Bruiser Queen puts the Rock into the Rock N Roll Craft Show. Courtesy of RRCS.
Bruiser Queen will be re-releasing its third album, Heavy High, on New York City label Velvet Elk Records next week, on Friday, November 16. The band’s previously independent album will be given a new life with five added tracks, as the group signed to that label earlier this year. It’s a fitting reward for a band that’s worked for several years to find a new home.
Drummer Jason Potter says that he and guitarist Morgan Nusbaum were seeking an organic fit between themselves and a label, a situation that grew from the demise of the promising local imprint, Boxing Clever Records, which released their sophomore album, Sweet Static, in 2014. Some singles would follow that release, before their full-length return with the indie Heavy High in 2017. That album grew some fans within certain music circles and, Potter says, that’s where things got good.
The label deal, he says, “is something we’ve been working on for a little bit. We did a residency in New York last year and became friends with Blackheart Records, which is Joan Jett’s label. ... When we started talking to them, Heavy High had just been put out, and it seemed a natural place to start.
“I think, initially, it would have been exciting just to get the record a broader release,” he adds. “We did our best with it and just connecting with them would have been exciting, but adding some new music that might have been sitting on a shelf and collecting dust adds to it. We’re just super-excited to have those join the collection and have a reason to be released.”
Two of the tracks are acoustic re-workings of Heavy High cuts, done at the label’s studio in the Pocono Mountains.
“It’s an in-the-woods-type thing,” Potter says. “This past spring, we went up there and did an acoustic session. It’s got that Dylan setting, out there and away from it all; bears wander up to the property. You can just sit there and focus on the music.”
The label isn't a vanity label, Potter says, but more of a collective. They wanted to breathe something new into Heavy High, allowing them to push into the next era of their band while giving listeners the electric rock ’n’ roll that’s gotten them this far.
“This is our third album and we’re at that point where people have liked us,” he says. “And I wouldn’t say they’ve checked out, but they’re looking for the next, new thing. We definitely wanna tell them that we’ve got the chops and have got the songs, so don’t check out on us yet. We took a lot of care in making front-to-back records that people can sit down and listen to as a collection.”
The band’s work rate has always been there. No confirmation of that was needed. After all, their 2005 Econoline van’s got some life left and won’t be put to rest at only 185,000 miles.
“We’d always been touring and getting the music out there,” Potter says. “We felt we couldn’t get the kind of connections we needed by sitting at home and crossing our fingers. We put it out on the pavement. And things finally connected. You do get your hopes up sometimes. And it’s been a few years since Boxing Clever fell off, so there were so major disappointments involved with that. But the band motto’s been: ‘Just keep showing up.’ You just keep going and eventually something clicks.”
Bruiser Queen will play on Thanksgiving night, Thursday, November 22, alongside NIL8, Spacetrucker, and Mürtaugh at The Firebird. Doors open at 7 p.m. The lead cut from Heavy High, “Sugar High,” was released on YouTube one year ago. You can watch it here.
