On Friday, June 2nd, Bully (aka Alicia Bognanno), will release Lucky For You, her kaleidoscopic new full-length on CD/LP/CS/DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop. The 10-track album combines punk grit, crunchy shoegaze bliss, and an explosive Britpop bop, all mixed in with the classic anthems Bully is known for. 
 
Lucky For You was recorded in 2022 at MMK Studios and Alicia’s House in Nashville, with help from producer JT Daly and mastered by Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound.
 
This pulsating lead banger, “Days Move Slow,” was written after the passing of her beloved dog and best friend, Mezzi. Bognanno offers this, “as someone who has spent the majority of my life feeling agonizingly misunderstood, there is no greater gift than experiencing true unconditional love and acceptance. I waited my whole life for the bond and irreplaceable companionship I had with Mezzi. She was my best friend and my only constant through some of the most pivotal moments and phases of my life. I was a stranger to the level of love I now know exists because of Mezzi. Love you forever; I’m lucky for you.” 
 
The “Days Move Slow” official video was directed by Alex Ross Perry, who shares about this collaboration, “This is my third time collaborating with Alicia, but my first time collaborating with Bully. Having written the original songs for my film Her Smell and performed at the Pavement Museum Tribute Concert “scene” for my forthcoming film on them, I can’t believe I finally got to make a Bully video. Right away, it seemed striking to make a piece as stark and measured as possible, not to make a video that replicates the song’s sonic energy but to visualize the emotional weight and feelings of loss and grief depicted in the lyrics. Alicia doesn’t seem to have been filmed in 16mm black and white before, so it was a no-brainer to give that a try.” You can watch this brilliant new video HERE. 

Bully is extending her North American tour dates for 2023 in support of Lucky For You with new headlining shows. Dates kick-off June 4th in Charlottesville, VA, with headline stops at NYC’s Racket, Chicago’s Thalia Hall, and a hometown show at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl. Tickets for these shows are on sale on Friday, March 24th, at 10:00 AM (local).
 
These new shows will follow Bully’s previously announced headlining UK/EU tour (May 20th-28th) and her 13-date main support for the Pixies and Franz Ferdinand (June 8th-25th). See below for a current list of Bully live shows.
 

 
Lucky For You’s announcement was preceded by the release of the album track “Lose You,” Bully’s, which features guest vocal harmonies from Sophia Allison, aka Soccer Mommy. The song garnered support from Pitchfork, NME, DIY, The Fader, The Line of Best Fit, Under the Radar, and RollingStone. Stereogum says of the track, “It meets in the midpoint between the two bands’ aesthetics, trading out Bully’s usual rapid-speed intensity for an ambling ’90s alt-rock vibes while holding onto the raw power. It might be the most purely catchy Bully song to date.” 
 
More about Bully:
Lucky For You is Bully’s most close-to-the-bone album yet. It’s an album that’s searing and unmistakably marked by its creator’s experiences, while still retaining the massive sound that Alicia Bognanno has become known for over the last decade. Her fourth album draws from personal pain and the universal struggle that is existing, learning, and moving on—and it’s all soundtracked by Bognanno’s rock-solid melodic sensibilities and a widescreen sound that’s impossible to pin down when it comes to the textures explored. These ten songs are simply the most irresistible Bognanno’s put to tape yet, making Lucky For You her greatest triumph to date in a career already packed with them.
 
