The debut single from writer-musician Aldus Santos’ newest project, St. Ruin, drops tomorrow (August 14). It can now be streamed on major digital platforms via Lilystars Records.
Santos is best known for his work with aughts-era group The Purplechickens and neo-folk act Pamphleteer, as well as his music journalism (Rappler, NME, Billboard, Rolling Stone) and literary output, which includes concert reportage Alternate Endings (Offshore Music, 2020) and criticism-autobiography crossover The Demo Versions (Everything’s Fine, 2022).
He also co-wrote Eraserheads: Combo on the Run, a documentary on the famed band and their much-lauded 2022 reunion show, which had its streaming debut on Netflix in May.
“Uncool,” Santos shares, is a love letter to the departed, with “its verb tenses volleying between a pretend present, a protracted past, and a poignant future.” Santos adds that he wrote it for his only brother, who died of cancer in 2023.
Apart from Santos – who is on vocal, guitar, and harmonica detail – the track also features performances from bassist Yan Bagay Cruz (Bayang Barrios, Joey Ayala, Abby Clutario) and drummer Dave Cruz (Blind Stereo Moon). Electronic artist-producer kvtvlv’s synth and sound design work, meanwhile, elevates the melancholy tune into something akin to a filmic experience.
“Uncool” is the first advance single off the forthcoming EP A Cocktail Called Last Word, which Santos describes as “a grief journal in audio.” The EP is reportedly slated for an October release, and will be Santos’ first recorded output since Pamphleteer’s double-A-side Two Novellas in 2022. The St. Ruin songs, moreover, marks the writer-musician’s maiden appearance under the stellar Lilystars Records banner.
“You’d think it would be weird to get back on the horse and put out new music and launch a new alter-ego in your 40s…but not really,” Santos says, laughing. “A poet doesn’t stop hurting past a certain age.”
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