Whiskerman Announce Double Album ‘American Hell,’ Share New Song ‘Lightning Love’
On their upcoming double LP, ‘American Hell,’ Oakland collective Whiskerman attempts to map the spiritual and political malaise of the modern United States. But on the album’s latest single, ‘Lightning Love,’ that heavy lifting is disguised in the warm, swaying fuzz of a classic 70s duet.
Premiering today, ‘Lightning Love’ is a standout moment of collaboration. Frontman Graham Patzer trades verses with Kelly McFarling, their voices mingling over a backdrop of what the band calls “Steel and Glass,” the weeping, intricate dual slide guitar work of Charles Lloyd and Jeremy Lyon. The track feels initially like a dusty artifact from the Laurel Canyon era, but its concept is distinctly of today.
Patzer wrote the song during the height of the Standing Rock protests, a movement that profoundly shifted his perspective on power dynamics. “I love the way the order to which you were allowed to speak in meetings always started with Indigenous women and ended with white men,” Patzer recalls of the camps. “So much for the current state of things.”
That subversion of hierarchy bleeds into the music. This is a truly modern folk song about who gets heard. It was recorded by Ian Pellici (Deerhoof) and mixed by Grammy-winner Cian Riordan (St. Vincent, Sleater-Kinney).
Following up 2023’s ‘Champions (Deluxe Edition),’ the new album is their first collection of new music since 2020’s ‘Kingdom Illusion’. Across nearly a dozen tracks the band explores the malaise that’s settled over the United States in recent years, redefining for themselves what it means to be an American in these changing times.
‘Lightning Love’ is a glimpse into ‘American Hell Pt. I,’ arriving January 23, 2026, via Royal Oakie Records.
Headline photo: Whiskerman (Credit: Kory Thibeault)
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