Legendary independent rock label Equal Vision Records and Hot Water Music are excited to present the music video for new single “After The Impossible,” the latest track to be lifted from the band’s 30th anniversary LP, Vows, that will be available tonight at midnight. Featuring Dallas Green of City and Colour on guest vocals, “After The Impossible” represents a massive stylistic departure for the veteran rock band, and is an ode to a loved one that is deeply missed, be it family, a friend or significant other. The accompanying 1980s fantasy film-inspired music video directed by James Poitier affectionately captures the song’s overall message of friendship, camaraderie and love.
The band had the following to share about the clip: “When we started trying to figure out the concept for this video, the one thing we wanted to avoid was 'man misses woman/woman misses man.' That's been done enough, right? One of the earlier concepts was two friends trying to reconnect. That fairly simple concept went through a few, wild iterations: are the friends maybe vampires? Ghosts? Aliens? Thankfully, we ended up landing on what you see here, which was very obviously inspired by many movies from our youth. We couldn't be happier with it or more thankful to everyone who worked so hard to make it a reality.” Watch the music video for “After The Impossible” on YouTube HERE.
Hot Water Music also recently kicked off its 30th anniversary headline tour of North America this past Friday in Cincinnati, OH, a run that will extend across 30 markets and culminate in a performance at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC on Saturday, June 29. Support on the tour will be provided by Quicksand, Off With Their Heads, Tim Barry and more on select dates. Information on tickets can be found on the band’s official site HERE, and a full listing of dates can be found below.
Sacrifice. Loyalty. Camaraderie. These aren’t just words, they are the qualities that have defined Hot Water Music’s songs, lyrics and ideology for the past three decades. However, instead of celebrating 30 years of existence with a nostalgia lap or formulaic album, the band decided to mark this milestone with their most ambitious collection of songs to date. Correspondingly, Vows sees the band — guitarists/vocalists Chuck Ragan, Chris Wollard and Chris Cresswell as well as bassist Jason Black and drummer George Rebelo — taking their pioneering punk sound to bold new heights via inventive arrangements, pop-friendly sensibilities and a new generation of musical guests that include Brendan Yates and Daniel Fang of Turnstile, Thrice, Dallas Green of City and Colour and Alexisonfire, The Interrupters, and Popeye Vogelsang of Calling Hours and melodic hardcore greats Farside.
In order to capture these songs, Hot Water Music chose to reunite with longtime collaborator Brian McTernan — who produced the band’s classic albums such as 2001’s A Flight and a Crash to 2002’s Caution as well 2022’s Feel The Void — which allowed the band to revisit the raw, guitar-driven power of its classic releases like 1997’s Fuel for the Hate Game and Forever and Counting while still capturing the current dynamics of the band. Not knowing what the endgame was, the band entered the process of writing these new songs with the simple intention of releasing music to celebrate this hard-earned milestone, be it a single, EP or full-length. What they were absolutely sure of, though, was that they didn’t want to make a new record just for the sake of it; this record had to be exciting, relentless and, above all else, necessary.
“For some reason — and maybe because this is such a huge milestone — subconsciously I was thinking, ‘Who knows what is after this?’” Ragan summarizes. “I would love to say we’re going to keep making music for as long as we’re all around, but the truth is we never know when that’s the last session we do and I feel like I thought of that more than I ever had in the past.”
All five members of the band put everything they had into Vows, an album that is less of a throwback to the past or look to the future as it is a pause in the present moment to acknowledge how far they’ve come.
Hot Water Music will be making the following appearances on its 30th anniversary North American tour. Dates below.
MAY
09 — Philadelphia, PA — Underground Arts * (SOLD OUT)
10 — Boston, MA — Royale *
11 — Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount #
12 — Mechanicsburg, PA – Lovedraft’s Brewing Co. *
13 — Washington, DC — The Howard *
14 — Richmond, VA — The National *
15 — Atlanta, GA — The Masquerade (Heaven) *
17 — Dallas, TX — South Side Music Hall *
18 — San Antonio, TX — Paper Tiger *
19 – Austin, TX – Mohawk *
JUNE
13 — Louisville, KY – Mercury Ballroom ^
14 — Cleveland, OH — House of Blues ^
15 — Chicago, IL — Concord Music Hall ^
16 — St. Louis, MO — Delmar Hall ^
17 — Lawrence, KS — Liberty Hall ^
18 — Denver, CO — Ogden Theatre ^
20 — Mesa, AZ — Nile Theater ^
21 — San Diego, CA — House of Blues ^
22 — Santa Ana, CA — Observatory ^
23 — Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco ^
24 — San Francisco, CA — Great American Music Hall ^
25 — Sacramento, CA — Ace of Spades ^
27 — Portland, OR — Revolution Hall ^
28 — Seattle, WA — The Showbox ^
29 — Vancouver, BC — Commodore Ballroom ^
* — with Quicksand, Off With Their Heads
# — with Quicksand, Modern Life Is War, The Ergs
^ — with Quicksand, Tim Barry
