The Districts

The Districts today shared “No Blood,” the cathartic fourth single from their forthcoming new album, Great American Painting, due out on March 11th via Fat Possum. Balancing a raw outpouring of feeling with their explosive, yet elegant breed of indie-rock/post-punk, "No Blood" is an emotionally-charged rumination on gun violence, stemming from the Philadelphia band’s unnerving experience when their 2015 show at La Cigale, the Bataclan’s nearby sister venue, was locked down and canceled by security during the tragic terrorist attack. The song, all glistening guitar work and wild squalls of distortion, demonstrates the album's urge to create music that obliterates hopelessness, and invites their audience along in dreaming up a far better future. 

“Growing up in America, gun violence was always present. Ever since the Bataclan attacks, the reality of that violence became more visceral and every instance of new violence in America struck my nerves. Meaningless, senseless violence. What’s the point? To eradicate differences? To eradicate the other? There’s no good answer,” singer/guitarist Rob Grote reflects. “I wrote this song as a catharsis over the idea that no weapon, no violence will eradicate truth and its power. ‘No Blood’ is about dancing toward it in spite of fear, danger, and ignorance, and that truth is always coming back for more.”

Great American Painting—the band’s fifth album, produced by Joe Chiccarelli (Spoon, The Strokes, Broken Social Scene) and recorded at the legendary Sunset Sound in Los Angeles—is available for pre-order here. The band will play a sold-out show tonight at Manchester, UK's YES, continuing a busy year that will see the band touring across North America (a full itinerary is below). “No Blood” follows the billowing, rhythmic “Outlaw Love,” featuring backing vocals by Clementine Creevy (Cherry Glazerr), and additional singles “Do It Over” and “I Want To Feel It All,” which caught the attention of Consequence, Brooklyn Vegan, Under the Radar, WXPN’s The Key, and more. 

Mostly made up of songs sketched by Grote during his time in a Washington state cabin at the height of the pandemic, Great American Painting marks a significant departure from 2020’s acclaimed You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere. “The last album almost felt like a recording project of my own rather than a band affair, so from the start the goal was to focus on what’s always worked well with us: an element of simplicity that’s still very powerful, with a lot of visceral rock-and-roll energy to it,” says Grote. To that end, Great American Painting endlessly spotlights The Districts’ greatest assets—the sharply detailed and prismatic tones of guitarist Pat Cassidy, the complex yet combustible rhythms of drummer Braden Lawrence and former bassist Connor Jacobus, who has since amicably departed the band (Lawrence will switch to bass in the band’s live show)—while introducing a new subtlety into their sound. 

In the making of Great American Painting, The Districts found their sense of connection exponentially intensified. “It just felt so nice to spend time with the people I care about, to have fun and try to make something good for the world,” Grote says. That feeling of kinship and solidarity is something the band hopes to extend with the album’s release. “The thing I value most in music is when an album expresses some sort of pain or frustration or hope that I also feel,” he explains. “I hope this album makes people feel like something within themselves is reflected in the wider world, and I hope that makes them feel less alone.”