This Mess Is a Place

by Tacocat

supported by

Marc Squires Probably the poppiest album I've got, these tunes never fail to cheer me up, or give me a boost. Happy punks for life! :) Favorite track: The Joke of Life.

artlantis La Palma was the first song I've ever heard, then I fell in love with the rest. Punk rock with a powerful positive perspective.

John Evelyn Twee af. Seriously loveable. Favorite track: Little Friend.

more...

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$10 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
A copy of "This Mess Is a Place" on black vinyl.

Includes unlimited streaming of This Mess Is a Place via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$23 USD or more
Cassette + Digital Album
A copy of "This Mess Is a Place" on cassette tape.

Includes unlimited streaming of This Mess Is a Place via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$10 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
A copy of "This Mess Is a Place" on CD.

Includes unlimited streaming of This Mess Is a Place via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$10 USD or more
Limited Edition Loser Vinyl
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
A copy of "This Mess Is a Place" on Limited Loser Edition Jade-colored vinyl.

Includes unlimited streaming of This Mess Is a Place via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out

1.	Hologram 03:46	buy track
2.	New World 02:55 video	buy track
3.	Grains of Salt 03:54 video	buy track
4.	The Joke of Life 03:19	buy track
5.	Little Friend 03:18	buy track
6.	Rose-Colored Sky 03:51	buy track
7.	The Problem 02:18	buy track
8.	Crystal Ball 03:33 video	buy track
9.	Meet Me at La Palma 02:38	buy track
10.	Miles and Miles 02:53	buy track

about

When Seattle band Tacocat—vocalist Emily Nokes, bassist Bree McKenna, guitarist Eric Randall, and drummer Lelah Maupin—first started in 2007, the world they were responding to was vastly different from the current Seattle scene of diverse voices they’ve helped foster. It was a world of house shows, booking DIY tours on MySpace, and writing funny, deliriously catchy feminist pop-punk songs when feminism was the quickest way to alienate yourself from the then-en vogue garage-rock bros. Their lyrical honesty, humor, and hit-making sensibilities have built the band a fiercely devoted fanbase over the years, one that has followed them from basements to dive bars to sold-out shows at the Showbox. Every step along the way has been a seamless progression—from silly songs about Tonya Harding and psychic cats to calling out catcallers and poking fun at entitled weekend-warrior tech jerks on their last two records on Hardly Art, 2014’s NVM and 2016’s Lost Time.

This Mess is a Place, Tacocat’s fourth full-length and first on Sub Pop, finds the band waking up the morning after the 2016 election and figuring out how to respond to a new reality where evil isn’t hiding under the surface at all—it’s front and center, with new tragedies and civil rights assaults filling up the scroll of the newsfeed every day. “What a time to be barely alive,” laments “Crystal Ball,” a gem that examines the more intimate side of responding emotionally to the news cycle. How do you keep fighting when all you want to do is stay in bed all day? “Stupid computer stupor/Oh my kingdom for some better ads,” Nokes sings, throwing in some classic Tacocat snark, “Truth spread so thin/It stops existing.”

Despite current realities being depressing enough to make anyone want to crawl under the covers and sleep for a thousand years, Tacocat are doing what they’ve always done so well: mingling brightness, energy, and hope with political critique. This Mess is a Place is charged with a hopefulness that stands in stark contrast to music that celebrates apathy, despair, and numbness. Tacocat feels it all and cares, a lot, whether they’re singing odes to the magical connections we feel with our pets (“Little Friend”), imagining what a better earth might look like (“New World”), or trying to find humor in a wholly unfunny world (“The Joke of Life”).

Throughout the album, Tacocat questions power structures and the way we interact with them, recalling the feminist sci-fi of Ursula K. Le Guin in pop-music form. “Rose-Colored Sky” examines the privilege of people who have been able to skate through life without ever experiencing systemic disadvantage: “For all the years spent/Hot lava shaping me/For all the arguments/I wonder who else would I be?” Nokes sings. “If I wasn’t on the battleground/I bet I could’ve gone to space by now.” “Hologram” reminds us to step outside ourselves and try to see beyond imaginary structures that trap us: “Just close your eyes and think about the Milky Way/Just remember if you can, power is a hologram.”

