Looks Like All the Saints Made a New Album

The cover to All the Saints’ third album depicts a small portion of a digital sound file. Is it a song? If so, is it one of theirs? And if so, which one?

These are things you can ponder while you let the eight opuses that comprise Look Like You’re Going Somewhere rumble over you like you’re the center of gravity in a floating isolation chamber in the immediate vicinity of a typhoon. More so than ever, All the Saints manage to pull you into a deep headspace while at the same time jostling you like a scrap of flimsy jetsam. The album’s supposedly out sometime in June on Chunklet Industries, and ya better get ‘em while they’re hot, because there’s only 150 vinyl copies being pressed. If you’re just as content with digital sound files, well, they’ll have those too, but I guess that same urgency doesn’t necessarily apply.

I’ve been known to liken ATS to long-gone Atlanta trio 86, who regrouped for a handful of shows last fall. Oh, sure, I know – they both have their distinctive sounds. I’m not suggesting they sound all that similar. But there’s a comparable intensity to the two bands’ guitar-bass-drums maelstrom and commanding interplay. Offstage, they’re low-key-to-invisible; their strength is genuine exploratory musicianship (as opposed to image and antics), yet they’re just as thrilling to non-musicians as they are to players. And, yeah, both bands boast superhuman drummers.

Little known outside of East Atlanta Village, All the Saints have settled into a mid-life comfort zone of playing one of the local clubs whenever the urge strikes them, which seems to be a couple/three times a year. Take advantage of those opportunities (like the upcoming August 10 date at The EARL). Because once they’re gone, and the clarity of retrospect brings history into focus, they’re going to be regarded as one of Atlanta’s greatest bands. More so than they already are, I’m sayin’.

Photo by Elliott Fuerniss.