New Orleans-based band Sweet Crude returns with a new album announcement. Officiel//Artificiel, the group’s second full LP, is set for release on April 24 via Verve Forecast Records.
The cajun style band makes progressive music rooted in tradition. The group is native to southern Louisiana and aims to keep the region’s French-speaking traditions alive through art. Their acclaimed 2017 release, Créatures was hailed as “an alluring indie-pop record filled with playful rhythms and a genuine love for the Louisiana city.”
Additionally, the band’s video for their latest single, “Déballez,” premiered today on Billboard. The video spotlights a handful of the kids who are currently enrolled in public French immersion schools in Louisiana
Sweet Crude vocalist Sam Craft says, “the French education of this young generation is not only important in that they have been given the gift of a multilingual future but that through them, French has been once again normalized in a place that for hundreds of years called the language home.”
The six members of Sweet Crude, the sound of the French language is an instrument in its own right, one more tool in the creative arsenal.
The Officiel//Artificiel album was recorded live at Esplanade Studios in New Orleans by Sonny DiPerri (Animal Collective, Portugal. The Man, Trent Reznor, My Bloody Valentine, DIIV). The record is the work of a band full of evolving skills, feelings and ideas.
“The whole record is about trying to find your authentic self. Stripping yourself down and realizing what other people and society tell you to be, and what you actually are. And each song tells that story in its own little way.”
- vocalist and drummer Alexis Marceaux
In conjunction with the release, the band was just announced on the Jazz Fest lineup. Shortly after their performance spot with Big Freedia and Boyfriend during New Years. See below for the band’s complete list of tour dates.
SWEET CRUDE LIVE
January 21 — Oxford, MS — Proud Larry’s
January 22 — Jackson, MS — Duling Hall
January 23 — Hattiesburg, MS — Thirsty Hippo
January 24 — Lafayette, LA — Blue Moon Saloon
January 25 — Baton Rouge, LA — Mid City Ballroom
February 6 — New Orleans, LA — Save Our Sponge Concert @ New Orleans Jazz Market
March 21 — New Orleans, LA — ART&SOUL @ NOCCA
March 27 — New Orleans, LA — Hogs for the Cause @ Uno Lakefront Arena
May 1 — New Orleans, LA — New Orleans Jazz Festival
June 11-June14 — Manchester, TN — Bonnaroo