On the heels of their latest album, Cooler Returns,Kiwi Jr. cooly announces their first series of live dates, kicking off with River & Sky Festival in Sudbury, Ontario on July 17. Fall and Winter dates include support with TUNS, Surfer Blood, Tobin Sprout, Trace Mountains and Nap Eyes, as well as a hometown Toronto headline show at the Horseshoe Tavern on Friday, Oct 15. Want a taste of what to expect at the band’s upcoming live shows? You can watch the group’s performance on famed Seattle radio station KEXP by clicking here. See below for a full list of dates.
Kiwi Jr. has partnered with cartoonist Dmitry Bondarenko on a 24-page booklet of illustrated lyrics, which is available at Bandcamp and on tour. Jeremy Gaudet, Kiwi Jr singer/lyricist says “To see all of the insanity of our lyrics represented visually is wild. There’s stuff I saw in here that surprised even me, and I wrote the damned thing.” For more information on Cooler Returns Comic, visit the group’s merch table or Bandcamp page.
Due to continued uncertainty about international travel restrictions, Kiwi Jr. are unfortunately postponing their September UK & Europe tour dates to February (& September) 2022. Tickets for their London show at Dalston Victoria will be honored on Saturday February 12, 2022. The band will also be supporting fellow Sub Pop artist Chad VanGaalen on several UK dates that week, as well as announcing headline dates in Scandinavia. More information will be forthcoming at www.KiwiJr.com/live
Tour Dates:
Fri. Jan. 14 - Washington DC, Songbyrd ++ @
Sat. Jan. 22 - Montreal, Bar le Ritz &
Fri.. Feb. 11 - London, UK - Dalston Victoria
Sun. Feb. 13 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club ~
Mon. Feb. 14 - Manchester, UK - Night & Day ~
Tues. Feb. 15 - Bristol, UK - Louisiana ~
Thur. Feb. 17 - Copenhagen DK - Ideal Bar
Fri. Feb. 18 - Stockholm, SE - ObarenNew tour dates:
Sat. Jul. 17 - Sudbury, ONT - River & Sky Festival
Fri. Oct. 1 - Los Angeles, CA - Gold Diggers
Fri. Oct. 15 - Toronto, Horseshoe Tavern !
Thur. Nov. 11 - New Haven, CT - Cafe Nine %
Fri. Nov. 12 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Made % $
Fri. Nov 19 - Columbus OH - Ace Of Cups $
Fri. Dec. 3 - London, ON - Rum Runners *
Sat. Dec. 4 - St. Catharine’s, ON - Warehouse *
Fri. Dec. 17 - Hamilton, ON - Bridgeworks *
Sat. Dec. 18 - Ottawa, ON - Club Saw *
Mon. Dec. 28 - Charlottetown, PEI - Trailside Music Hall &
Tues. Dec. 29 - Halifax, NS - Seahorse Tavern &
2022:
Fri. Jan. 7 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe &
Sat. Jan. 8 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s & @
Sat. Feb. 19 - Oslo, NO - Blaa
! w/ Sahara and Dorothea Paas
% w/ Surfer Blood
$ w/ Tobin Sprout
* w/ TUNS
& w/ Nap Eyes
++ w/ Trace Mountains
@ w/ Gladie
~ w/ Chad VanGaalen
The returns on Kiwi Jr’s Cooler Returns: “…The accomplished successor to this band’s promising 2019 debut finds Kiwi Jr having their cake and eating it.” - ★★★★ The Observer/TheGuardian
“Sustaining momentum near-flawlessly across 13 songs… Kiwi Jr. have the skills to match their smarts” - ★★★★ MOJO
“Canadian absurdists’ return is a lyrical delight” - Uncut
“Kiwi Jr. songs unfold like the aisles of a cluttered curio shop, their retro-rock melodies overflowing with non sequiturs and hyper-specific scraps of story.” - The AV Club
“The band rattle through a seemingly inexhaustible supply of hooks and melodies” - ★★★★ DIY
“Packed with golden hooks and subtle weirdness” - [8/10] Exclaim
“Crammed full of wry, observational wit and pop smarts in taut fashion” - [8/10] CLASH
