Thirty years have passed since “Captain My Captain”, but Team Dresch aren’t coming back to pretend they’re still the same band. Furthermore isn’t here to preserve their legacy or act as if the queercore scene of the nineties somehow stayed frozen in time. It does something much more interesting: it looks at everything that’s happened since then and asks what’s left of that anger, that desire and that desperate need to find a place of your own.
And there’s a lot left. The bass is still huge and right up front, the guitars are still angular and tangled together, and that punk edge is very much intact. Team Dresch still know exactly how to make melody, noise and emotion hit at the same time. “Growing Underground” pushes into their post-hardcore and alt-rock side, tapping into the same ’90s alternative current as Sonic Youth and The Breeders, before building into a final crescendo that feels like a full-band release. “I’ve Really Become Some Thing” gets darker and more theatrical, slipping into post-punk before those heavier, almost grunge-like riffs take over. But Furthermore isn’t all abrasion. There are looser structures, hypnotic repetitions, moments where the guitars are given space to breathe. Some tracks even move towards power pop and garage rock, bringing in a brightness you might not expect. And even when things quieten down, Team Dresch never really lose that tension. These songs can go from intimate to overwhelming in a matter of seconds.
The biggest shift is in the lyrics. The Team Dresch of the nineties wrote from that age when everything feels like life or death, when surviving, wanting, finding your people and figuring out where you belong feels like the whole world. Now they’re writing from what comes after that: the losses, the relationships that don’t make it, the defences you build without even noticing, the exhaustion, and the need to keep looking after the people who are now the age they were back then.
“One Song” gets right to the heart of that. It looks back at the wild person you once were and asks what’s still there after thirty years of life getting in the way. “Still Your Room” goes somewhere quieter and more painful, turning grief into something as ordinary as a room left exactly as it was, as if the person who’s gone might still walk back in. And “Protectors” closes the record with a very simple idea: caring means doing something. It means stepping in when someone is being attacked instead of standing there and watching.
That’s what makes this comeback work. Team Dresch aren’t using the past as somewhere to hide. They’re using it as a way to understand everything that’s happened since. The anger, desire and urgency are still there, but now they sit next to grief, memory, tiredness, tenderness and responsibility.
Furthermore isn’t just a comeback record. It feels necessary. It could easily end up among the albums of the year. At the very least, it’s going to mean a lot to anyone who has spent thirty years waiting for Team Dresch to come back with a new record.
Listen to Furthermore in full
TOUR DATES
Europe
19 sep — Yeah! Fest, Bern, CH
20 sep — Schon Schön, Mainz, DE
21 sep — Druckluft, Oberhausen, DE
22 sep — SO36, Berlin, DE (venue upgraded)
24 sep — Tower, Bremen, DE
25 sep — Alte Hackerei, Karlsruhe, DE
26 sep — Blue Shell, Köln, DE (sold out)
27 sep — Betty, Hamburg, DE (sold out)
30 sep — Downstairs at the Dome, London, UK (venue upgraded)
USA
28 oct — Revolution Hall, Portland, OR
4 nov — Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA
5 nov — Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA
7 nov — Zebulon, Los Angeles, CA (entradas limitadas)
12 nov — McMenamins Spanish Ballroom @ Elks Temple w/ Neko Case, Tacoma, WA (sold out)
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