THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For over a decade, Seattle’s punks Dead Bars — founded and led by John Maiello — have been delivering life-affirming rock, drawing comparison to acts like Japandroids, White Reaper and Fucked Up. During this time, they’ve earned national acclaim while remaining a beloved institution and sweating it out onstage night after night.
Their third LP, All Dead Bars Go To Heaven, contains 10 hook-laden heavy hitters. From the rousing opener I Wanna Be A Ghost to the anthemic closer Be Me, the album marks a new chapter: An introduction for the next generation ready to escape the grind, and a reminder to the previous one of their enduring power. The theme is heaven: A place of eternal reward for a life lived virtuously, regardless of the love or loss that once defined it. When the band cries “Dead Bars forever,” they mean it.
The debut single from All Dead Bars Go to Heaven was Give The Metalhead A Hug. “I was listening to a lot of grindcore and Chumbawamba when I wrote this song,” says Maiello. “I grew my hair long. I worked at a metal venue / bar in Seattle. The metalheads were nice to me. The metalheads supported each other. This song is a reflection on the act of kindness, believing in your fellow humans, and finding community in an unlikely place.”
Give The Metalhead A Hug was followed by the second single I Wanna Be A Ghost. “I was sitting in my one bedroom apartment doing sadboy shit, when the chorus just came to me,” recalls Maiello. “I brought the skeleton track to the band and we labored over this for a long time. Eventually, we landed on this version which resembles the original more than the attempts to improve or fix whatever we felt was lacking. There are ghosts all over All Dead Bars Go To Heaven, and this track gets them bopping.”
