Mass Text announce Perfect New Knife and drop "Pink Slips"

Mass Text announced their debut album Perfect New Knife, out January 29 on Solid Brass, and shared the lead single "Pink Slips." The collective is headed by Chris Sutter, who also plays in Meat Wave, with Jason Balla of Dehd producing.

Sutter says "Pink Slips" set the terms for the rest of the record even though little on it sounds like the single. "It gave us the freedom to produce whatever felt right for the record, depending on the song and energy we wanted to convey," he said. Its feedback was scraped from two old walkie-talkies, recorded on Sutter's phone while on tour. The title, he explained, came from a stretch when his gums bled until his teeth looked like pink slips.

The nine-track album runs from "Nice Dream 2" and "Eight Candles" to "Sunglasses On Christmas," "$300" and "Weightlifting." A run of dates follows: November 18 at the Hideout in Chicago with Brent Penny, then a February 12 release show at the Empty Bottle, February 13 at Cloudland in Minneapolis and February 14 at Cactus Club in Milwaukee.