We Speak Alternative

Bristler Share New Single Crapshoot Ahead of February Album

Published

4 days ago

November 12, 2026

The four members of Bristler standing together outdoors against a light-colored wall, smiling at the camera

Bristler standing together outdoors. Photo by Melissa McLaughlin.

Asbury Park band Bristler are back with Crapshoot, a song frontman Rudy Meier wrote in his mid twenties while questioning the musician path on tour, and the latest preview of the band’s second album due next February.

Bristler have shared “Crapshoot”, the latest single from their forthcoming album Inside, Outside, Upside, Downside, due out February 12th, 2027 via Mint400 Records. The Asbury Park, NJ band (which includes members of Yawn Mower and Dana Why), is fronted by lead singer and songwriter Rudy Meier, who wrote the lyrics to the song in his mid-20s while in existential crisis about his life choices. “I was on tour somewhere in the Midwest, likely intoxicated, depressed, and ruminating over whether I had made the right decision following a musician’s path,” he shares. “I think the sentiment extends even toward non musicians, but anyone who’s been broke and sweating in the dead of summer in Wisconsin hoping at least 20 people will be at the next venue will know precisely what I mean.” Read more about “Crapshoot” and how the song came to be via Magnet Magazine.

Listen to the new single “Crapshoot”: https://orcd.co/pebmyjm

Bristler began as a recording project formed initially by lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Rudy Meier. A producer/engineer by trade, Meier began fidgeting with leftover songs from his previous band, Wetbrain, and that experimentation became Bristler’s debut LP Cascades At Play, released via Mint400 Records in 2024. Bristler quickly expanded to become a four-piece live unit featuring Biff Swenson (drums, percussion), Dana Yurcisin (bass, harmonies), and later Robert Bost (guitar, harmonies). Whereas Cascades At Play came together quickly on account of being composed entirely of mostly finished songs from Meier’s previous band, the writing process behind the tracks found on the new album were the result of a more drawn out approach.

“It was a slow process that I was adamant about letting unfold organically,” says Meier. He began recording and building demo versions of songs on his own over the course of many months, eventually bringing in Swenson and Yuricisin to begin chipping away at getting the actual drum and bass takes in. Along the way, Meier invited his good friend and collaborator Bost to join the band and added his parts to the songs as well. Together and with help from other friends in the tight knit Asbury Park music scene, they fleshed out and recorded various parts for the songs that would become Inside, Outside, Upside, Downside.

While Cascades At Play leaned into glitchier Minus the Bear-meets-Death Cab For Cutie textures, IOUD places an emphasis on immediacy and simplicity within the skeletal structures of its songs. That emphasis is related to the aforementioned goal of having each song on the album working within a strummed acoustic format. “I wanted the songs to be more vocal centric and accessible up front,” shares Meier. “The first album had more of the tap guitar gymnastics and glitchy effects leading the way, which I wasn’t necessarily trying to get away from, I just wanted to try something new. I wanted to have any sort of vibey stuff like that to come from the texture and backdrops.” As a result, the songs on the album are further brought to life via several layers of synths, theremin, strings, and tasteful percussion, serving as a sort of distressed canvas meant to invoke the mood of each track’s lyrical themes, which touch on overcoming ambivalence, anxiety, and self-doubt with a healthy dose of cynicism.

Produced, recorded, and mixed entirely by Meier at his studio, Yung Bull Recordings, IOUD provides some therapeutic catharsis for anyone who feels uneasy or unsure of where life will be taking them. While Bristler might not have a concrete answer on which direction to go in all of life’s winding roads, they can certainly provide the soundtrack for the drive.

Inside, Outside, Upside, Downside is out February 12th, 2027 via Mint400 Records.

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MorMor’s ‘No One Alive Will Listen’ Is Out Now, With a 2027 Tour Across Europe and North America

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2026

We Speak Media

Black-and-white portrait of MorMor wearing a hooded puffer jacket, looking up toward the light.

Toronto’s MorMor has a new album in the world and a tour to take it on the road. No One Alive Will Listen, out now via Promised Land Records, closes its run-up with the final single “Ecstacy” and a run of European and US dates for 2027 that begins in London in January.

LISTEN: “Ecstacy” | No One Alive Will Listen

Toronto artist and multi-instrumentalist MorMor released his new album No One Alive Will Listen via Promised Land Records on October 30th, sharing a final single “Ecstacy” ahead of the album release. “Ecstacy” captures the magnetic pull of destructive patterns, exploring the fine line between desire and self-destruction, and the ways we can become addicted to the very things that unravel us.