“…still light and agile, basking in the sunlight as their vivid guitar work and straightforward vocals do the talking. They love a good hook as much as they love a charismatic, illuminating one-liner.” - PASTE
“The band’s knack for simple but sticky melody is in even clearer view on Cooler Returns.” - ★★★★ All Music
[“Cooler Returns” is] “a jangly, indie rock earworm that’ll lodge itself in your brain” -NME
“Shambolic yet catchy songs are loaded with fractured riffs and lyrical non-sequiturs” - Uproxx
“Ook de referenties zijn dik in orde: the Chills, The Strokes, The Kinks, Pavement en de vroege R.E.M. ‘Fonkelende gitaarplaat die refereert aan heden en verleden.” - [Best Albums of the Month”] OOR
“…Another mighty fine record.” - Under the Radar
“An impressive set of ‘90s-influenced slacker-rock with jangly guitars, rollicking piano and occasional organ, harmonica, and other instrumentation, along with observational, often-sardonic lyrics and an abundance of catchy song hooks. - KEXP
“Cooler Returns is all hits, a baker’s dozen of ridiculously catchy three-minute pop nuggets that deliver massive sing-along-choruses…” - Brooklyn Vegan
“A bloody good album full of vivid charm” - ★★★★ NARC
“They understand sarcasm, can write clever, funny lyrics and don’t take themselves completely seriously.” [9/10] - God Is In The TV
“Perfect pop-songs” - Louder Than War
“Cooler Returns is everything you might expect from a band like Kiwi Jr., and so much more.” - [4/5] Stereoboard
“Angular, catchy as hell, revved up power-pop racket” ★★★★ Shindig
“What sets Kiwi Jr. apart from their peers though is their madcap view of the world and Cooler Returns establishes them as a band too confident to conform; a band who have all the skills to match their lyrical smarts” - [8/10] Line Of Best Fit
“L’année 2021 ne pouvait mieux commencer qu’avec cet excellent disque a l’entrain communicatif, d’une inspiration jubilatoire, veritable rayon de soleil au cour de l’hiver”- [4/5] Rock & Folk (France)
“Les quatre musiciens de Toronto ne changent pas leur formule gagnante et livrent une guitare jangly élégante et efficace.” - Les Inrocks (France)
“…Timeless, memorable, beautifully crafted pop songs” - Echoes and Dust
”Cooler Returns is an impressive achievement” -Our Culture
“…A jangle-pop delight filled with tight hooks and creative tales” - The Revue
Kiwi Jr. Cooler Returns
Tracklisting 1. Tyler 2. Undecided Voters 3. Maid Marian’s Toast 4. Highlights of 100 5. Only Here for a Haircut 6. Cooler Returns 7. Guilty Party 8. Omaha 9. Domino 10. Nashville Wedding 11. Dodger 12. Norma Jean’s Jacket 13. Waiting in Line
No Trace Evidence is a short mini-documentary of Kiwi Jr’s recording process during the Summer of Covid 19, a candid peak into the recording studio as well as al fresco out-door mixing, isolation booths, temperature checks and black cats crossing their path.
Self-released internationally in January 2020, Kiwi Jr.’s Football Money was a critical smash, earning 4 and 5 star rave reviews. Primed for the buzz of a UK tour, festivals and SxSW, Covid 19 pulled the carpet out from under the bands’ plans. But just as suddenly, out of the blue, a record offer arrived via email from Sub Pop Records who had not yet seen, met or spoken to the band.
Pandemic-be-damned, Kiwi Jr. recorded their second album Cooler Returns in July, and full-speed ahead, released the first single in September and the album in January 2021, again to critical accolades and the praise of indie rock connoisseurs.
With Toronto in and out of lock-downs, slow vaccine rollout and the finger-pointing of Ontario Pandemic Politics, the band wonder will they ever tour?