The record is full of beautiful details, finding plastic beaded curtains catching light amidst feelings of despair. This Mess is A Place explores politics with more nuance than the topical songs of Tacocat’s past, inviting listeners in for more complicated exchanges and leaving space for introspection. “Grains of Salt” finds the band at the best they’ve ever sounded: Maupin’s spirited drums, McKenna’s bouncy walking bass, Randall’s catchy guitar and Nokes’ soaring melody combine to create a bonafide roller-rink hit that reminds us that it just takes some time, we’re in the middle of the ride, and to live for what matters to you. It’s a delightfully cathartic moment and the cornerstone of the record when they exclaim: “Don’t forget to remember who the fuck you are!”

Producer Erik Blood (who also produced Lost Time) brings the band into their full pop potential but still preserves what makes Tacocat so special: they’re four friends who met as young punks and have grown together into a truly collaborative band. Says Nokes: “We can examine some hard stuff, make fun of some evil stuff, feel some soft feelings, feel some rage feelings, feel some bitter-ass feelings, sift through memories, feel wavy-existential, and still go get a banana daiquiri at the end.”

credits

released May 3, 2019

license

about

Tacocat Seattle, Washington

discography

Retrograde

Oct 2019
This Mess Is a Place

May 2019
Lost Time

Apr 2016
NVM

Feb 2014
Take Me to Your Dealer EP

Mar 2012
Shame Spiral

Nov 2010
Ghost Mice Split 7"

Oct 2013
Psychic Death Cat

date unknown
Volcano

date unknown
Woman's Day

Nov 2011
Original SK8 or Die

Apr 2011

contact / help

Contact Tacocat

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Tacocat, you may also like:

Punisher
by Phoebe Bridgers

supported by 79 fans who also own “This Mess Is a Place”

Always finding albums like this that I wish I discovered years ago. Love, love, love this, from the simple arrangements to the Bond theme and screams of 'I know the end'. BikeBoy29
go to album
Jump Rope Gazers
by The Beths

supported by 79 fans who also own “This Mess Is a Place”

This might be the tightest "indie garage pop-tending-rock" album I know of. Arrangements are top notch. Correcting a glaring omission in my collection here by buying the Beths albums while it's still _just_ NZ Music Month! What an opening track! Jump Rope Gazers and Don't Go Away - instrumentation is outstanding on both tracks - tough choice, any one makes for a worthy choice as fave track. theUtmost
go to album
Future Me Hates Me
by The Beths

supported by 78 fans who also own “This Mess Is a Place”

Current me is slightly miffed at past me for having been so dismissive of the first Beths track I was introduced to: "Whatever" I think it was being slammed everywhere - and my response to that track was in keeping with the title... I shoulda given them a chance. As someone keen on more than a couple of Flying Nun luminaries, I submit their work is so much better than that early radio single. "You Wouldn't Like Me". Soo catchy. Uptown Girl, is bangin', makes me wanna drink the whole town dry! theUtmost
go to album
Cadastral Maps
by Tin-ear

A punk band from Prince Edward Island styling themselves "the screamo Softies" blend Cap'n Jazz with Tiger Trap. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 1, 2022
go to album
Bluest Year
by Girl and Her Bad Mood

Girl and Her Bad Mood are a dreampop band from Indonesia who excel at nestling heartbreakingly beautiful melodies amidst silvery guitars. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 23, 2023
go to album
Ruah - Smothered And Covered
by Ruah

BLIGHT. Records head Benjamin Schurr's latest gloom-pop outing as Ruah shows the project's growth. Sales benefit Planned Parenthood. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 16, 2022
go to album
Expert In A Dying Field
by The Beths

supported by 75 fans who also own “This Mess Is a Place”

So Kiwi it hurts. In a fantastic, life-affirming, charming, self-deprecating manner, replete with self-aware ironic smile tugging at the corner of the mouth. I love the timing & key changes. Top notch indie jangly guitar-pop tending rock. Hooked. "I Want to Listen" , and "Change in the Weather" Liz channels Anna Burch and manages to upstage her. I'm off to mix some drinks with my messages, then I might pin some hopes to the wrong pincushion! ❤ theUtmost
go to album