Quicksand Share New Single “Felíz”
Fresh off a North American tour with Clutch and Helmet, today NYC band Quicksand share their latest single, “Felíz.”
Following slow burner “Giving The Past Away” released in August, both songs were previously unreleased recordings from sessions for their highly praised 2021 album ‘Distant Populations’. Like a sucker-punch to the face, the palpable aggression of “Felíz” is felt from the onset of the track. Lead by a bass heavy groove, the steady rhythm is driven by a vital electric guitar riff with the distortion turned all the way up for this headbanger’s anthem.
“This one came together pretty easily, from what I recall coming off of tour we wanted to write something more aggressive for the set; listening now reminds me of something we might have written earlier in our career but still feels right at home with where we’re at currently,” front man Walter Schreifels explains. “The lyrics speak to the fleeting nature of happiness which paradoxically is what makes feeling happy such a desirable thing.”
Recorded at Studio 4 Recording in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, Distant Populations was produced and engineered by Will Yip (The Menzingers, Code Orange, Defeater), and mixed by Josh Wilbur (Lamb of God, Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold). The album is the follow-up to the critically lauded 2017 release Interiors. Sonically it has a punchier, more up-tempo sound than its predecessor, with its 11 songs being concise, carved sonic jewels boasting not a single wasted note. Its gripping lyricism and raw power leap out from the very first listening.
Formed in 1990, Quicksand made their full-length debut with Slip—a 1993 release praised by The A.V. Club as “a nearly flawless record that combines the irony and heaviness of Helmet with Fugazi’s penchant to dismantle sound in the most energetic ways.” Arriving in 1995, their sophomore album Manic Compression appeared at #1 on the Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records list from LA Weekly (who noted that “if there were any justice in the world, Quicksand would have been the biggest underground band of the ’90s”).
Throughout the early ’90s, Quicksand toured with bands like Helmet, Fugazi, Rage Against the Machine, and Anthrax. After disbanding in late 1995, they reunited for a one-night performance in June 2012. They’ve since appeared at festivals like FYF Fest and Pukkelpop, and in 2013 embarked on their first North American tour in 15 years. In 2017, the band released their long-awaited third-studio album Interiors which saw Consequence of Sound praise the band for their sound “that nobody else has been able to replicate in all the time they've been gone."
Quicksand is front man/guitarist Walter Schreifels, bassist Sergio Vega, and drummer Alan Cage.