Pelican Have ‘No Complaints’ About Hydra Head as They Prepare for Southern Lord Debut

One month before Pelican release their fourth album, 'What We All Come to Need,' the Chicago instrumental heavyweights join label mates Sunn 0))), Earth and Eagle Twin for a show at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple in New York City. This veritable Southern Lord Records showcase is part of the Blackened Music Series, but it effectively previews Pelican's new songs before their headlining tour in October.

Though Pelican pack some hearty grind into their music, this bill pitches the band against ambient sludgecore titans. Pelican aren't sweating it, though. "We should be OK," guitarist Laurent Lebec assures Noisecreep. "This is going to be a good one," he enthuses about the Brooklyn gig.

'What We All Come to Need' marks Pelican's Southern Lord album debut and is due for release Oct. 27. After three LPs on Los Angeles-based Hydra Head, the move, says Lebec, was for no other reason than "a change of scenery. There's really no complaints or hot dissent. We're all friends; we talk all the time. Even when we jumped to Southern Lord, we did a tour with Isis afterwards. It's more just needing, after a decade of being a band, to redirect ourselves a little bit. Try another avenue that might lend new opportunities; lead us to people who might not have heard us perhaps."

After testing the waters with an EP earlier this year, Lebec thinks that's a realistic goal. "So far, that's been the case. Everyone is reacting warm-heartedly. The core of our audience will probably remain the same. We've been around long enough that it won't make too much of a difference. I think the music that we're doing these days seems fitting for the label we're on right now. It's not that crazy of a move."