Directed by Sean Egerton Foreman, who previously shot the bands’ videos for “Cooler Returns”, “Maid Marion’s Toast” and “Gimme More”.
Beginning on September 10th, Kiwi Jr will embark on a 9+ dates EU tour, with live performances at this year’s Waves Festival and additional shows in Vienna, Amsterdam, Manchester, London, Paris and Luxembourg (See below for full list of dates.)
BBC 6Music “Album of the Day” today, January 28th!
★★★★ 4 Stars: The Observer/Guardian, MOJO, Visions, Les Inrocks, DIY, All Music, NARC, Shindig 8/10: Exclaim, CLASH, The Line of Best Fit
Kiwi Jr. has delivered an official video for “Maid Marian’s Toast,” a standout from their just released Cooler Returns, their new album out now on Sub Pop/Kiwi Club. Jeremy Gaudet says of the video, “Footage was compiled from behind the scenes filming of the Cooler Returns recording sessions during the pandemic. Shot in July by director Sean Egerton Foreman and Johan Arthurs, the studio was sweltering and shorts were the only option.”
Cooler Returns and it’s singles have also seen international praise and notices from the likes of The Observer/The Guardian, MOJO, CLASH, Uncut, Les Inrocks (France), Visions (Germany), OOR Monthly (Netherlands), The AV Club, Exclaim, Under the Radar, The Line of Best Fit, All Music, So Young, Brooklyn Vegan, Pitchfork, NME, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, and more. Cooler Returns is also BBC 6Music’s “Album of the Day” today, Thursday, January 28th.
The returns on Kiwi Jr’s Cooler Returns: “…The accomplished successor to this band’s promising 2019 debut finds Kiwi Jr having their cake and eating it.” - ★★★★ The Observer/TheGuardian
“Sustaining momentum near-flawlessly across 13 songs… Kiwi Jr. have the skills to match their smarts” - ★★★★ MOJO
“Canadian absurdists’ return is a lyrical delight” - Uncut
“Kiwi Jr. songs unfold like the aisles of a cluttered curio shop, their retro-rock melodies overflowing with non sequiturs and hyper-specific scraps of story.” - The AV Club
“The band rattle through a seemingly inexhaustible supply of hooks and melodies” - ★★★★ DIY
“Packed with golden hooks and subtle weirdness” - [8/10] Exclaim
“Crammed full of wry, observational wit and pop smarts in taut fashion” - [8/10] CLASH
“…Still light and agile, basking in the sunlight as their vivid guitar work and straightforward vocals do the talking. They love a good hook as much as they love a charismatic, illuminating one-liner.” - PASTE
“The band’s knack for simple but sticky melody is in even clearer view on Cooler Returns.” - ★★★★ All Music
[“Cooler Returns” is] “a jangly, indie rock earworm that’ll lodge itself in your brain” -NME
“Shambolic yet catchy songs are loaded with fractured riffs and lyrical non-sequiturs” - Uproxx
“Ook de referenties zijn dik in orde: the Chills, The Strokes, The Kinks, Pavement en de vroege R.E.M. ‘Fonkelende gitaarplaat die refereert aan heden en verleden.” - [Best Albums of the Month”] OOR
“…Another mighty fine record.” - Under the Radar
“An impressive set of ‘90s-influenced slacker-rock with jangly guitars, rollicking piano and occasional organ, harmonica, and other instrumentation, along with observational, often-sardonic lyrics and an abundance of catchy song hooks. - KEXP
“Cooler Returns is all hits, a baker’s dozen of ridiculously catchy three-minute pop nuggets that deliver massive sing-along-choruse…” - Brooklyn Vegan
“A bloody good album full of vivid charm” - ★★★★ NARC
“They understand sarcasm, can write clever, funny lyrics and don’t take themselves completely seriously.” [9/10] - God Is In The TV
“Perfect pop-songs” - Louder Than War
“Cooler Returns is everything you might expect from a band like Kiwi Jr., and so much more.” - [4/5] Stereoboard
“Angular, catchy as hell, revved up power-pop racket” ★★★★ Shindig
“What sets Kiwi Jr. apart from their peers though is their madcap view of the world and Cooler Returns establishes them as a band too confident to conform; a band who have all the skills to match their lyrical smarts” - [8/10] Line Of Best Fit
