About two weeks ago, Direct Hit! was announced as touring support for NOFX’s “Hepatitis Bathtub Tour,” which will span 14 shows in nine states this April. Today, the tour mates officially became label mates, as Fat Wreck Chords—the legendary punk label co-founded by NOFX front man “Fat Mike” Burkett—announced it signed Milwaukee’s premier pop-punk outfit. Fat, which has released material from NOFX, The Lawrence Arms, Against Me!, Dillinger Four, Anti-Flag, Descendents, Madison’s own Masked Intruder, and countless other beloved punk acts over the course of its 25-year existence, will put out Direct Hit!’s next full-length, which is due to be released this summer.
That full-length, the follow-up to the 2013’s apocalyptic masterpiece Brainless God, was recorded between June and December of last year at Bobby Peru Recordings in West Allis and in the basement of singer-guitarist Nick Woods. Emily Lazar (The Killers, Foo Fighters) is mastering the forthcoming release—another ambitious concept album—this week. For Woods and the rest of the band that has endured having its van stolen and destroyed, its equipment being pawned, and a costly rehearsal space blaze, this one-album deal is a dream come true.
“When I first started listening to punk music back when I was 15 or 16, Fat Wreck basically defined what modern ‘punk’ meant to me and my friends in the suburbs. So being a person who dedicated himself to musical expression around that age, I don’t think it’s too dramatic or pretentious to say that Fat defined at least part of who I am as a person now,” Woods tells Milwaukee Record. “At the very least, I’m really proud I get to contribute to that foundation in some way, and to be recognized by a lot of people I looked up to when I was still figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. Teenage me would have lost sleep if he’d known that 15 years later he’d get to put out an album he wrote on Fat Wreck Chords.”
Check back for details on the album and its release date in the coming weeks.