Stream: The Dead Ships, ‘First Mistakes’

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The Dead Ships at Coachella 2016, Weekend 2 (Photo by Koury Angelo courtesy of Goldenvoice)
The Dead Ships at Coachella 2016, Weekend 2 (Photo by Koury Angelo courtesy of Goldenvoice)

The big news is that L.A. rock trio the Dead Ships will release their new full-length, “Citycide,” on June 24 via Nevado Music. It includes the highlights from the band’s growth spurt — the five tracks on last year’s “EP 1” and the new singles “Company Line” and “First Mistakes.” The sidebar is how far the threesome of singer-guitarist Devin McCluskey, drummer Chris Spindelilus and bassist Alex Moore have come since their self-released “Electric Ahab” in 2012. They’ve found a way to be intense and emotional without just turning everything up to 11 and leaving it there.

The shift in dynamics is partly the work of Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene), who produced the album and contributed some guitar work, and partly because of the source material. As its title might suggest, “Citycide” revolves around the restlessness and alienation big-city-dwellers feel — the yearning for real connections, the sense that they are fleeting, the malaise that sets in when things go sideways or, worse, completely off the rails. Many of the songs came to McCuskey as a reaction to a friend’s suicide, and in the new single “First Mistakes,” McCluskey yowls, “It was good to be alive!” It was, and it is.

||| Stream: “First Mistakes” and “Company Line”

||| Live: The Dead Ships open for the Cult on June 3 at the Grove of Anaheim. They also play Make Music Pasadena on June 11 and the Music Tastes Good festival in Long Beach on Sept. 24.

||| Previously: “Seance,” a surprise from Coachella, at Coachella