#emphatically no.

“A generation ago, songwriters wrote lyrics that seemed primed for use in AIM away messages; Cheekface’s quips are concise enough to be tweets, with the requisite non-sequiturs and self-deprecating observations. Still, after writing that description, I recoiled in horror: Has my brain really been so warped by social media that lyrics remind me of tweets instead of vice versa? But that’s the kind of existential anxiety Cheekface could probably write a song about. And writing songs about anxiety is what this band does quite well.”

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“Where Cheekface truly sets themselves apart, though, is the band’s sharp lyrics and sardonic wit. The band nail absurdist satire, poking fun at empty materialism, desperately ignoring impending disaster, and coping with mental illness—“I’m getting a Gucci logo stick-and-poke/It’s cheaper than therapy!” The band are masters of instantly quotable, Twitter-ready punchlines, delivered through Katz’s dry deadpan. Give it time and some of these couplets are bound to show up as tattoos.”

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“As I started thinking about the question of the best gig I ever went to, a few times my mind went to Austin, and to South By Southwest. There was Dávila 666 in the Shangri-La basement in East Austin with beers flying, and Mitski covering Calvin Harris’s “How Deep Is Your Love” on the tiny front stage of Hole in the Wall by UT Austin, and Snoop Dogg in the maligned and despised three-story Doritos vending machine by the convention center.”

“The phrase “Album of the Year” gets thrown around by critics to describe the best of the year, but if we took that term at face value, awarding it to the record that most accurately captures the year, 2020’s would have AJJ’s Good Lucky Everybody, a grim and prescient record that had no idea how right it would be. This year that could easily be Emphatically No. Despite 2021 being brand new, and these songs written well before it, they’re topical and their subjects increasingly relevant.”

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“Emphatically No.is such a fun listen front to back, nothing but punchy guitars, spastic rhythms, and wonderfully erratic song structures all housing a cleverness that makes Cheekface a wholly unique experience.” 

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“...Cheekface’s appeal hinges on your tolerance of their humor and tendency to smirk at late-capitalist decline.”

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Emphatically No. is out now via New Professor Records.

I'm feeling good, but I'm sure it will pass

Everything is OK Got my old phone replaced Now I do nothing faster than I did yesterday

Read & listen HERE!

Cheekface’s new album Emphatically No. is out now on New Professor Records.