Speaking about “Ecstacy,” MorMor shares, “The song draws a parallel between addiction and a person, less about substance itself and more about an addiction to chaos, to traumatic love, and that kind of emotional intensity. At the same time, it marked a shift for me sonically. I leaned into more modern production rather than shying away from it, exploring new technology and textures I might have avoided before for being too on-the-nose. It was about embracing that instinct instead of resisting it.”

Alongside the final single MorMor announces a run of European and US tour dates for 2027. Beginning in London in January and continuing on to Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and more the tour then heads to North America for dates across Toronto, Montreal, Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Find full tour routing below.

MorMor’s album No One Alive Will Listen releasing via Promised Land Records was recorded between London, Toronto, and at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studios. The album is punchy, spacious, gentle, and richly textured. The new song also follows support of the album from Vince Staples who played MorMor’s previous track “Like Heaven” featuring Celeste on his Apple Radio show.

The album moves through sleek and confident electronic pop into moments of pure devastation, offering a cross-examination of Nyquist’s psyche and delving deep under his skin as he asks probing questions about the patterns of his life. Speaking about No One Alive Will Listen MorMor shares, “This album captures a time where I felt very alienated. I had felt hopelessly misunderstood. Within me was a desire for love, but I had looked for it in the wrong places. At first there was chaos, an old version of me was forced to perish, and then beauty slowly arose.”

The new track follows previous singles, “Hard To Say Goodbye”, “Hurt You”, “Dawn 2”, “Don’t Need It” and “Touch” as well as a the previously mentioned collaboration with Celeste on “Like Heaven”. Celeste’s contribution to “Like Heaven” emerged entirely unplanned, as she ended up joining the session and recording her vocal on the spot, capturing a raw, immediate energy that couldn’t be recreated. Other collaborators on the album include producers Hudson Mohawke (Ye, ANOHNI), Jack Peñate (SAULT), and Russell Boring (JOBA/Brockhampton) alongside Kane Ritchotte (Haim, Portugal. The Man), John Keek (Dijon, Mk.gee, Vegyn), and Caleb Laven (Frank Ocean, SZA, Joy Again).

Following two acclaimed EPs – Heaven’s Only Wishful in 2018 and Some Place Else in 2019 – his debut album Semblance (2022) was by turns contemplative, jittery, wistful, gentle, and generous. His distinctive voice – a svelte tenor that sits comfortably higher in pitch – leaps out of the speakers, alighting over the sturdy bass lines, guitar riffs, and drums he played himself. Celebrated for his unique blend of indie pop, R&B, and dreamlike synth textures, the artist soon cemented his reputation for emotionally rich soundscapes marked by vulnerability and sonic depth.

MorMor has garnered attention across the media landscape, earning praise and support from press outlets such as The Observer, The Times, The Fader, Pitchfork, NPR, Hypebeast, Pigeons & Planes, Wonderland, NME, Dazed, CLASH, DIY, The Line of Best Fit, PAPER, High Snobiety & more. On the airwaves, his music has been spun on the likes of BBC Radio 1, BBC 6Music, Apple Music 1 and NTS, with love from tastemakers including Jack Saunders, Jamz Supernova and Matt Wilkinson.

As a live phenomenon, MorMor has embarked on major headline tours across the US, UK and Europe, and has played festivals such as Field Day, Primavera Sound and Pitchfork Festival.

Listen to “Ecstacy” above, find album details below and stay tuned for more from MorMor coming soon.

Tour Dates

1/28 – London, UK @ ICA, London
1/29 – Paris, FR @ Le Point Éphémère
1/30 – Brussels @ Botanique
1/31 – Amsterdam @ Tolhuistuin
2/2 – Berlin @ Lark
2/4 – Istanbul @ Blind
2/23 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
2/24 – Montreal @ Bar Le Ritz
2/25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Zone 1
2/27 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo

MorMor
No One Alive Will Listen
Promised Land Records
October 30th, 2026
Don’t Need It
Like Heaven (feat. Celeste)
Hurt You
Hard To Say Goodbye
Dawn 2 Interlude
Dawn 2
Ecstasy
It’s Alright
Hold
Wish I Had My Life Back
Touch
Erase Me
Open Wounds