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November 10, 2021

LA POST-PUNK BAND
AGENDER
ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM
NO NOSTALGIA
AND SHARE TITLE TRACK WITH NEW VIDEO
OUT TODAY

Photo credit: Sara Rivas and Romy Hoffman  Download hi-res single artwork
"While Hoffman’s vocal style is demanding and raw there is a sense of purpose and reason in her breath. Her vocal lines end with a sweet touch of dyspnea where the listener is worried the singer might faint due to lack of oxygen.” 
"Agender is a uniquely ferocious Los Angeles, California-based four-piece indie post-punk/synth band. They make that earth-shattering music that easily breaks the fragile windows down — on small-minded people who just don’t get it — and is packed full of biting symbolism, that causes your blood-filled heart to suddenly beat much faster than before."
Photo credit: Lindsey Byrnes Download hi-res image
LA-based post-punk band Agender make schizo, synthy, paranoid, post-punk with a dash of dysmorphic desire and today, they announce their forthcoming sophomore album, No Nostalgia. It's due out February 24, 2022, and today, they share the title track with a brand new video. No Nostalgia is Agender's sophomore album and arrives seven years after releasing their first record, Fixations. With two singles from the upcoming project, "Preach" and "Astro Tarot," already out, the newly shared title track provides much-needed context for the album at large and what transmissions that Agender -- comprised of Australian lead singer Romy Hoffman, bassist Cristy Michel, drummer Christy Greenwood and synth player Sara Rivas -- have in store.

"No Nostalgia" dives into the realm of the imaginary, where all life has ceased to exist. It describes a post-human environment where a being can oscillate effortlessly in oblivion without the weight and pressure of modern existence. Memory is asked to be recalled and an urge to return to childlike innocence is brought forth. To enhance this sentiment, Hoffman creates a lullaby with “No Nostalgia,” which is often used as methods to teach children. The somber tone, reflective lyrics, moody synths, eerie guitar and breathy vocals combine to make a single that shines with a retro late 70s/early 80s flare, and sonically, as Hoffman puts it, a sound that is “Malaria! Meets P.I.L and Wire.” The synth led lullaby leaves the listener yearning to be one with their former self, even if it’s just for a moment. 

Describing the song, Hoffman says, "The song imagines a world devoid of memory, where nothing exists anymore- the dust of semiotics and signs are what remains. There are no memoirs because there are no people. It’s a yearning for amnesia. Human beings are usually either looking back at the past or are worrying about the future. The oscillation between these tenses is what creates anxiety. No Nostalgia is a peaceful place of no anxiety, of evaporated earth and emptiness, of erased arousal, of no desire. There is no more danger because nothing exists. The song doesn’t say what caused this, but it’s post-human Earth about to rejuvenate itself from the vestiges and damages of Human existence."

The accompanying video, which is Hoffman’s first ever self produced music video, was shot as a short essay and collage with lyrics overlaid to create a video narration. To emphasize feelings of sentimentality, Hoffman pieced together her own Lumix DMX LX-5 footage with vintage film clips that she discovered. Her love for film coupled with her admiration for essay filmmakers Chris Marker, Derek Jarman and Dziga Vertov, inspired her to follow in their artistic footsteps and create her own music video. She flashes between scenes of human life, bodies in their natural form, cellular growth and environmental decay to have the viewer watch what it would be like to return to a state of non-existence. 

Describing her artistic direction, Hoffman says, “This type of method/genre is the only thing that felt right to bring to life this song about memory and nostalgia. It made sense to make a collage of memories, rather than to form a narrative.”

David Scott Stone (LCD Soundsystem, Unwound) produced, Sean Cook (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen) mixed, and Bob Weston (Shellac) mastered the record. The three engineers combined with Hoffman's gritty lyrics set the stage for an intricate storyline of existentialism. 
 
Further describing the song’s reminiscent feelings Hoffman says, ”The burden of sentimentalism is singed. ‘All formlessness/Dead decayed decadence”/This amorphous amnesia = back to the primordial soup."

No Nostalgia was written in the fall and summer of 2019, while Trump was still president and before anyone had even heard of Covid 19. Agender started the recording process in the winter of 2019 and into the spring of 2020. Of course, Covid 19 forced the band to pause their project until it was safe for studios to re-open. 

Hoffman, describing the main themes of the album, says, “The album reads as a newspaper or a collage. It’s a political, spiritual, philosophical look at modern society- the information age. It’s an anthropological look at the absurd current state of affairs. It’s focused yet unhinged, self reflective, observant, brash, tongue in cheek, serious yet playful. Excavations and observations of the mind of an anxiously attached, overthinking, spiritual human."

Hoffman always was drawn to learning about the philosophical studies of memory. The works of writers such as Baudrillard, Proust, Deleuze & Guattari and Derrida, played an influential role in the development of No Nostalgia. Other another artist who inspired the record for Hoffman was late 70s/early 80s post-punk experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer. 

No Nostalgia’s "Preach" and "Astro Tarot," have already set the competitive pace for this band’s talent. With publications such as Audiofemme, Post Punk, A&R Factory and more, all having praised their previous singles, the release of No Nostalgia is set up to be a tidal wave in the post-punk scene. 

After listening to “Astro Tarot,” A&R Factory said, “The gritty vocals slice a claw into your mind — as you sit back and imagine how electrifying they are live with such a buzz about them — with a vibe that sends your mind into a spin, as you remember that this is what real music is all about.”

Lethal Amounts adds, “The debut video for "Preach" is a commanding anthem from Los Angeles band Agender. It's an ascending explosion. The four minute single is an anthemic crescendo that mirrors the angst and frustration widely felt in these chaotic times.”