Work on Lucky For You began last year when Bognanno brought some in-progress demos to producer J.T. Daly in his Nashville studio to see if they could strike creative kismet. “Authenticity is always on my mind, without even knowing it,” she explains while discussing their recording process together. “If I’m doing something that doesn’t feel natural or right, I’m quick to shut it down. So it was great to work with J.T. because I could tell he was a genuine fan who wanted to emphasize what he thinks is good about my writing instead of changing it. I could tell how much he cared about the project, and it meant a lot to me.” The album came together over the course of seven months, the longest gestation process for a Bully record to date: “I was freaking out about it at first because taking my time was so new for me. But a few months in, I realized how crucial that time ended up being. I got songs out of it that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
 
“With every record, I feel more and more secure in terms of doing what I want,” Bognanno continues. “For this one, I wanted to be as creative as possible with these songs.” She got her wish: A kaleidoscopic rock record spanning punk’s grit, the crunchy bliss of shoegaze, explosive Britpop, and the type of classic anthems Bully has been known for, Lucky For You’s thematic focus also zooms in on grief and loss. The record is largely inspired by Bognanno’s dog Mezzi passing away, at a time when her life already felt as if in metamorphosis.
 
“Mezzi was my best friend,” she explains. “She made me feel safe and empowered, she showed me that I was worth loving and never judged me or viewed me as a let down. I always felt accepted, understood and so much less alone. Mezzi was living, breathing proof that I was worthy of being loved.” And the oceanic first single “Days Move Slow” was written shortly after Mezzi’s passing, reflecting the persistence of Bognanno’s incisive wit even while facing adversity. “There was nothing else I could do except sit down and write.”
 
“Hard to Love” stomps and lurches with awesome abandon, resembling one of the most sonically left-field tunes Bognanno’s put to tape as Bully; and then there’s the passionate opening track “All I Do,” which kicks in the door Bully-style with huge riffs atop her lyrical reflections on three years of sobriety. “I’ve been living in this house for seven years,” she says while discussing her current Nashville abode. “Once I stopped drinking, I felt like I was still haunted by mistakes and things that had happened when I was drinking, and it’s still taking me a long time to forget about that while existing in this house. How do I shed the skin from a path I’ve moved on from?”
 
In that vein, Lucky For You is a document of perseverance in the face of the big and the small stuff. “I’m so overly emotional and sensitive, it’s a blessing and a curse,” she says with a laugh, but there’s no downside to her expressions of vulnerability on this record; it’s the latest bit of evidence that nothing can hold Bognanno back.

Bully
Lucky For You
 
Tracklisting:
1. All I Do
2. Days Move Slow
3. A Wonderful Life
4. Hard to Love
5. Change Your Mind
6. How Will I Know
7. A Love Profound
8. Lose You
9. Ms. America
10. All This Noise

Bully aka Alicia Bognanno is sharing “Lose You,” a new, gorgeous and fuzzy melancholic rocker, out today worldwide on all DSPs from Sub Pop. The single was recorded in 2022, at MMK Studios and Alicia’s House in Nashville, mastered by Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound, and features vocal harmonies from Sophia Allison aka Soccer Mommy. 
 
Bognanno says, “When ‘Lose You’ came about it was the first time I’ve considered having someone else sing on a Bully song. I love Sophie’s voice and have always admired everything she does so to me it was a no brainer. Watching her soar out of the Nashville scene and dominate indie music world wide has been a joy. Writing ‘Lose You’ was a way for me to work through the pain and reality of impermanence. It doesn’t make it any easier but reflection is often followed by growth and to me that’s what life is all about.” 
 
Bully has announced new tour dates for the Spring and Summer of 2023. Highlights for this run of shows include: March 16th in Nashville opening for The Breeders, April 15th at the High Water Festival in North Charleston, SC, UK & EU dates May 20th-28th, and a 13-date run as main support for the Pixies and Franz Ferdinand June 8th-25th. See a full list of dates below.
 
