What we're up to

On their new, fourth album, Culk immerse themselves in a state of limbo between euphoria and excessive demands. "Smogstar" tells of the pulsating feeling in the in-between. Everything is so exciting. All too much. All at the same time. It's about the endless possibilities of supposedly being able to constantly reinvent yourself. Even if you still might not know exactly who you are. "I wanted the lyrics to be more light-footed and to radiate this special vibe: between feeling free and being lost", a mood that is also reflected in the urban collages and drawings of the artwork, which Sophie Löw designed herself in the style of a graphic novel: the black-haired protagonist with the darkly smudged eyeliner on the cover is something like the fictional title heroine of the album, who makes her way through the haze and the shimmering promise of the big city. Because as the album title already reveals: the smog and the stars are close to each other here.

Watch the band perfom live:

10.09.26 DE, münchen, strom
11.09.26 DE, leipzig, conne island
12.09.26 DE, hannover, kulturzentrum faust
15.09.26 DE, berlin, neue Zukunft
16.09.26 DE, jena, trafo
17.09.26 DE, hamburg, reeperbahn festival
18.09.26 DE, Münster, gleis 22
19.09.26 DE, flensburg, volksbad
21.09.26 DE, köln, bumann & sohn
22.09.26 DE, düsseldorf, zakk
23.09.26 DE, nürnberg, zum
24.09.26, DE, karlsruhe, kohi
25.09.26 DE, mainz, schon schön
26.09.26 DE, schorndorf, manufaktur
01.10.26 AT, wien, flex - Album Release Show
16.10.26 AT, salzburg, ARGEkultur

We're offering a super limited "smogstar" bundle with Longsleeve Shirts plus Coloured Vinyl, limited to 50 pieces only.

Another foretaste of the new (and 4th) The Homesick album "What's Up With All These Shangri-Las" that will come out Sept. 18

The three dutch musicians will be touring Europe this fall, including Reeperbahn Festival or PLUM! Festival Vienna

Here's some background story by Jaap:
"One of the most obvious love songs in the group's cannon. The song was written on bass guitar, and basically the whole structure came from there. Most of the melodies exactly the same as the bassline. It feels to me like a Motown song, being played by China Crisis using the studio of Ryuichi Sakamoto.
The melody suggested it should be a love song, and back at that moment i was pretty confused about that subject. the main character deals with limerence and idealization of a person, some kind of silent desperation (‘i’ll be the object of your desire, i’ll make you bigger than jesus christ’), the things one would only say in a song - maybe an infatuation with a person that makes you so afraid you get paralyzed by it. (‘because this aint love, it’s the fear of it’). The title is a reference to a really bad b-movie called Love on a leash."

Sharing the second teaser from forthcoming studio album Blister - due for release on 9th October in collaboration 6 independent labels across Europe - journeyed Rotterdam indie-rock outfit Tramhaus offer up thrashing punk gloom with new single ‘Swarm’.

Recorded in the depths of the Ardennes forest after 18 months of near-constant touring across 3 continents, ‘Swarm’ captures the sound of a band weathered, but infinitely wiser. A loud-quiet-loud gut-punch maelstrom of goth-rock restraint and hardcore frenzy, the single barks and hollers with all the captivating chaos of an eruptive live show, which supports Gurriers on their UK tour this October, heads across East Asia in September, hitting practically every country in Europe by next spring.

Speaking more about the track, the band say: “Swarm is a song about the individual self, and its corresponding image – are you made by the ideas of others, or are you a product of your own thoughts?“