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SISU Confirm ‘Un-Pop’ Debut With Dark, Synth-Heavy ‘Return the Favor’

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SISU has announced release details for its upcoming debut album. Blood Tears, the Los Angeles synth-wavers’ first proper full-length, will arrive September 17 via Mono Prism Records. The 10-track effort follows this year’s Light Eyes EP and was written entirely by Dum Dum Girls drummer Sandra Vu, who founded SISU four years ago. 

“I’ve been pretty much booked up solid with touring in [Dum Dum Girls], and it was really, really difficult to release something,” Vu told SPIN last month. “I’m really excited to finally do it.” 

In an official statement announcing the LP, Vu said, “Blood Tears is about the anxiety of starting over, the hangover of failure, breaking up, insecurities, self doubt, finding a voice, finding that you have a voice, speaking up and singing louder.” She also shed some insight on the band’s genre-resistant aesthetic saying, “I didn’t want to sound like any one thing — a shoegaze band, an electronic band, a rock band — but I did want to make pop songs with un-pop sounds… Whether a song starts out as noise or with an abrasive synth, I always find my way back to melody and structure.” 

SISU have shared the fast-approaching album’s first single, “Return the Favor.” The Light Eyes EP’s “Two Thousands Hands” channeled the dreary romance of Cocteau Twins, but this latest track hews closer to the post-punky rhythms and urgent pacing of the Cure’s earlier output. Stream “Return the Favor” via SoundCloud

Blood Tears track list: 

1. “Counting Stars”
2. “Cut Me Off”
3. “Harpoons”
4. “Electronic”
5. “Sinking Feeling”
6. “Let Go”
7. “Return the Favor”
8. “Shotgun Running”
9. “Sharp Teeth”
10. “Blood Tears”

SISU 2013 tour dates: 

July 22 – San Francisco, CA @ Cafe du Nord
July 26 – San Diego, CA @ The Void
July 27 – Los Angeles, CA @ Permanent Records In-Store
August 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ La Cita (Part Time Punks) 
September 4 – Montreal, QC @ SAT (Societe des Arts Technologiques) #
September 5 – Boston, MA @ Church #
September 6 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #
September 8 – Washington, D.C. @ Rock & Roll Hotel #
September 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s #
September 11 – Toronto, ON @ Garrison #
September 12 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle #
September 13 – St Louis, MO @ The Firebird #
September 14 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In #
September 15 – Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree #
September 17 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk Inside #
September 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room #
September 20 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echo #
September 21 – San Diego, CA @ The Void #
September 22 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill #
September 24 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
September 25 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza #
September 26 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore # 

# = with Dirty Beaches