| DATE | VENUE | CITY/STATE | TICKETS |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 25 | Star Theater (With Grouplove) | Portland, OR | Purchase |
| May 26 | Sasquatch Music Festival (12pm @Bigfoot) | Quincy, WA | Purchase |
| June 2 | Silencio | Paris, France | |
| June 2 | Fleche d'Or | Paris France | Purchase |
| June 4 | Paradiso | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Purchase |
| June 6 | Dingwalls | London, United Kingdom | |
| June 7 | Birthdays | London, United Kingdom | Purchase |
| June 10 | Roter Salon | Berlin, Germany | Purchase |
| June 12 | Webster Hall (With Grouplove) | New York, NY | Sold Out |
| June 13 | 930 Club (With Grouplove) | Washington, DC | Sold Out |
| June 14 | Bank of America Pavilion (WFNX Presents: The Seaport Six) |
Boston, MA | Purchase |
| Jul 27 | Firefly Music Festival | Dover, DE | Purchase |
| Sep 28-29 | Counterpoint Music Festival | Fairburn, GA | Purchase |
Indeed, there is no pretense behind Reptar, which also includes Andrew McFarland (drums), Ryan Engelberger (Bass), and William Kennedy (analog keyboards). Still, the ability to amuse and arouse their fans is just as important to them as indulging their musical curiosities. This sonic wanderlust extends from African Music to post-punk to psych-pop and converges joyously in songs such as "Blastoff" and "Rainbounce," and it's won them high fives from NPR and NME alike.
Their aesthetic percolates even more vibrantly through their debut LP, Body Faucet, out May 1, 2012 on Vagrant Records. A set of shimmering sing-along anthems produced by Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Washed Out), Body Faucet is propelled by jerky guitars and persistent beats. "The record feels like a big dream with different chapters," says Ryan. "Ghost Bike" captures the space between witnessing a friend's death and surviving it. In "Sebastian" (named after a saint who became a gay icon), it's experiencing, then remembering, a sexual awakening with a close friend. Lyrics and music flow in a liquid form from real places, each song oozing with a different color and substance. "We wanted to capture the thoughts we project on our surroundings and the ideas that flow in and out of us each day," says Graham. Indeed, much of the record deals with exploring and interacting with one's surroundings in new, occasionally frustrating, ways. The album builds with songs such as "New House," expressing a future of possibilities. A centerpiece of sorts, notes Andrew, "it's the most driving song on the record, and it's really empowering live."
If Reptar had a superpower, it'd be the knack for warming up every space they inhabit. "Our music is very physical," says Ryan. "We always try to get people moving." This is wired into the DNA of the band, which honed its chops on house shows and continues to keep them a central part of its life. These shows began three years ago when they moved into a teetering, buttercup yellow abode together. "It was slanted at a 20-degree angle," Ryan explains, "and we'd have shows in the front room." Word spread, and soon they were popping up around at other houses, then clubs.
Reptar even rounded out their stint at last year's SXSW by playing in a friend's backyard. Impressed by this commitment to connect, NME later rhapsodized about that bouncy set performed on a flatbed truck, anointing Reptar one of the "biggest buzzes" at the festival. "Little kids were running around selling cupcakes to drunk people for exorbitant amounts of money," marvels Graham. Reptar, of course, played for free.
Sebastian
Walking home, arrow shot
Sebastian tied in a knot
Don't wanna say this the way I know
Don't penetrate, don't open wide
lemon spills out from the side
but when it does Catch it before its too late
I can hear 'em laughing when I first wake up
Look at those crazy boys over there
Tall ones short ones messing around,
Circle ring, ring, triangle, square
No ones going to mess with me
Not the people next to me
Sucking my emotion, you just don't care
I want to sleep with it next to me
Show you that I want to be
No one's going to make it feel
Sunny and fair
Albion
Nest with you babe
Knees bend and I am afraid
This is the way I go
Pendulum
Back and forth
You turn around and south becomes north
This is the way I know:
Stare into it don't look away
We wanna bend and move them everyway
And if the pills don't do it throw them away
We want to melt into it everyday
I see the stars are sitting next to me
Show you that I want to be
Mincing my emotion you just don't care
I want to sleep with you next to me
Show you that I want to be
Mincing my emotion
You just don't care
Please Don't Kill Me
What is squirming in the sand?
