SOUND CHECK

Led by singer/songwriter Guy Keltner, & drummer/visual-artist Ian Cunningham, Acid Tongue has been touring the world and espousing a timeless rock & roll sound with a DIY mentality since 2015. The touring band features a rotating roster of musicians from around the globe; with members based in Seattle, Paris, New York, London, Mexico City, Los Angeles, & Austin—lending fresh ears to the setlist for an ever-evolving live experience. Employing nostalgic riffs lifted straight from a forgotten jukebox and razor-sharp lyrics delivered in a childish croon, Keltner has built a large catalogue of material in a short period of time.

Dismayed by their hometown of Seattle’s devolution into a squeaky-clean tech bubble, Keltner & Cunningham formed a partnership to elevate their soul-drenched compositions beyond a suffocating local music scene. Their debut EP, I Died Dreaming (2015) garnered the attention of both the iconic radio station KEXP and a hyper-alert British audience— landing the band opening slots for the likes of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, De La Soul, Ariel Pink, and Pacific Northwest legends The Sonics.

In the years to follow, the band set their sights on the global horizon—releasing their sophomore EP Beautiful Disaster (recorded in a London basement) in 2016, a handful of singles & cassette-only releases, and Guy’s autobiographical ode to his time living in New York City: 2019’s The Night We Broke Our Lease EP (recorded at a friend’s home studio in Brooklyn).

In 2016, Keltner and Cunningham co-founded their own record label, Freakout Records, with fellow Seattle music patron, Skyler Locatelli, and in 2017, released the band’s debut LP, Babies. The album’s singles—“Humpty Dumpty” & “If I Really Loved Her”—received substantial airplay and attention from college radio, playlists, and the underground indie-rock world. Acid Tongue  continues to regularly tour across the United States, Europe, Canada, & Mexico, spreading their gospel of cynicism and emotional catharsis to an increasingly wider audience.

Acid Tongue’s sophomore full-length album Bullies—available March 13, 2020—finds them fully-formed with a mature sound; synthesizing commentary on millennial culture, bruised relationships and broken dreams, painted against the backdrop of high energy, hard-rocking soul songs that could only be the product of our modern era.