For Immediate Release

August 23, 2024

ACCLAIMED WASHINGTON DC-BASED INDIE SOUL BAND

RELEASE NEW ALBUM, UGLY, TODAY - PURCHASE/STREAM

SOLD-OUT HOMETOWN ALBUM RELEASE SHOW AT THE ATLANTIS TONIGHT

NEW FALL TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED

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“infectious and soulful sound."

– WASHINGTON POST

“Authentic, soulful, and downright groovy.”

– AUDIOTREE

Hailed by The Washington Post for their “infectious and soulful sound,” Washington DC-based indie soul band Oh He Dead have released their new album, Ugly, today. To celebrate, the band is headlining a sold-out hometown show at The Atlantis tonight, and are announcing more tour dates for the fall. For complete details and ticket information, please visit www.ohhedead.com.

PURCHASE/STREAM UGLY

The “shadow-side” and follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Pretty, Ugly was first unveiled with the provocative first single, “Strange Love,” available everywhere now. A blast of Technicolor on a wave of sultry synths, the track is told from the POV of a sex worker who has fallen in love with her john. “Strange Love” – along with Ugly standouts “The Foreigner” and “Is It My Love,” an exclusive interview, and three additional fan favorites – is among the highlights of Oh He Dead’s recent Audiotree Live session. Filmed and recorded this spring in Chicago, IL, Audiotree declared the performance as “a firecracker explosion of euphoric pop, the likes of which you’ve never seen.” Earlier in the month, the band released singer CJ Johnson's love song to the moon, "Artemis."

LISTEN TO “ARTEMIS”

LISTEN TO “STRANGE LOVE”

WATCH OH HE DEAD AUDIOTREE LIVE SESSION

OH HE DEAD - TOUR 2024

AUGUST

23 – Washington, DC - The Atlantis

OCTOBER

10 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge

11 - Brattleboro, VT - Stone Church

12 - Lancaster, PA - Tellus360

13 - Amherst, MA - The Drake

16 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live

17 - Fairfield, CT - StageOne

18 - Burlington, VT - Nectar's

19 - Boston, MA - Middle East Upstairs

20 - Portland, ME - Portland House of Music

NOVEMBER

13 - Asheville, NC - Salvage Station

14 - Atlanta, GA - Smith's Olde Bar

15 - Nashville, TN - Vinyl Lounge

DECEMBER

5 - Tysons, VA - The Vault & Lounge

6 - Hagerstown, MD - Hub City

7 - Lititz, PA - The Lititz Shirt Factory

Photo Credit: Audiotree / Download Hi-Res Image

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The origins of Oh He Dead run deep, forged from the years-long relationship between frontwoman CJ Johnson and manager/collaborator Claire Newbegin which started when the latter taught Johnson in high school history and musical theater. “Whether as Rizzo in Grease or Maureen in Rent, she was just a forcefield,” Newbegin says. “By the time she graduated, I’m pretty sure the whole school knew she was going to be a rock star of sorts.”

Oh He Dead rounded out over the ensuing years, adding Alex Salser (guitar), Adam Ashforth (drums), Piano Whitman (keys), John Daise (bass), and Colin Sidley (bass). The band officially broke through in 2018 after recording the groovy “Lonely Sometimes” at Salser’s studio, The Lily Pad, located in a converted barn in the wilds of Virginia. After submitting the video to NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest, the track went viral, attracting fans far afield of their beloved DC. Their self-titled debut album followed that same year, introducing the band with several songs Johnson wrote while still in high school.

The close-knit crew developed further by playing live as often as possible, winning over audiences across the country with their contagious joy and Johnson’s powerful voice and on-stage presence. Pretty arrived in 2023, earning national acclaim for a soulful approach that fuses pain and joy into a sound as smooth and lux as leather, but also rich with levity like a feather in flight. Those same contrasts and contradictions that fuel their music are perhaps best summed up by the origin of the band’s distinctive moniker. When asked what happened to a cheating boy who was shot by his lover in a song of hers, Johnson responded bluntly, “Oh, he dead.”

A suite of songs that encompasses everything from death to new love, Ugly now acts as a kind of foil to the poppy, polished Pretty, more akin to what Johnson describes as “your insides – whatever you write in your journal at 4:00 a.m. Homemade, raw, acoustic, sexy and messy.” Mixed and mastered by Jimmy Mansfield, the album was a true labor of love, recorded over late nights in Salser’s barn studio, where the band tweaked and twisted songs to their formidable will. From the bombastic “Tell Me” (featuring The Honeynut Horns) and the slinky, ominous “Two Days” to the driving “Moonshine,” brassy, warm-hearted “Is It My Love,” and inner blues of the album-closing “Cover Me,” Ugly sees Oh He Dead visiting upon yin and yang, birth and death, beauty and ugliness, somehow straddling opposing worlds yet somehow keeping its feet moving until gravity wins out.

“Ugly is not meant to be just sad,” CJ Johnson says. “All the songs are about the beauty of the darkness that leads to more light.”

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OH HE DEAD

UGLY

(Wally Baba Records)

Release Date: Friday, August 23, 2024

Tracklist:

John Song

Tell Me (Feat. The Honeynut Horns)

Is It My Love

Two Days

Strange Love

Amore Strano*

Artemis

Moonshine

The Foreigner

Every Last Trail

Cover Me

* Vinyl Only

CONNECT WITH OH HE DEAD

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | TWITTER | YOUTUBE

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Press Contacts:

Ken Weinstein

weinstein@bighassle.com

Fia Kaminski

fia@bighassle.com