy MAD! here
