QUICKSAND Announces First Album In Five Years, 'Bring On The Psychics'

Legendary independent New York-based rock label Equal Vision Records and QUICKSAND have announced the Friday, July 17 release of "Bring On The Psychics", the brand new album from the New York City post-hardcore veterans. Marking an entirely new era for the storied three-piece — guitarist/vocalist Walter Schreifels, bassist/vocalist Sergio Vega and drummer Alan Cage — "Bring On The Psychics" serves as the sonic bridge between the band's heavy and influential Nineties sound and the ambitious, experimental output contained within its more recent era. Produced and mixed by Jon Markson (DRUG CHURCH, DRAIN) across 10 days, "Bring On The Psychics" once again finds QUICKSAND reinventing the sound they helped pioneer.

Watch the music video for "Get To It", directed and edited by Jesse Korman, below. Also available is a stream of "Regenerate".

Schreifels had the following to share about the two brand new singles: "It's tough to talk about your own music and what it means, not only because I sometimes don't understand it myself but in a way it robs the listener of their own interpretation. So if you don't want that, read no further. Otherwise, with 'Get To It' and 'Regenerate' we wanted to do something high-energy and straightforward with a positive feeling. 'Get To It' is about 'getting to it', poking holes in the excuses for standing still. Procrastination is something I've struggled with my whole life so I'm always looking for a new mantra to help overcome my tendency to put things off. 'Regenerate' is about finding new paths forward. It's a theme I think we all return to. No matter how well you play it, life will keep taking things away from you. It sucks but this is how we learn and grow as people, so it might be we're living the most when faced with having to get back up from a hard hit."

It's impossible to overstate the influence that QUICKSAND have on the hardcore scene. Formed in New York City in 1990 out of the ashes of GORILLA BISCUITS, YOUTH OF TODAY, BURN and BOLD, the band took the aggression of hardcore and added a more groove-driven crunch to it, unintentionally inventing the genre known today as a post-hardcore. After releasing two major-label masterpieces in the '90s — 1993's "Slip" and 1995's "Manic Compression" — the band split up at the peak of their powers, only to reunite in 2012 and release "Interiors" and "Distant Populations".

Inspired by a quote from scientist Carl Sagan, "Bring On The Psychics", QUICKSAND's first album in five years and Equal Vision Records debut, sees Schreifels examining his past through his present reality.

"For this album, I was going back to a lot of my earlier influences about 'break down the walls' or 'start today,'" he explains. "Regardless of whether you're into hardcore or youth crew, they're really cool records because they're speaking to the time and providing possible paths to a better future … with mosh parts. That's the energy that I wanted to bring to this."

From the hook-driven heaviness of the opener "Get To It" to the shoegaze splendor of "Crystallize", the band cover a lot of sonic ground on "Bring On The Psychics", but it always sounds like QUICKSAND. Its technical virtuosity is on full display here as well, from bassist/vocalist Vega's locked-in bass grooves on "Cool Guy" to Cage's dynamic drumming on the album's title track. The band also stretched out, musically, on the album as evidenced by the breezy ballad "Days You Run To", a song that might even surprise longtime fans.

"To me, that is the kind of thing that FUGAZI would do on their more chill kind of tunes," Schreifels says of the laid-back feel of the aforementioned track. "It's nice to have something that was more expansive to show the PINK FLOYD side of QUICKSAND."

That aspect of the band has never been a secret; anyone who has seen the band's psychedelic light show can attest to that consciousness-expanding vibe. "Bring On The Psychics" just sees the band encapsulating their creative vision in a fully, more integrated manner.

"I'm really psyched to play these songs live," Schreifels summarizes. "I feel really fortunate to still be playing music with these guys and be able to take it to different places."

"Bring On The Psychics" track listing:

01. Get To It
02. Regenerate
03. Agency
04. Crystallize
05. Supercollider
06. In Full Color
07. Days You Run To
08. Cool Guy
09. Moving Forward
10. Bring On The Psychics

QUICKSAND will be making the following appearances this spring and summer:

April 26 - New York, NY - Rough Trade Below
June 11 - Hradec Králové 7, CZ - Rock for People 2026 at Park 360
June 12 - Nickelsdorf, AT - Nova Rock
June 14 - Munchen, DE - Ampere
June 15 - Leipzig, DE - UT Connewitz
June 16 - Trier, DE - Mergener Hof e.V.
June 18 - Hamburg, DE - Knust
June 18 - 21 - Dessel, BE - Graspop Metal Meeting
June 20 - Köln, DE - Luxor
June 22 - Wiesbaden, DE - Schlachthof Wiesbaden
June 23 - Berlin, DE - Hole44
June 25 - Ysselsteyn, NL - Jera On Air

Photo credit: Annette Rodriguez