Thu. Mar. 16 - Nashville, TN -The Basement East ^
Sat. Apr. 15 - North Charleston, SC - High Water Festival 
Sat. May 20 - Amsterdam, NL  -  London Calling Paradiso 
Mon. May 22 - Manchester, UK - Yes (Pink Room) 
Tue. May 23 - Bristol, UK - THEKLA
Thur. May 25- Birmingham, UK - Dead Wax 
Fri. May 26 - London, UK - Moth Club
Sat. May 27- Leeds, UK - Live At Leeds In The Park
Sat. Jun. 03 - Lexington, KY - Railbird Festival
Thu. Jun. 08 - Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway *
Fri. Jun. 09 - Philadelphia, PA - The Met Philadelphia *
Sat. Jun. 10 - Washington, DC - The Anthem *
Mon. Jun. 12 - Columbus, OH - KEMBA Live! *
Tue. Jun. 13 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE *
Wed. Jun. 14 - Cincinnati, OH - The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center *
Fri. Jun. 16 - Raleigh, NC - Red Hat Amphitheater *
Sat. Jun. 17 - Asheville, NC - Rabbit Rabbit *
Tue. Jun. 20 - Atlanta, GA - Coca-Cola Roxy *
Wed. Jun. 21 - New Orleans, LA - The Fillmore *
Fri. Jun. 23 - Houston, TX - Bayou Music Center *
Sat. Jun. 24 - Dallas, TX - Southside Ballroom *
Sun. Jun. 25 - Austin, TX - Moody Amphitheater *
 
^ w The Breeders
* w/ Pixies and Franz Ferdinand
 
Since the release of her 2020 critically acclaimed record, SUGAREGG which Rolling Stone described as “full-throated, wild and free” and The New Yorker credited as “too insistent not to linger,” Bognanno has kept busy by writing, producing, and touring. 
 
In 2022, Bognanno wrote the score and theme song for the NBC News Original Podcast Tiffany Dover Is Dead, which reached #1 on Apple’s podcasts chart last summer. She contributed the unreleased “Never Needed” to the limited-edition Portraits of Her charity album. Bognanno produced Bleed Out, the most recent longplayer from beloved indie mainstays The Mountain Goats. She also performed alongside an all-star band including Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail and Speedy Ortiz in Alex Ross Perry’s, musical workshop Slanted! Enchanted! which was inspired by the music of Pavement and is a part of a larger film project on the slacker-rock scene. 
 
Bognanno is currently at work on a new full length album, which will see its release later this year from Sub Pop.
 
What people have been saying about Bully:
“Sticky hooks, shout-along lyrics, and walloping, caffeinated riffs.”- Pitchfork 
 
“The most explosive collection of songs from Bognanno’s discography.” [SUGAREGG] - Under the Radar
 
“…The songs on SUGAREGG feel like the singer, songwriter, guitarist, engineer and producer has reached a new level of comfort in her relationship with herself.”  - Nashville Scene
 
“…Alicia Bognanno’s voice is as mesmeric and feral as ever, and her band sound simply, effortlessly, gigantic…you’re going to be rotting your teeth on SUGAREGG for weeks.” ★★★★ - NARC

Alicia Bognanno of Bully wrote the theme song and scored the series for a new NBC News Original Podcast entitled Tiffany Dover Is Dead which is currently the #1 podcast on Apple. “Welcome to one of the internet’s weirdest obsessions. Back in December of 2020, a nurse named Tiffany Dover fainted on camera while she was talking to reporters after getting her first COVID shot. She got right back up and gave another interview, but it was too late. A conspiracy theory was already racing around the world: Dover had died. She’d been replaced by a body double.” You can listen to the podcast here. 
 
Bognanno has also contributed “Never Needed”, a new song to the limited-edition Portraits of Her charity album, created by Record Store Day in partnership with VANS. The compilation features songs from Taylor Swift, Asiahn, Julien Baker, Banks, Leyla Blue, Boyish, Alice Longyu Gao, Laura Jane Grace, Girl in Red, Girl Ultra, K. Flay, Mariah the Scientist, Julia Michaels, Joy Oladokun, and Princess Nokia, features artwork by Sophia Enriquez, will benefit We Are Moving The Needle, a nonprofit organization supporting all women recording industry professionals, audio engineers, and producers. (‘Portraits of Her’ will be available on Saturday, April 23rd, 2022 as an exclusive RSD release). Bognanno also appears on the song “Wrecked,” off the self-titled debut from labelmate Weird Nightmare (the new project from METZ frontman, Alex Edkins), which you can listen to here. 
 
