KARATE - Make It Fit - MC - Cassette Tape [OCT 18]

MC - Limited Edition Cassette Tape. The first new music from the post-emo trio in two decades.  

Out of the brain of Geoff Farina spills 10 new tales from their unlikely reunion, tracked with long-time Karate collaborator Andy Hong. Make It Fit crams 35 minutes of Wes Montgomery homage, Fugazi dub plate party rocking, Lynott lyricism, and Clash city crooning into a graceful seventh album.

Here’s some more background via press release:

"While Karate’s reunion tours have been remarkably smooth, making an album presented some challenges. By the time the group arrived in Nashville, TN in January 2024 to track the album with longtime collaborator Andy Hong, the trio had demoed the songs a few times and felt confident. That initial optimism was dampened, and anxiety amplified when the trio remembered a detail: Hong was still building his studio.

Much of Hong’s recording gear was packed in shrink-wrap. He’d need time to get the studio up and running. And Karate’s members had a day to stress and wonder if they’d hit a concrete barrier on reunion road.

“Why don’t we ever record in a fancy studio where everything is ready to go when we arrive, and we have two weeks to record ten songs? We don’t seem to ever do that,” Farina notes. “That would be too easy,” replies McCarthy, “Plus Andy works at a higher level. This is normal to him.”

The band kept its faith in Hong. In 24 hours, he had completely wired the new studio, and the four soon fell into a familiar and comfortable routine they had practiced on their better-known records. Karate completed basic tracks in Nashville. Farina added guitars and vocals back at his home studio and the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. And Hong mixed the album."

Tracklist:

Side 1
1. Defendants [2:39]
2. Bleach the Scene [2:05]
3. Cannibals [2:25]
4. Liminal [4:23]
5. Rattle the Pipes [4:32]

Side 2
1. Fall to Grace [4:59]
2. Around the Dial [2:37]
3. People Ain’t Folk [2:32]
4. Three Dollar Bill [3:29]