“L’année 2021 ne pouvait mieux commencer qu’avec cet excellent disque a l’entrain communicatif, d’une inspiration jubilatoire, veritable rayon de soleil au cour de l’hiver”- [4/5] Rock & Folk (France)
“Les quatre musiciens de Toronto ne changent pas leur formule gagnante et livrent une guitare jangly élégante et efficace.” - Les Inrocks (France)
“…Timeless, memorable, beautifully crafted pop songs” - Echoes and Dust
”Cooler Returns is an impressive achievement” -Our Culture
“…A jangle-pop delight filled with tight hooks and creative tales” - The Revue
Kiwi Jr. Cooler Returns
Tracklisting 1. Tyler 2. Undecided Voters 3. Maid Marian’s Toast 4. Highlights of 100 5. Only Here for a Haircut 6. Cooler Returns 7. Guilty Party 8. Omaha 9. Domino 10. Nashville Wedding 11. Dodger 12. Norma Jean’s Jacket 13. Waiting in Line
Toronto’s Kiwi Jr.Cooler Returns, the follow up to their acclaimed debut Football Money, is available now on CD/LP/CD/DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop, with the exception of Canada through the band’s Kiwi Club imprint.
[Photo credit: Warren Calbeck]
Buildings burning in every direction; macabre unknowns in your friendly neighbor’s basement; undecided voters sharpening their pencils: under pressure we could call Kiwi Jr.’s Cooler Returns“timely.” But what year is it, again? On their sophomoric smash-up released world-wide by Sub Pop Records, Kiwi Jr. cycle through the recent zigs & looming zags of the new decade, squinting anew at New Year’s parties forgotten and under-investigated small town diner fires, piecing together low-stakes conspiracy theories on what’s coming down the pike in 2021. Put together like a thousand-piece puzzle, assembled in flow state through the first dull stretch of quarantine, sanitized singer shuffling to sanitized studio by streetcar, masked like it’s the kind of work where getting recognized means getting killed, Cooler Returnsmaterializes as a sprawling survey from the first few bites of the terrible twenties, an investigative exposé of recent history buried under the headlines & ancient kings buried under parking lots.
Not so long since their debut Football Money in archaeological time, unending gray eons later in the dog years of quaran-time, spiritually antipodean Canadians Kiwi Jr. return to disseminate this year’s annual report to the shareholders, burying the incriminating numbers in the endless appendices of a longform narrative record, a 3,000 word tract for stakeholders to pore over.
Cooler Returns - memories of Augusts past, unrepressed & transcribed fast - go down easier thanks to meaningful changes enacted in 2019’s KiwiCares Pledge: delivering on a promise to transition from Crunchy to Smooth by 2021, the caveman chug of Football Money has been steamed & pressed with the purifying air of a saloon piano - operated with bow-tie untied - and a spring green side-salad of tentatively up-tempo organ taps & freshly fluted harmonica.
A chronically detuned spin of the dial through swivel-chair distractions & WFH daydreams, an immersive ctrl-tab deluge cycling through popular listicle distractions like the unentombing of Richard III, or the deja vu destruction of the Glasgow School of Art, Kiwi Jr. sing this song to an indoor audience, crisscrossing canceled, every other prestige distraction source wrung dry, only songwriting remaining to deliver engrossing tales to the populace, just how I imagine it worked in the old days. Fixing loose ingredients into a sturdy whip, Kiwi Jr. beam in live from the 9-5, striding into 2021 with a mastered brainwave that comes equally from the back room of the record store as the penalty box. And how do we, left holding this box of deliberate entanglements, sign off to those as yet uninitiated, undecided, uncertain, unseen, absent return coordinates - Best Wishes, Warm Regards, Good Luck? Cooler Returns, Cooler Returns, C o o l e r R e t u r n s !
