It’s now been nearly three years since Tacocat released Lost Time. And while the local pop-punk royals have been busy with side projects—Childbirth, Who Is She?—and playing shows, they haven’t released new music in the interim.

Now Tacocat is back with a new single, “Grains of Salt,” a new record, and a new label (sort of). While the band’s previous records were released on offshoot Hardly Art, Sub Pop itself will release the new album, This Mess Is a Place. In its press release, Sub Pop says the new album will lean poppier than their others. Robin Edwards (who plays as Lisa Prank and lives with some of the band members) writes that This Mess Is a Place recalls “the feminist sci-fi of Ursula K. Le Guin in pop-music form.” 

That certainly holds true in the “Grains of Salt” video below—a shimmering pop track (the hook's stuck in my head after two listens) that finds the band dancing alongside some of Seattle’s drag stars, including Cherdonna Shinatra, in a sort of retro futurist white room.

The band also announced a tour, with a June 8 stop at the Showbox. Tickets go on sale February 15 at 10am. 

Tacocat
June 8, The Showbox, $17