White Denim is an American four-piece rock band from

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, United States. Their music is influenced by dub,

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording te ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

, punk rock,

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. I ...

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

with home-based recording, jamming approach, intense

looping Looping may refer to: Media and entertainment * Loop (music), a repeating section of sound material * Audio induction loop, an aid for the hard of hearing * a film production term for dubbing (filmmaking) * repeating drawings in an animated cartoo ...

work and unusual song structures.

History

In March 2005, two bands, Parque Touch (Josh Block, James Petralli, Lucas Anderson) and Peach Train (Steve Terebecki), played a show together at Beerland in Austin, Texas.Charles Ubaghs
"DiScover: White Denim"
, Drowned in Sound, retrieved February 1, 2008. After the show Steve was asked to play bass for Parque Touch and the band became four, playing under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...

s Byshop Massive (Lucas), Bop English (James), Nicholas Mallard (Josh), and Terry Beckins (Steve); however, in February 2006, Lucas moved to Russia and the resulting

power trio A power trio is a rock and roll band format having a lineup of electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit (drums and cymbals), leaving out a second rhythm guitar or keyboard instrument that are often used in other rock music bands that are quart ...

changed its name to White Denim. The new line-up began playing the local Austin circuit while recording punk-infused, psychedelic blues-rock in Block's 1940s

Spartan Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta refe ...

trailer.Kevin O'Donnell
"Breaking Artist: White Denim"
''Rolling Stone Magazine'', Issue 1045, pg. 26, January 7, 2008. In 2007, the band self-released its first EP entitled ''

Let's Talk About It ''Let's Talk About It'' is the second album by American R&B singer Carl Thomas. It was released by Bad Boy Records and Universal Records on March 23, 2004 in America. Originally scheduled for a November 18, 2003 release, the album was delayed ...

'' on 7" only, but later these tracks became available on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

.Eric Harvey
"Record Reviews: ''Let's Talk About It'' EP"
Pitchfork Media, January 9, 2008. While on tour in 2007, the band recorded a nine-song "tour EP" entitled '' Workout Holiday'', which was only sold at shows. ''Workout Holiday'' caught the ear of new

netlabel A netlabel (also online label, web label, digi label, MP3 label or download label) is a record label that distributes its music through digital audio formats (such as MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, or WAV) over the Internet. While similar to tradition ...

RCRD LBL RCRD LBL was a website for free, curated, and legal MP3 downloads from emergent artists. RCRD LBL was launched in 2007 by Josh Deutsch Josh Deutsch is an American musician and composer. Primarily known as a trumpet player, he is a founding me ...

, and the band signed on to re-record three of the songs.Max Michaels
"White Denim Release Debut Free Single on RCRD LBL Today"
''Movement Magazine'', December 3, 2007. These songs were exclusively released as the '' RCRD LBL EP'', one

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

track at a time over the course of the first few months of 2008. Since these releases, the band has toured extensively, playing shows including

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

and

CMJ Music Marathon CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

, and also received the award of "Best New Band" at the 2008 Austin Music Awards. In order to reach European listeners, the band signed to UK record label Full Time Hobby (home to The Hold Steady and

Viva Voce ''Viva voce'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "with living voice" but most often translated as "by word of mouth." It may refer to: *Word of mouth *A voice vote in a deliberative assembly *An oral exam **Thesis defence, in academia *Spoken evi ...

) for an overseas release. The first release on Full Time Hobby was the single "Let's Talk About It" b/w "Darksided Computer Mouth". On June 23, 2008, the band released its debut album, the '' Workout Holiday'' LP, which consists of re-recorded songs from the band's first two self-released EPs along with some new tracks. The band later released two more singles in Europe from ''Workout Holiday'': " All You Really Have To Do" b/w "DCWYW" and " Shake Shake Shake" b/w "All Truckers Roll". Back in the U.S., White Denim released their debut U.S. full-length LP, entitled '' Exposion'' in late 2008. Originally sold during their Spring 2008 tour as a

CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the i ...

with the title '' 11 Songs'', the album was made available in digital format from their official website on October 19, 2008.Josh Gross
"Austin's White Denim prepares for the future"
''Austin 360'', March 13, 2008.White Denim
"Official website"
WhiteDenimMusic.com, retrieved October 20, 2008. The band teamed up with Austin's Transmission Entertainment for the distribution of ''Exposion'' in the US; however, the two parted ways in mid-2009.Austin Powell
"Spotlight: White Denim"
''The Austin Chronicle'', March 14, 2008. White Denim's third full-length album, ''

Fits Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) is an open standard defining a digital file format useful for storage, transmission and processing of data: formatted as multi-dimensional arrays (for example a 2D image), or tables. FITS is the most commo ...