Please don't kill me
Meditate and no one can
Please don't kill me
Life ends
Too bad
In a tiny box wooden clad
Lips move up and down in the same
Ulicka, ulicka
Met left and began in a way
Ulicka, ulicka
We sure can't prepare anything
Ulicka, ulicka
Lips move up and down in the same
Ulicka, ulicka, ulicka
Tell me I don't know the way
Please don't kill me
Very hot and far away
Please don't kill me
Sun plays higher still
In the scheme of things
I always will
Blessed I am feeling light
Please don't kill me
When the belly button sees the light
Please don't kill me
Ice cold
Fortune paid
One and only lonely face
Isoprene Bath
Blindly
Words are thrown as meaning moves away
There's no way you would know it, people rarely show it but here it happens every single day
Like a babbling brook
The magic is lighter shade of blue
Dab it, stab it, reach out and grab it
There's really nothing else that you can do
No matter what your daddy is
Life goes on and on again
Nostalgia brings on tears in him
Rubbing parts are red and thin
Rabbits eat and rabbits screw
Hair grows long all over you
Find a habit ringing true
Now repeat the thing you do
Idling, moving it, coupling, moving it, happening, nicotine, now some more, packaging, coupling, walking out, idling, moving it, battling, licking it, tingling, walk it out
Blindly
Animals are really all the same
Glissando breaks your movement, flashback in your fluid
Tear away the front part of your brain
From a cannibal note
Violence tracks a pathway over to
Friendship in the mountains, living off the lichens, swimming in a lighter shade of blue
No matter what your daddy is
Life goes on and on again
Nostalgia brings on tears in him
Rubbing parts are red and thin
Idling, moving it, coupling, moving it, happening, nicotine, now some more, packaging, coupling, walking out, idling, moving it, battling, licking it, tingling, walk it out
Idling, wandering, sussing out, wandering, idling, wandering, orbiting, wandering
Orifice Origami
Something's not right here
What is it missing?
Gold under pebbles, throw it away
I was the last one pondering, caught up in the revel
Pellucid in disarray
Stacked under water
It's like the backgrounds lost
So I don't know where we started
Thumb said I am running away, I was raised to stick around, and be a fool this way
Addy wrote verses that blew my mind
They were folding wandering all the time
The last of them roses burning away
It's a sophisticated process you just can't bottle, ok?
When I was one
Something's not right here
What is it missing?
Reacting the same but we don't know what the facts say
We take our medicine at night
I can't control it, what do I do?
Stay in the background, run around and try to console you
Suddenly what can I say?
Through the pillow my head reaches an appalling state
Do you remember the doctor's name?
No, it's going to be a long night anyway
Houseboat Babies
Entwined
Your body's white lines
Fleas on fabric
As I close the blinds, close the blinds and say
Pull just a little bit more, freeze and begin
Getting so much better with my hands on your skin
Can you feel it?
I look for balance, but its just cat and mouse
We're in this part of the city where children don't sleep
I can feel it in my bones and my feet
In the legs of the women and boys that I meet
They're attracting me
Well this is me
A tupper's young ewe
I'm turning all of my feelings in to jelly and goo
Because it makes me angry
When you are sitting next to me
I came as cupid, I came as Holly
Specifics never matter when I come into your body
There's a fire, fire in my house
But it doesn't really matter because I never put it out
There's a hole in your holy jeans
But it makes you happy because it's always seen
Sweat
Sweat
Sweat
Human
Natural Bridge
Daniel left you for another boy
Indeed he did you like a windup toy
oh whyo, whyo
oh whyo why is he mean?
He's never what it seems
Lie awake in the middle of the night
Can't fall asleep cause you don't feel right
Being helpless is never quite as fun as it seems
Filling up with dreams
Where have you been for the last two weeks?
What did you do? What did you see? Did you use it?
I want to know because I want to abuse it I'm not sure
The path that leads you home
Wrote a letter that I just won't send
Felt the hairs on my body stand up on end
Too many windows, but never time enough to look through
What can I do?
