There’s nothing soft about I’m Nice Now. Despite its title, Upchuck’s new album (due October 3rd via Domino) is a cathartic force of nature, a punk record that rages not for spectacle, but for survival. Across thirteen taut, furious tracks, the Atlanta five-piece channel personal loss, political exhaustion, and generational resilience into something that doesn’t just sound urgent, it feels necessary. On “Forgotten Token,” frontwoman KT processes the grief of losing her sister during the album’s recording, using the track to confront how easily people, particularly Black women, are dismissed in life and commodified in death. Her vocal performance burns with clarity and ache, a punk howl wrapped around a poetic fury.
Elsewhere, the band push sonically as well as emotionally. “Un Momento,” one of three tracks featuring drummer Chris Salado on vocals, draws from his childhood playing cumbia - a rhythmic undercurrent that gives the track a unique pulse, layered beneath the band’s signature scorch. Featuring his father and son in the music video, the song becomes a tribute to their North Atlanta neighborhood, one that was raided by ICE the very next day. It’s this juxtaposition that defines I’m Nice Now: rage delivered with precision, stories carried with care. Produced by garage-psych legend Ty Segall and mastered by Heba Kadry, the album marks a major leap in both scale and scope for Upchuck, but it never loses its teeth.
And now, they’re bringing that sharpened energy to the UK. A string of tour dates this August includes a stop at The Grove in Newcastle on August 10th, where fans can witness the band’s visceral live set up close. For the uninitiated, Upchuck gigs are somewhere between punk show and spiritual release, wild, sweaty, confrontational, and weirdly healing. Their on-stage chemistry is electric, the kind of unpredictable intensity that makes every night feel like a singular event. With I’m Nice Now looming on the horizon, and the band’s sound hitting new creative heights, there’s no better time to see Upchuck in full flight. Just don’t expect to leave the same as you came in.