Bully has a series of headlining, support, and festival dates for the summer of 2022. On Saturday, June 25th, Bognanno and her band will perform at Nashville’s Pride Festival at the city’s Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. Bully will then hit the road for a 10-date run of shows beginning Tuesday, August 23rd in Charleston, West Virginia at Mountain Stage and ending Saturday, September 3rd at Baltimore, Maryland’s Ottobar. Along the way they’ll support Jason Isbell and Lord Huron (select dates). See full list of dates below. 
 
Sat. Jun. 25 - Nashville, TN - Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park (Nashville Pride Festival) 
Tue. Aug. 23 - Charleston, WV - Mountain Stage  *
Wed. Aug. 24 - Stacks, Bethlehem, PA - Levitt Pavilion Steel  *
Thu. Aug. 25 - Boston, MA - Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre ^
Fri. Aug, 26 - Vineyard Haven, MA - Veterans Memorial Park (Beach Road Weekend!)
Sat. Aug. 27 - Olympia, WA - South Sound Block Party
Mon. Aug. 29 - Holyoke, MA - Race Street Live
Tue. Aug. 30 - Bridgeport, CT - Hartford Healthcare Amphitheatre *
Wed. Aug. 31 - Providence, RI - Columbus Theatre 
Fri. Sep.  02 - New York, NY  -  Rooftop at Pier 17 *
Sat. Sep. 03 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
 
* w/Jason Isbell
^ w/ Lord Huron 

On the heels of Bully’s critically acclaimed 2020 release  Sugaregg comes a new single “Just For Love.” Recorded during the Sugaregg sessions, this standalone single was co-produced by John Congleton and Alicia Bognanno. You can listen to “Just For Love” HERE.
 
Starting Dec. 9th Bully will begin a 9 date Southeast/East Coast run. This run will begin in Asheville, NC with shows in Washington D.C, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston, and Pittsburgh, ending on Dec 18th. In Louisville, KY. See below for a full list of shows. 

Tour Dates:
THU. Dec 09. - Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall
FRI. Dec 10 - Charlottesville, VA - The Southern
SAT. Dec 11 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
SUN. Dec 12 - Philadelphia , PA - Underground Arts
TUE. Dec 14 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Bowl
WED. Dec 15 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
THU. Dec 16 - Lancaster, PA - Tellus 360
FRI. Dec 17 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe
SAT. Dec 18 - Louisville, KY - Zanzabar
 
What people are saying about SUGAREGG

“Full- throated, wild and free.” - Rolling Stone
 
“Sticky hooks, shout-along lyrics, and walloping, caffeinated riffs.”  - Pitchfork
 
“…These songs are too insistent not to linger.” - The New Yorker
 
“Most developed offering from Bully yet” - Vulture

“Bognanno may be continuing a great tradition, but it provides a framework for catharsis that is deeply personal and candour that feels truly progressive.” ★★★★ - The Guardian
 
“SUGAREGG is confident and assured.” ★★★★ - NME
 
“The record flows, hitting knee-skinning highs like “Stuck in Your Head” (“I just wanted to pick up the tempo!” Bognanno sing-songs as the band counts off), barn-burners like “You” (about, it seems, an absent parent) and the hauntingly discordant “Hours and Hours.” Whatever the subject matter, whatever the tempo, each track finds Bognanno full-throated, wild and free…their most self-assured album yet.” ★★★½ - RollingStone
 
“SUGAREGG shows a musician at the top of their game, unafraid to take themselves a little less seriously than before.” ★★★★½  - The Forty Five
 
“When push comes to shove, SUGAREGG goes far to ease and maintain the cool in encountering happy sentiments and combine them with a fuck-it-all attitude. It is the blistering irresistibility of what is achieved at that point, which makes this record striking and inescapable.”[8/10] - CLASH
 