Staring at you with a sideways glance
Oh boy, take a second give me a chance
You know I love you! I want to take out again see,
What you did to me
Where have you been for the last two weeks?
What did you do? What did you see? Did you use it?
I want to know because I want to abuse it I'm not sure
The path that leads you home
So introspective
So self-assured
You'll ask a question
The answers surely
Not what you expected
Walk out that door
I feel so fucking weird when I go to bed at night
Natural bridge on a natural bridge
If you take what you want
You will get what you give
Ghost Bike
tracing all my fingers
looking at a bigger plane
doesn't really matter
dreaming of your empty frame
laying on a shoreline
staring from a box spring tight
staring at a street lamp
something doesn't feel quite right
hold me closer baby
please don't me let go
riding down the grotto
taking you to work again
lashes from your eyelids
dripping from a faucet drain
when we are together
ribbons flowing down my legs
really want to touch you
really want to watch you beg
our eyes are locked staring into that singular web
you are slowly moving towards the edge
blood runs down
I saw what happened
She was right there in front of me
I saw what happened
Sweetie why are you turned upside down?
Tell us what happened
Tell us what happened
Ribbons run around you green eyes and I'm so scared
Laying down on the pavement right there
She was right there and in the flash and I saw light trickle down through black tracks underground
hold me closer baby please don't let me go
Crying in my bedroom
Talking to our bathroom floor
Fingers in a circle
All you things you said before
I really feel alone Laura
Nothing I can do or say
Fingers want to touch you
Fingers want to make you stay
New House
Some time
Locked in my own sense of right and wrong
I'm not sure my lines
Are real
Like a memory true
Aiding and abetting all the things I do
I don't care
For now so what
Because
I'm in a new house
I'm in love
I'm in a new house
I'm in love
I'm in a new house I'm in love again
Reverie surrounds my brain
Walking round the street I wanna see you again
This room was made for two
Subliminal rage
Mapping out the angles that compile you
Can't control
Myself
Because
I'm in a new house
I'm in love
Sweet Sipping Soda
Too many good friends moving away
It's obscene how it's so fast
Oh this is slipping you are slipping away
Why do they make us move so slow?
Dyadic interest now he's moving away
I am sweet I am four horned
I didn't mean it
I need it, I need it, I need it, I need it
Not kidding, yeah I want you to stay
What does this tool in my mind know anyway?
I might as well stare at a wall of confetti
And admire how it's so good
Heart is an animal the heart is a saint
Why does my heart act so bad anyway?
I really mean it
Fuck yeah I mean it
You know I mean it baby
My heart is beating so fast
I wake up in a different story
Take a bath in a minimal locked in an animals skin for a while
Everyday I get different horrors
My art is a seminal seed in a liminal state for a minute
Because I am
Three Shining Suns
I've been night running
Falling in the street
Just when I'm exhausted
I realize I am asleep
Black feathers brush me
Into an alternate way
Now my eyes are open
This is what you say
I don't want to lose you
Don't want to let you go
We fit together so well
Folds into folds
Waking up is hard babe
Silky greens on my face
Three shining suns lay, in a moment of grace
Out of blood come bruises
Out of tears comes salt
Out of me comes apology
You know it wasn't my fault
I don't want to lose you
Don't want to let you go
We fit together so well
Folds into folds
Water Runs
Water Runs
Through my veins
Looking out from the car
You rest your head
Upon my arm
Pretend to sleep
And there we are
Nothing would prepare me for the thing we have become
What have I done?
My darling
What have I done?
But if you see me running down the street
Say I wanna be your friend
It's a phrase I don't say often enough
Don't want to scare or to offend
Yeah if my body's a holy temple
And my mind is the web I spin
There's a feeling inside my insides
But it just won't let me in
I step out through
The bathroom door
Water running down my arms
Zachary, you hold me close
My body trembles
In your arms
I became a lifeless shadow, lashing out in pain
I'll never go there again
Don't wanna go there again
I'll never go there again
But if you run into me on the street
Say I wanna be your friend
It's a phrase I don't say often enough
Don't want to scare or to offend
Yeah if my body's a holy temple
And my mind is the web I spin
There's a feeling inside my insides
But it just won't let me in