'', was released via Full Time Hobby on June 22, 2009. The record was initially released in Europe only, but after signing their first US record deal with

Downtown Records Downtown Records is an American record label based in New York City with offices in Los Angeles. Owned and operated by Josh Deutsch and Terence Lam, the label is distributed by Geffen Records (formerly Interscope Records and The Orchard) in the ...

on July 10, the band release ''Fits'' on October 20, 2009. This album was also packaged with ''Exposion'' as a bonus disc, giving the band's second LP a proper US release. In September 2010 White Denim announced the addition of second guitarist Austin Jenkins to the band's line-up. On September 23, 2010, the band self-released a collection of 12 tracks under the title '' Last Day of Summer''. The release notes state ''"This record is something we made as a little summer retreat from our ongoing work on the third full length. Many of these tunes have been bouncing around since the formation of the band back in 06. We were super pumped to utilize a few fresh and casual musical approaches on this record."''. It was initially available to download for free (with an option to make a donation) from the band's official website, but on December 5, 2011, it was released by

on CD and LP. On May 24, 2011, White Denim released their fourth studio album '' D'' on Downtown Records. The first leg of White Denim's ''For D'' tour started on May 23 in Sail Inn, Tempe. In 2012, White Denim opened for

Wilco Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup changed frequently d ...

on their Jan-Feb west coast tour and played at the 2012 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and Outside Lands festival. In 2015, James Petralli released his first solo album, ''Constant Bop'', under his pseudonym, Bop English. Guitarist Austin Jenkins and drummer Josh Block left the band that summer to work on other projects - guitarist Jonathan Horne and drummer Jeffrey Olson filled their spots. On 7 January 2016, White Denim announced that their new album, '' Stiff'', would be released on 25 March 2016 via Downtown/Sony Red, with the track "Holda You (I'm Psycho)" shared on their SoundCloud. A second track, "Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah)", was released on 1 February 2016. On October 20, 2016, the song was used in the reveal trailer for the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

. On May 9, 2018, the band announced their eighth full-length album, ''

Performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

,'' scheduled for release on August 28 via

City Slang Records City Slang is an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany. History The label was founded in 1990 by former tour agent Christof Ellinghaus, exclusively to release The Flaming Lips' '' In A Priest Driven Ambulance (With Silver Sunshine ...

. The announcement was accompanied by the album's lead single, "Magazin," and followed by a second single, "It Might Get Dark," on June 12. On March 29, 2019, the band released the follow up to ''Performance'', called ''Side Effects''. Then, on October 29 of the same year, they released a live album, ''In Person''. On March 14, 2020, the group announced that they intended to write, record and release a new album by April 17 that year.

Members

*James Petralli – vocals, guitar *Steve Terebecki - bass *Michael Hunter – keyboards *Cat Clemons - guitar *Matt Young - drums

Discography

* '' Workout Holiday'' (2008) * '' Exposion'' (2008) * ''

'' (2009) * '' Last Day of Summer'' (2010) * '' D'' (2011) * '' Corsicana Lemonade'' (2013) * '' Stiff'' (2016) * ''

'' (2018) * ''Side Effects'' (2019) * ''World as a Waiting Room'' (2020) * ''Crystal Bullets / King Tears'' (2021)

References

External links

Official website
*''

Spin Magazine ''Spin'' (stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012. Histor ...

'', Interview
Artist of the Day
November 26, 2007. *''La Blogotheque'', Gig review
White Denim & the Hype
April 8, 2008. {{Authority control Indie rock musical groups from Texas Musical groups from Austin, Texas Musical groups established in 2006 2006 establishments in Texas Downtown Records artists MapleMusic Recordings artists City Slang artists Full Time Hobby artists