Kiwi Jr. Cooler Returns has seen praise from the likes of MOJO, who in its four-star review, raves, “sustaining momentum near-flawlessly across 13 songs…proves Kiwi Jr. have the skills to match their smarts.” Uncut says, “Canadian absurdists’ return is a lyrical delight”, DIY offers this, “The band rattle through a seemingly inexhaustible supply of hooks and melodies (4/5).”, and NARC proclaims, “Cooler Returns is a bloody good album full of vivid charm (4/5).”
More on Kiwi Jr.: “A scratchy post-punk jam with some seriously funny lyrics.” [“Cooler Returns”] - Stereogum
“The latest glimpse into their 2021 debut album, “Undecided Voters” is an upbeat indie rock song filled with layers of social commentary woven under the seemingly random surface of the lyrics.” - PASTE
“Very catchy and very timely” [“Undecided Voters”] - Brooklyn Vegan
Dinked Edition:
Kiwi Jr.
Cooler Returns
Tracklisting 1. Tyler 2. Undecided Voters 3. Maid Marian’s Toast 4. Highlights of 100 5. Only Here for a Haircut 6. Cooler Returns 7. Guilty Party 8. Omaha 9. Domino 10. Nashville Wedding 11. Dodger 12. Norma Jean’s Jacket 13. Waiting in Line
Cooler Returns is now available for preorder through Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in the US will receive the limited Loser edition on translucent gold colored vinyl (while supplies last). Preorders through select independent retailers in the UK and Europe will receive the Loser on white colored vinyl (while supplies last).
There is an additional limited edition version of Cooler Returns from participating Dinked retailers in the UK that will be available on yellow colored vinyl with a signed print and a sequentially numbered obi strip (while supplies last).
“A jaunty rocker that immediately aligns them with Australian favourites (and now label-mates) Rolling Blackouts CF, “Undecided Voters” takes precisely 0.5 listens to get under your skin, being as it is so packed with vibrant guitars, propulsive percussion and ever-appearing earworm melodies…” - Beats Per Minute
“If their debut Football Money, which so gratifyingly warmed the sceptics within us with their comfortably layered hooks and dry sardonic perception of the metropolitan dream, was their run for local town mayor – ‘Undecided Voters’ is their big money shot at the senatorship.” - So Young
“As we prepare for perhaps the most theatrical and gladiatorial political debate in history, ‘Undecided Voters’ is simultaneously extremely funny and painfully prescient.” - The Line of Best Fit
“The track channels a breezy 90s sort of indie rock anthem of sorts, that feels part slacker anthem and something much grander and anthemic at the very same time.” [“Cooler Returns”] - We All Want Someone To Shout For
“The four-piece’s refined pop sensibilities haven’t entirely escaped them in light of those cracks coming completely unglued early on in the track. If anything, they sound like a vehicle headed downhill without any brakes, momentum balling up, and a shit-eating grin worn on each of their faces approaching collision.” [“Cooler Returns”] - Recommended Listen
“On paper, the lyrics of Kiwi Jr.’s ‘Cooler Returns’ reads like a mildly anxious stream-of-consciousness that careens from an uncomfortable Super Bowl Sunday to being “strung out on the back of your ATV / throwing dead birds into the air”. But the song’s also a jangly, indie rock earworm that’ll lodge itself in that part of your brain that loves Pavement.” [“Cooler Returns”] - NME
“Having heard the new album, Cooler Returns…we can attest that they have lost exactly none of the naïvety of style that had them create such infectious tunes the first time around.” - Louder Than War
Kiwi Jr. is sharing an official video for “Waiting in Line,” a new offering and highlight from Cooler Returns, their forthcoming album. The video was directed by Laura-Lynn Petrick and captures a day in the life of the band in their homebase of Toronto, Ontario.
