Laundromat Chicks

Marking the announcement of the band’s third studio album Something Possessed - due 24th January via Siluh Records (GARDENS, ischia) -  Viennese jangle-pop quartet Laundromat Chicks share the autumnal strains of new single ‘Sunburn’ (out today - 13th November).

Landing somewhere between the early 80s ‘Dunedin Sound’, the gritty nonchalance of Kurt Vile, and the free-spirited contemplations of Wim Wenders road movies, Laundromat Chicks operate in that rare pleasure zone where humour, swagger and vulnerability overlap; moving without a fixed destination mind, but still with a burning sense of vital purpose.

Featuring members from across Vienna’s collaborative independent scene, and driven by the prolific creative force of band founder Tobias Hammermüller,  new single ‘Sunburn’ wears its fragility on its sleeve - rickety guitars and pillowy pianos cantering towards a triumphant conclusion, heartbroken but defiant; standing proud and tall like a dandelion in the wind. 

Discussing more about the track, songwriter Tobias explains: “The song was inspired by the passing of time, in both a shameful and nostalgic way, as evoked in films that take place in the American West, such as Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Brokeback Mountain. There's always a freedom and a loneliness associated with it at the same time. That’s just a very universal theme, I think.”

The album release also anticipates the band’s first trip to the UK next spring, with two shows confirmed at The Great Escape in 2025.

Album Biography

How to draw a roadmap from heartbreak? A tricky question by any estimate, because maybe there is actually no such thing. Tobias Hammermüller – the founder of fast-rising Vienna-based jangle pop maestros Laundromat Chicks – nevertheless gave it a shot. To cope with fresh sorrows, he immediately threw himself to record the follow-up to 2023’s Lightning Trails. Once he shook free from this knee-jerk creative streak, he wryly recognised he'd probably be “too embarrassed” to play the majority of the songs he had penned a year from now.

Like a poignant scene from one of Hammermüller’s favorite movies – Wim Wenders’ Kings of the Road – something possessed him to fly off the road, straight into treacherous waters. Perhaps the beaten path wasn’t the answer anyway, but to fuck around is to find out. It did inspire one lightbulb-thought: perhaps it was time to consider a more scenic musical route, where emotions can be transposed into fictional scenarios and ambiguity.

A slightly slower creative pace might suit Laundromat Chicks too, considering the project’s breakneck trajectory within the vibrant Vienna music scene. The quartet of Hammermüller (vocals/guitars), Theresa Strohmer (guitar/vocals), Felix Schnabl (drums) and Lena Pöttinger (bass) have been prolific pretty much from the outset – both in Laundromat Chicks and other projects. Strohmer and Pöttinger, for instance, also play in garage pop band Topsy Turvy, whereas Schnabl has his own 60ties garage punk project Salamirecorder and he plays drums and sings in the psychrock group Telebrains.

Laundromat Chicks’ debut Trouble (2022) and the aforementioned follow-up Lightning Trails (2023), both released by Siluh Records, introduced songs that occupy that rare pleasure zone where humor, swagger and vulnerability overlap. The single “You’re on the Line” is as funny and urgent as any adolescent powerpop anthem this side of Buzzcocks and The Undertones, while “Nobody Believes Me” injects Joy Division’s icy fatalism to the crisp jangle of The Babies and Girls. Unquestionably, in just 20 minutes, Laundromat Chicks are a band who can remind you of all your favorite bands at once, and transport you to novel, exciting territories at the same time.

These territories expand significantly on the band’s forthcoming album Sometimes Possessed: the habitual 20-minutes now extends to an inspired 30-minute fever dream of a record. For feelings to gain traction, the launchpad of the album had to come from somewhere in the periphery. This resulted in Laundromat Chicks’ heat-distorted rendition of the Ray Davies-penned ballad “This Strange Effect”, a dizzying duet recorded with Strohmer.

Hammermüller: “I thought that the theme of possession would be like a fun and more fantasy-like way to deal with things. To stay more vague with it, and write songs that aren't statements. Just like playing around with It, playing around with ideas. And I guess “This Strange Effect” really inspired this direction, because it's a love song that's very unsure of itself. You could interpret it as very happy, but also has an eerie quality to it.”

From there, Hammermüller’s own tales of fortune and folly grab the relay baton. The 10 songs that make up Sometimes Possessed don’t have set destinations, but are adrift in the ether. Lead single “Cameron” is an innocuous love song that dances through the liminal space of sexual exploration; it’s one of two ideas from that post-breakup writing frenzy that survived. The other castaway, “Secrets”, recalls the woozy melancholy of the influential Postcard-movement.

The gorgeous “Sunburn” starts quiet and tender, but erupts in a Pixies-like wail at its fraught mid-point, before seamlessly transforming into a wistful ballad. The song was inspired by the passing of time, “in a shameful and nostalgic way at the same time”, as Hammermüller puts it, evoked in films that take place in the American West, such as Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Brokeback Mountain. “There's always a freedom and a loneliness associated with it at the same time. That’s just a very universal theme, I think.”

On Sometimes Possessed, Hammermüller gives the reins to his band members more than on previous material. The Strohmer-penned “How Do You Know” is a cheeky duet recalling Belle & Sebastian or Camera Obscura, a quick-witted tale of a therapy session at an impasse. The drum computer-driven “Time Zones” came out of a fun experiment where Hammermüller layered an older demo over a random idea he had been playing around with more recently.

On closing tracks, the piano-driven “Spiders Inside You” and the shoegaze-influenced “Ruins”, Laundromat Chicks slowly comes back around the bend, from the fable back to the present. Like any good road movie would tell you, illumination rarely comes in straight lines; it requires running in circles, getting lost in thought and action, – plus a surrender to the odd distraction – for feelings to ferment and gain acceptance.

“I think that's my favorite type of music,” Hammermüller says. “Music that aims to be catchy, but then something weird happens. A lot of my favorite albums sound like that. When I made this album, I really loved the third Big Star album, which is also just called Third. And it sounds like they just had written the best songs ever. But then while recording, they just got bored, and out of nowhere, some strings or a choir comes in and then immediately fades out again. You can hear a lot of random stuff happening in the background. To be honest, on Sometimes Possessed, it feels like I almost tried to fake that chaos. But I'm glad if it seems natural.”