“This is joyous bubblegum grunge…Alicia Bognanno’s voice is as mesmeric and feral as ever, and her band sound simply, effortlessly, gigantic…you’re going to be rotting your teeth on SUGAREGG for weeks.” ★★★★ - NARC
 
“It’s a product full of joy, not maddening, but genuinely uplifting and encouraging. It’s also the best thing Bognanno has written. As the public is becoming increasingly accustomed to performances composed of lies and consistent sleight of hand, it’s rewarding to see someone go in the opposite direction and peel back the layers, revealing a freer and more transparent artistic self. It clearly hasn’t been easy, but on this basis, it certainly seems worth it.” - The Line Of Best Fit
 
“The most explosive collection of songs from Bognanno’s discography.” - Under the Radar
 
“…The songs on SUGAREGG feel like the singer, songwriter, guitarist, engineer and producer has reached a new level of comfort in her relationship with herself.” - Nashville Scene

Beginning on July 31st in Columbus, OH, Bully will embark on a 10 date North American run with shows in, Nashville, Atlanta, St. Louis, Chicago, and Seattle, ending on September 11th at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles. These dates are in support of the band’s critically acclaimed 2020 release, SUGAREGG. 

To celebrate their impending tour dates, you can now watch a full-band performance of the lead single “Where to Start” filmed at Drkmttr in Nashville, TN. SUGAREGG was one of the best-reviewed albums of 2020, receiving accolades from the likes of The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, CLASH, DIY, Alternative Press, Nashville Scene, Spin, Stereogum (“Album of the Week”), and Bandcamp (“Album of the Day”).

At radio, SUGAREGG peaked at #1 on the NACC 200 college radio for three weeks. The album also reached #1 on the SubModern commercial specialty chart. Support at radio is coming from many big stations including Sirius’s “ALT NATION” and “XMU,” Music Choice, The Current and GO 96.3 in Minneapolis, KEXP in Seattle, Radio Milwaukee, and many more!
 
Bully’s Alicia Bognanno also recorded sessions with KEXP, The Current, and Lightning 100 in Nashville. 
 
SUGAREGG was produced and mixed by John Congleton and Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, with additional production and mixing by Graham Walsh, recorded at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and Palace Sound in Toronto, Ontario, and mastered by Heba Kadry. 

SUGAREGG is available worldwide from Sub Pop.
 
Tour Dates:
Jul. 31 - Columbus, OH - Skully’s Music Diner
Aug. 14 - Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge
Aug. 20 - Birmingham, AL - Saturn
Aug. 21 - Atlanta, GA - The EARL    
Aug. 26 - St Louis, MO - Off Broadway
Aug. 28 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
Aug. 30 - Milwaukee, WI - Back Room at Colectivo
Aug. 31 - Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line Music Hall
Sep. 04 - Seattle, WA - Neumos
Sep. 11 - Los Angeles, CA - Bootleg Theatre

Grab your tickets here.
 
What people are saying about SUGAREGG:
“Bognanno may be continuing a great tradition, but it provides a framework for catharsis that is deeply personal and candour that feels truly progressive.” ★★★★ - The Guardian
 
“SUGAREGG is confident and assured.” ★★★★ - NME
 
“The record flows, hitting knee-skinning highs like “Stuck in Your Head” (“I just wanted to pick up the tempo!” Bognanno sing-songs as the band counts off), barn-burners like “You” (about, it seems, an absent parent) and the hauntingly discordant “Hours and Hours.” Whatever the subject matter, whatever the tempo, each track finds Bognanno full-throated, wild and free…their most self-assured album yet.” ★★★½ - RollingStone
 
“SUGAREGG shows a musician at the top of their game, unafraid to take themselves a little less seriously than before.” ★★★★½  - The Forty Five
 
“When push comes to shove, SUGAREGG goes far to ease and maintain the cool in encountering happy sentiments and combine them with a fuck-it-all attitude. It is the blistering irresistibility of what is achieved at that point, which makes this record striking and inescapable.”[8/10] - CLASH
 