With an upcoming live show at Zebulon in Los Angeles, CA, on December 1, 2021, Agender continues to build upon their pre-existing hype. "No Nostalgia,” is but another piece of their release puzzle and lays the groundwork for a record full of true punk animosity.

Photo credit: Lindsey Byrnes: Download hi-res image
BIO:

It’s hard to put Agender into any box: With Australian songwriter and musician Romy Hoffman at the helm, the quartet makes schizo, synthy, paranoid, post-punk with a dash of dysmorphic desire. And fans? They revel in their sweeping existential terror that comes with a fetish for femininity. 

Initially formed in 2011 as a solo punk excursion for Hoffman, Agender was born when she decided to get sober. “It started as impulsive, a way to cope with all these new, raw feelings. I played every instrument myself on the first Agender record.” But as quickly as it started as a solitary endeavor, it evolved into a trio just two years later. By 2014, the band had become known for its intense punk shows and had released its sophomore album Fixations via Desire Records. Since then, the queer post-punk outfit has now become a full-fledged quartet with bassist Cristy Michel, drummer Christy Greenwood and synth player Sara Rivas rounding out the band. Still, Hoffman still remains its focal point as the primary writer in the group.

Agender, however, has taken its time with releasing a new record. It’s been seven years since the band released its sophomore LP Fixations. In that 7-year time span, Hoffman moved from Melbourne to Los Angeles, built a life for herself in a new city, released a solo record of dark, driving electronic music , starting running two of L.A’s biggest queer parties ( ‘Homoccult’ and ‘Lez Croix’), and situated herself as a respected DJ. The process of No Nostalgia, the band’s third album, has also been slow and steady: the songs were penned pre-pandemic and partially recorded then, but finished during COVID. No Nostalgia came from Hoffman reaching the crossroads of oscillating between bouts of extreme nostalgia and extreme amnesia. With the record, she wanted to strip it all away. “When we live in a world where everything is nostalgic, I’m trying to imagine a world with none of that, but it’s impossible. Even if I’m just commenting on society, it’s still referential to something, therefore relies on memory, therefore I’ve thought myself into a corner. It’s from this corner that I write,” she says. In spring 2022, fans of Agender will get to experience Hoffman’s reality.  

While Agender’s last two records took themselves a bit more seriously, No Nostalgia is rooted in satire. “This record is poking fun at modernity and postmodernity,” says Hoffman. “It’s satirical. It’s a bird’s eye view of where we are and the absurdity of everything.” Inspired by everything from The French Situationist Movement to Wire and Buzzcocks, No Nostalgia is a canvas painted with singular post-punk.

Introducing No Nostalgia, Agender has shared two singles ahead of its release. Last Fall, they unveiled “Preach,” an eerie, synth-heavy single laced with guitar stabs that transforms God into Goddess energy. And in May, they shared “Astro Tarot,” an ode to divine intuition and the cosmic roadmap that intrigues the psyche. The title track is Agender’s third single, which is due TK is most emblematic of the record: “For me, it’s imagining a world of no memory.”

With No Nostalgia, Hoffman finds herself meditating on existentialism. On the urgent, self-referential “Avoid A Void,” she nods to her own journey of maintaining sobriety over the last decade. “Exist in a slippery dip/Spits you out into a big abyss,” she drones. Similarly, the heart-racing “Trouble And Desire” shows Hoffman ruminating over the push-and-pull of love addiction. Over spazzy guitar riffs, “Woah Life Wow” digs deeper into searching for answers in introspection: “She’s done enough of pray, this incarnation’s saved/Waiting in a waiting room, nothing to do but wait.” Songs like “Pastiche” and “Mother Simulacra'' tackle the death of originality — the former, a tongue-in-cheek parody on postmodernism, and the latter, a realization that Hoffman’s relationships are a copy of her relationship with her mother. Agender, however, takes a moment from life’s big questions to celebrate queer love with the disco-punk anthem “Top Bottom Top.” Politics don’t escape Hoffman’s focus on the record. With “Rusher,” a track penned at the height of “Russiagate” when Trump was in office, Hoffman interprets the absurdity of politics as theater: “Space race, space race seemed so fun/Dr. Strangelove press buttons.” Over bursts of guitar fuzz, “Fact Fuck Fiction” contemplates the insanity of political doublespeak: “Welcome to the news today/Don’t know if it’s true or fake.” By the album’s closer “Extinction of Handwriting,” Hoffman is yearning for simpler times over spacey synths — an analog future instead of a digital one. 

While Agender is Hoffman’s current focus, her experience in music spans more than two decades: She began her career as a teen playing guitar in Ben Lee’s pop-punk band Noise Addict and later became the first hip hop artist (and second Australian) to sign to Kill Rock Stars, as Macromantics. Later, Hoffman began making dark electro pop and house music under ROMY. 

No matter what project she’s working on, Hoffman believes she’s a medium for a message: “I’m delivering something that needs to be said.”
Photo credit: Carl Breitkreuz, download hi-res album artwork
No Nostalgia Tracklisting:

01. Avoid A Void
02. Woah Life Wow
03. Top Bottom Top
04. No Nostalgia
05. Safe
06. Preach
07. Astro Tarot
08. Trouble & Desire
09. FFF
10. Rusher
11. Pastiche
12. Womb 2 Wound
13. Mother Simulacra
14. The Extinction of Handwriting
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For all Agender press materials and inquiries, please contact:

Leigh Greaney 
Big Hassle Media