We are Northern State.
We are pleased to announce that our new album Can I Keep This Pen? will
be released on Ipecac Recordings this August '07.
After All City, we became increasingly frustrated with the Columbia
machine and left the label. Finally free, we teamed up with producer Chuck Brody
of Shitake Monkey (Wu Tang Clan, Yoko Ono etc.) and Adrock from the Beastie
Boys and began making our new album. We wrote some rock songs and some hip hop
songs and some other kinds of songs. We pushed the limits more than ever in
terms of what a hip hop song might sound like, what a rock song might sound
like, and what Northern State might sound like. We finally named the album Can
I Keep This Pen?
We have now been a band for 7 years. Can I Keep This Pen? is our third
proper album, following All City (Columbia Records, 2004), Dying in
Stereo (Northern State Records/Startime/Wichita UK, 2003), and our 2002
independent EP Hip Hop You Haven't Heard, which was supposed to
be our demo.
We have had the good fortune of sharing the stage in the US and Europe with
acts like the Roots, Le Tigre, Talib Kweli, De La Soul, The Gossip, Gym Class
Heroes, Tegan and Sara, and Cake.
Mike Patton and Greg at Ipecac heard the new record and loved it and we are
thrilled to finally be working with a label that encourages us to be as weird
as we are.
Oh, I'm sorry...Can I Keep This Pen?