“This is joyous bubblegum grunge…Alicia Bognanno’s voice is as mesmeric and feral as ever, and her band sound simply, effortlessly, gigantic…you’re going to be rotting your teeth on SUGAREGG for weeks.” ★★★★ - NARC
 
“It’s a product full of joy, not maddening, but genuinely uplifting and encouraging. It’s also the best thing Bognanno has written. As the public is becoming increasingly accustomed to performances composed of lies and consistent sleight of hand, it’s rewarding to see someone go in the opposite direction and peel back the layers, revealing a freer and more transparent artistic self. It clearly hasn’t been easy, but on this basis, it certainly seems worth it.” - The Line Of Best Fit
 
“The most explosive collection of songs from Bognanno’s discography.” - Under the Radar
 
“…The songs on SUGAREGG feel like the singer, songwriter, guitarist, engineer and producer has reached a new level of comfort in her relationship with herself.” - Nashville Scene

Bully
SUGAREGG
 
Tracklisting:
1. Add It On
2. Every Tradition
3. Where to Start
4. Prism
5. You
6. Let You
7. Like Fire
8. Stuck in Your Head
9. Come Down
10. Not Ashamed
11. Hours and Hours
12. What I Wanted

Stream SUGAREGG -> smarturl.it/Bully_SUGAREGG

SUGAREGG, the incredible new album from Bully is now available for the world to hear through Sub Pop. The critically acclaimed album has been receiving accolades from such places as The New York Times, Alternative Press, Nashville Scene, Spin, RollingStone, Stereogum (Album of the Week), Bandcamp (Album of the day), DIY, and The Guardian to name a few.  Bully mastermind Alicia Bognanno also recently recorded radio sessions with KEXP in Seattle, WA, and The Current in Minneapolis.

SUGAREGG is available worldwide now through Sub Pop. LP orders through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on a translucent blue w/white “smoke” colored vinyl while supplies last. Meanwhile, preorders in the U.K. and Europe through select independent retailers will receive the Loser edition on transparent red vinyl. There is also a new t-shirt design.

SUGAREGG, was produced and mixed by John Congleton and Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, with additional production and mixing by Graham Walsh, recorded at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and Palace Sound in Toronto, Ontario, and mastered by Heba Kadry. 

[Photo credit: Angelina Castillo]

What “The People” have been saying about Bully:

The record flows, hitting knee-skinning highs like “Stuck in Your Head” (“I just wanted to pick up the tempo!” Bognanno sing-songs as the band counts off), barn-burners like “You” (about, it seems, an absent parent) and the hauntingly discordant “Hours and Hours.” Whatever the subject matter, whatever the tempo, each track finds Bognanno full-throated, wild and free…their most self-assured album yet.  [SUGAREGG/ 4.5 stars] - Rolling Stone

“‘SUGAREGG’ shows a musician at the top of their game, unafraid to take themselves a little less seriously than before.” [SUGAREGG]  The Forty Five

“It’s a product full of joy, not maddening, but genuinely uplifting and encouraging. It’s also the best thing Bognanno has written. As the public is becoming increasingly accustomed to performances composed of lies and consistent sleight of hand, it’s rewarding to see someone go in the opposite direction and peel back the layers, revealing a freer and more transparent artistic self. It clearly hasn’t been easy, but on this basis, it certainly seems worth it.” The Line Of Best Fit

“The most explosive collection of songs from Bognanno’s discography.” [SUGAREGG] - Under the Radar

“…The songs on SUGAREGG feel like the singer, songwriter, guitarist, engineer and producer has reached a new level of comfort in her relationship with herself.”  [SUGAREGG] - Nashville Scene

“This is joyous bubblegum grunge…Alicia Bognanno’s voice is as mesmeric and feral as ever, and her band sound simply, effortlessly, gigantic…you’re going to be rotting your teeth on SUGAREGG for weeks.”  [SUGAREGG, ★★★★] - NARC