“We like the candid and casual approach of director Laura-Lynn’s previous videos, including Weyes Blood, Jessica Pratt, Michael Rault, Twist, and she was excited by our idea to wander around downtown Toronto while it was something of a ghost-town.” says singer Jeremy Gaudet.
Kiwi Jr. Cooler Returns has seen praise from the likes of MOJO, who in its four-star review, raves, “sustaining momentum near-flawlessly across 13 songs…proves Kiwi Jr. have the skills to match their smarts.” Uncut says, “Canadian absurdists’ return is a lyrical delight”, DIY offers this, “The band rattle through a seemingly inexhaustible supply of hooks and melodies (4/5).”, and NARC proclaims, “Cooler Returns is a bloody good album full of vivid charm (4/5).”
Cooler Returns will be available on CD/LP/CD/DSPs January 22nd, 2021 worldwide through Sub Pop, with the exception of Canada through the band’s Kiwi Club imprint.
More on Kiwi Jr.: “A scratchy post-punk jam with some seriously funny lyrics.” [“Cooler Returns”] - Stereogum
“The latest glimpse into their 2021 debut album, “Undecided Voters” is an upbeat indie rock song filled with layers of social commentary woven under the seemingly random surface of the lyrics.” - PASTE
“Very catchy and very timely” [“Undecided Voters”] - Brooklyn Vegan
“A jaunty rocker that immediately aligns them with Australian favourites (and now label-mates) Rolling Blackouts CF, “Undecided Voters” takes precisely 0.5 listens to get under your skin, being as it is so packed with vibrant guitars, propulsive percussion and ever-appearing earworm melodies…” - Beats Per Minute
“If their debut Football Money, which so gratifyingly warmed the sceptics within us with their comfortably layered hooks and dry sardonic perception of the metropolitan dream, was their run for local town mayor – ‘Undecided Voters’ is their big money shot at the senatorship.” - So Young
“As we prepare for perhaps the most theatrical and gladiatorial political debate in history, ‘Undecided Voters’ is simultaneously extremely funny and painfully prescient.” - The Line of Best Fit
“The track channels a breezy 90s sort of indie rock anthem of sorts, that feels part slacker anthem and something much grander and anthemic at the very same time.” [“Cooler Returns”] - We All Want Someone To Shout For
“The four-piece’s refined pop sensibilities haven’t entirely escaped them in light of those cracks coming completely unglued early on in the track. If anything, they sound like a vehicle headed downhill without any brakes, momentum balling up, and a shit-eating grin worn on each of their faces approaching collision.” [“Cooler Returns”] - Recommended Listen
“On paper, the lyrics of Kiwi Jr.’s ‘Cooler Returns’ reads like a mildly anxious stream-of-consciousness that careens from an uncomfortable Super Bowl Sunday to being “strung out on the back of your ATV / throwing dead birds into the air”. But the song’s also a jangly, indie rock earworm that’ll lodge itself in that part of your brain that loves Pavement.” [“Cooler Returns”] - NME
“Having heard the new album, Cooler Returns…we can attest that they have lost exactly none of the naïvety of style that had them create such infectious tunes the first time around.” - Louder Than War
Kiwi Jr. Cooler Returns
Tracklisting 1. Tyler 2. Undecided Voters 3. Maid Marian’s Toast 4. Highlights of 100 5. Only Here for a Haircut 6. Cooler Returns 7. Guilty Party 8. Omaha 9. Domino 10. Nashville Wedding 11. Dodger 12. Norma Jean’s Jacket 13. Waiting in Line
Cooler Returns is now available for preorder through Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in the US will receive the limited Loser edition on translucent gold colored vinyl (while supplies last). Preorders through select independent retailers in the UK and Europe will receive the Loser on white colored vinyl (while supplies last).
There is an additional limited edition version of Cooler Returns from participating Dinked retailers in the UK that will be available on yellow colored vinyl with a signed print and a sequentially numbered obi strip (while supplies last).
