Update: You Say Party! We Say Die! Explain U.S. Ban, Shed More Light on New Album

BY Josiah HughesPublished Jul 15, 2009

As we recently reported, Vancouver-area dance punk crew You Say Party! We Say Die! have revealed the details of their fourth album, titled XXXX and due in stores on September 29 from Paper Bag Records. We also told you that the band were considering playing their first U.S. dates since bassist Steve O'Shea was banned from the country, but it was unclear how that would work since said ban doesn't expire until 2011.

However, O'Shea jumped on his computer and did some explaining for us here at Exclaim!: I am still banned from the U.S. until 2011. I have been working to correct the situation since it happened. I've been pinballed from person to person, from professionals to "a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy," but have just recently found an immigration lawyer in Vermont who has expertise in these sorts of matters. She's confident I'll be able to get all the proper paperwork completed and processed in under a year. The band are hoping to have this resolved and be at SXSW 2010. But should this take longer than that, the band have been considering a substitute for a very limited number of shows: two or three cities. It's been something we've tossed around since the ban happened. Friends from Los Campesinos! and Tokyo Police Club have offered to help at different points but we've never been sure about doing it that way. Since writing these new songs for XXXX, we really want to share them with the whole world and are now considering our options for the future.

When asked what the new album sounds like, O'Shea simply replied, "In 'Don't Wait Up,' from Hit The Floor!, there is the lyric, 'I will cut my heart open at the centre and let the gold pour into your mouth.' That is what our new album sounds like. More heart, more soul, more feeling, more goodness all around."

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