Alongside the release of King Ropes’ new studio album Way Out West, the band shares its final single “Big Man On the TV.”
This atmospheric, lo-fi garage rock stomper is full of psych-inflected melodic grit, and guided by frontman Dave Hollier’s always-imaginative lyricism and off-kilter delivery. It's a tone-setting opener to Way Out West, with its mangled arpeggios and compelling narrative that surveys a land haunted by doomed relationships and hypocrite ideologues in his signature quivering voice.
Perched somewhere between lo-fi psychedelic garage rock and ragged Americana, Way Out West is King Ropes' fourth full-length, and finest to date. The Bozeman-based band has carved out a distinct sound that evokes the vast openness of where they’re from. After settling in Montana in 2017 following extensive stints in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, Hollier recruited an inner circle of West Coast musicians to record and tour with, notably bassist/guitarist Ben Roth (Oberhofer/BOD) and drummer Jeff Jensen, both of whom play on the new record.
