DOOMTREE SHARES "GENERATOR" VIDEO PREMIERED VIA AV CLUB

“…Once again [Doomtree have] emerged with a brace of densely impressionistic, explosive jams
laced with rock-inflected electronics and besotted with virtuoso verbiage.” – Wondering Sound

Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree has revealed their video for “Generator” from their recent full-length All Hands, out now on Doomtree Records. The James Gundersen-directed video premiered via AV Club, who called it “a bombastic call to arms that also showcases the group’s pop-culture acumen… the video features the members of Doomtree taking to the streets of their native Minneapolis, cutting imposing portraits against the desolation of a Midwestern winter.” The video is available to stream or embed HERE, and All Hands is available for purchase on iTunes HERE, through Doomtree’s online store HERE, and on Bandcamp HERE.

Having just wrapped up a European tour and a performance at the Justin Vernon-curated Eaux Claires Festival, the group (Cecil Otter, Dessa, Lazerbeak, Mike Mictlan, P.O.S, Paper Tiger and Sims) has announced a new slate of U.S. tour dates, dubbed the Off In The Deep Tour. The crew will hit major cities on both coasts, and will perform at several high-profile festivals: Riot Fest, Rifflandia, Boston Calling and Fun Fun Fun Fest. There is also a very special event on October 3 in St. Paul, MN — more information soon. The full list of tour dates is below.

Doomtree tour dates:

8/29 – Summit Music Hall – Denver, CO (Riot Fest Afterparty)

8/30 – Riot Fest – Denver, CO

9/13 – Riot Fest – Chicago, IL

9/17-9/20 – Rifflandia Festival – Victoria, BC

9/19-9/20 – Riot Fest – Toronto, ON
9/23 – Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA
9/24 – Brooklyn Bowl – Brooklyn, NY
9/25 – The State Theatre – Portland, ME
9/26 – Boston Calling Festival – Boston, MA
9/27 – Rock & Roll Hotel – Washington, DC
10/3 – ??????????? – St. Paul, MN
10/14 – The Showbox – Seattle, WA #
10/15 – Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR #
10/16 – Oakland Metro – Oakland, CA #
10/17 – El Rey Theatre – Los Angeles, CA #
11/6-11/8 – Fun Fun Fun Fest – Austin, TX

# – w/ Astronautalis

Doomtree has toured hard since the January 2015 release of All Hands, including a recent feature on NPR‘s All Things Considered. Consequence of Sound noted that “over flickering beats and blitzing synths, Doomtree sound as confident as ever” on “.38 Airweight,” while The Fader praised “Gray Duck” as a “hard-hitting track” and A.V. Club lauded “Final Boss“‘s “mentions of video game boss levels and cheat codes alongside inflammatory political texts.”

Doomtree started as a mess of friends, fooling around after school, trying to make music without reading the manual. The group had varied tastes — rap, punk, indie rock, pop — so the music they made together often bore the toolmarks of several styles. When they had enough songs, they booked some shows. They made friends with the dudes at Kinkos to print up flyers. They burned some CDs to sell. The shows got bigger. Of necessity, Doomtree’s seven members figured out how to run a small business. Lazerbeak’s garage became the merchandise warehouse; P.O.S’ mom’s basement became the webstore. A decade and fifty releases later, it’s all properly official-Doomtree is now a real, live label with international distribution-but not too much has changed. Doomtree still partners with people who aren’t jerks. If they can’t find something they need, they make it themselves. Although each member has a career as a solo artist, every so often the whole crew convenes to make a collaborative record as a group.

Before All Hands, Doomtree earned their stripes with an album called No Kings. A lot of people liked it. Happily, some of those people were writers at places like Vice, NPR, Rolling Stone, etc. According to the Village Voice, Doomtree is “one of the most talented and dedicated rap groups working today.” VH1 says the crew has “the aggressive energy of a punk act with just the right amount of hip-hop swagger.” In support of No Kings, Doomtree made laps around the US and hit Europe a couple times too. They played at festivals like Lollapalooza, SXSW, and Belgium’s Dour Festival.

The newest Doomtree record is called All Hands, out now on Doomtree Records. The title nods to the nautical rally cry, “All hands on deck,” and the album stands as the most collaborative and cohesive project the crew has yet produced. The production from Cecil Otter, Lazerbeak, Paper Tiger, and P.O.S twists through 13 booming tracks, building the raw and epic soundscapes that the group has become well known for, while adding more of-the-moment musical elements and techniques for a genre-spanning effect. This is the sound of old friends fine-tuning their craft, both together and individually, for over a decade, and it shows. Lyrically, All Hands sounds hungry as all hell. The three-year gap between Doomtree albums has given each of the five emcees substantial time to grow as solo artists, and the group’s return finds everyone tour-tested with plenty to prove. Sims, P.O.S, Mike Mictlan, Dessa, and Cecil Otter drive home razor-sharp cadences, hard-hitting punchlines, and monstrous choruses, passing the spotlight back and forth until the house lights come up.

To write All Hands, crew members sequestered themselves in a cabin with no cell reception to distract from the task at hand and no neighbors to be bothered by the music playing through the night. The process informed the product: the record creates and operates within its own sphere-a particular mix of menace, humor, beauty, and adrenaline. Though the Minneapolis sound is present on All Hands, the record is as much a product of seven friends, relying only on each other, working in international waters. Both the catchiest and densest album in the group’s catalog, All Hands adeptly walks a tightrope of immediately memorable hooks and in-depth lyricism that rewards repeated listens. The result is equally worthy of up-to-11 trunk-rattling drives as it is late-night headphone sessions.