Toronto’s Kiwi Jr. will release Cooler Returns the group’s new album and the follow up to their acclaimed debut Football Money, on CD/LP/CD/DSPs January 22nd, 2021 worldwide through Sub Pop, with the exception of Canada through the band’s Kiwi Club imprint.
Today the band is sharing the official video for “Cooler Returns,” the album’s title track and new single, which was directed by Sean Egerton Foreman (who directed Kiwi Jr’s “Gimme More” in January 2020). Singer Jeremy Gaudet comments on the video: “No one is able to play live shows, so using the latest technology we have replicated the most accurate version possible of what Kiwi Jr. shows once looked like.
Buildings burning in every direction; macabre unknowns in your friendly neighbor’s basement; undecided voters sharpening their pencils: under pressure we could call Kiwi Jr.’s Cooler Returns“timely.” But what year is it, again? On their sophomoric smash-up released world-wide by Sub Pop Records, Kiwi Jr. cycle through the recent zigs & looming zags of the new decade, squinting anew at New Year’s parties forgotten and under-investigated small town diner fires, piecing together low-stakes conspiracy theories on what’s coming down the pike in 2021. Put together like a thousand-piece puzzle, assembled in flow state through the first dull stretch of quarantine, sanitized singer shuffling to sanitized studio by streetcar, masked like it’s the kind of work where getting recognized means getting killed, Cooler Returnsmaterializes as a sprawling survey from the first few bites of the terrible twenties, an investigative exposé of recent history buried under the headlines & ancient kings buried under parking lots.
[Photo credit: Warren Calbeck]
Not so long since their debut Football Money in archaeological time, unending gray eons later in the dog years of quaran-time, spiritually antipodean Canadians Kiwi Jr. return to disseminate this year’s annual report to the shareholders, burying the incriminating numbers in the endless appendices of a longform narrative record, a 3,000 word tract for stakeholders to pore over.
Cooler Returns - memories of Augusts past, unrepressed & transcribed fast - go down easier thanks to meaningful changes enacted in 2019’s KiwiCares Pledge: delivering on a promise to transition from Crunchy to Smooth by 2021, the caveman chug of Football Money has been steamed & pressed with the purifying air of a saloon piano - operated with bow-tie untied - and a spring green side-salad of tentatively up-tempo organ taps & freshly fluted harmonica.
A chronically detuned spin of the dial through swivel-chair distractions & WFH daydreams, an immersive ctrl-tab deluge cycling through popular listicle distractions like the unentombing of Richard III, or the deja vu destruction of the Glasgow School of Art, Kiwi Jr. sing this song to an indoor audience, crisscrossing canceled, every other prestige distraction source wrung dry, only songwriting remaining to deliver engrossing tales to the populace, just how I imagine it worked in the old days. Fixing loose ingredients into a sturdy whip, Kiwi Jr. beam in live from the 9-5, striding into 2021 with a mastered brainwave that comes equally from the back room of the record store as the penalty box. And how do we, left holding this box of deliberate entanglements, sign off to those as yet uninitiated, undecided, uncertain, unseen, absent return coordinates - Best Wishes, Warm Regards, Good Luck? Cooler Returns, Cooler Returns, C o o l e r R e t u r n s !
[North American Loser Edition]
Cooler Returns is now available for preorder through Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in the US will receive the limited Loser edition on translucent gold colored vinyl (while supplies last). Preorders through select independent retailers in the UK and Europe will receive the Loser on white colored vinyl (while supplies last).
There is an additional limited edition version of Cooler Returns from participating Dinked retailers in the UK that will be available on yellow colored vinyl with a signed print and a sequentially numbered obi strip (while supplies last).
Kiwi Jr. Cooler Returns Tracklisting 1. Tyler 2. Undecided Voters 3. Maid Marian’s Toast 4. Highlights of 100 5. Only Here for a Haircut 6. Cooler Returns 7. Guilty Party 8. Omaha 9. Domino 10. Nashville Wedding 11. Dodger 12. Norma Jean’s Jacket 13. Waiting in Line
