The Taxpayers - Circle Breaker - Ernest Jenning Record Co.

The Taxpayers - Circle Breaker
$10.00 - $22.00

The Taxpayers, a long-running experimental, genre-bending DIY punk band that started in Portland, Oregon in 2007, are back.

After a several year hiatus, they've been selling out shows across the US, headlining festivals in Australia, seeing long-term critical acclaim for their albums (Including 2012’s concept album God, Forgive These Bastards) and are now set to release their first full-length album in 8 years, titled “Circle Breaker”, in conjunction with the boundary-defying Ernest Jenning Record Company.

“Think of how much the world has changed since we released our last album (2016’s Big Delusion Factory),” says Rob Taxpayer. “It seemed appropriate to do something completely different.”

“Circle Breaker” moves from the quasi-religious vocal harmonies of “Circle Protector” to the electro-funk of the furious “Evil Everywhere”. There’s chaotic punk (“I Am One Thousand”, “Nightmarish Population”), stripped back heartbreak (“Nobody is a Lost Cause”, “Empty Shed”), and genre spanning epics (“At War With the Dogcatchers”, “Everything Will Be Different”). Perhaps most surprising of all, at least for a mildly nihilistic punk band, are the songs of love and hope (“Naked Trees”, “Future Island”, “Outline of Your Blood”).

“These are songs about circles, and they're the most personal songs we've ever shared,” says Rob. “The amount of death and birth we experienced prior to and during the making of this album - the violent deaths of friends and family members, the births of our children…it's been a journey for us.”

That journey is illustrated by the simple, provocative album art: a tree stump with new growth, created collaboratively by band members Nasrene Taxpayer, Rob Taxpayer, and artist Shauna Corinne Murray.

“Just as we began working on this album, our guitar player Andrew had a family member gunned down and murdered at a park near his home,” says Rob. “The next day, the city came and cut down the cherry tree in front of his house. A week or two later, Andrew texted me a picture: the gnarled stump of the cherry tree had sprouted new growth. A new tree being born from the old.” Death, Taxes... and Life.

When taken as a whole, the results of “Circle Breaker” are staggering; at once furious, heartbreaking, contemplative, joyous, and moving.