Saintseneca Announce Pillar of Na, Share Lead Single “Frostbiter” and Tour Dates

Saintseneca have announced that their forthcoming record Pillar of Na will be out on ANTI- Records on Aug. 31. Along with the album announcement comes news of the band’s first headlining tour in three years, which will kick off at the end of August and run until the end of October.

The album’s title channels the idea of memories, a theme that courses throughout the record. The name references the Biblical story of Lot whose wife looks back at the burning city of Sodom and turns into a pillar of salt (the chemical symbol for sodium is Na) for her disobedience to God. This looking back or remembering appears in the lead single from Pillar of Na, “Frostbiter,” which brings up an assortment of memories, including the death of a grandfather and a childhood friendship.

“I think of this song as a big tree trunk in the woods where people carve their messages—initials, jokes, ‘I love you’ hearts … It is a work of accumulation,” Saintseneca singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Zac Little said of “Frostbiter.”

At the end, a static-y recording clips in and a voice can be heard saying, “sad happy day.” The passage of time is expressed in the statement, “that’s only three months that’s no time at all.” Little said he aimed to incorporate elements he didn’t often hear in folk music, and this clip may be one of those efforts.

“I wanted to use the idiom of folk-rock, or whatever you want to call it, and to try to do something that had never been done before,” Little explains. “To reach way back, echoing ancient folk melodies, tie that into punk rock, and then push it into the future.”

Listen to Saintseneca’s “Frostbiter” below, along with a 2012 performance from the Paste archives. Find the album’s tracklist and the band’s tour dates further down. You can preorder the album here.

Pillar of Na Tracklist:
01. Circle Hymn
02. Feverer
03. Beast in the Garden
04. Ladder to the Sun
05. Good Hand
06. Moon Barks at the Dog
07. Denarius
08. Timshel
09. Frostbiter
10. Pillar of Na

Saintseneca Tour Dates:

August
25 – Cincinnati, Ohio @ beWILDerfest
31 – Columbus, Ohio @ Wexner Center for the Arts

September
04 – Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Spirit Lodge
05 – Boston, Mass. @ Brighton Music Hall
06 – New York, N.Y. @ Bowery Ballroom
07 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ PhilaMOCA
08 – Richmond, Va. @ The Camel
09 – Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat (Backstage)
11 – Durham, N.C. @ The Pinhook
12 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Drunken Unicorn
13 – Tampa, Fla. @ Crowbar
14 – Tallahassee, Fla. @ The Wilbury
15 – New Orleans, La. @ Gasa Gasa
17 – Austin, Texas @ Barracuda
18 – Ft. Worth, Texas @ Main at South Side
19 – Oklahoma City, Okla. @ Opolis
20 – Lawrence, Kan. @ Bottleneck
21 – St. Louis, Mo. @ Off-Broadway
22 – Davenport, Iowa @ Village Theatre
23 – Indianapolis, Ind. @ Hollar on the Hill Festival
24 – Lexington, Ky. @ The Burl

October
09 – Cleveland, Ohio @ Mahall’s
10 – Toronto, Ontario @ Drake
11 – Ferndale, Mich. @ Loving Touch
12 – Chicago, Ill. @ Lincoln Hall
14 – Madison, Wis. @ High Noon
15 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ 7th Street Entry
18 – Boise, Idaho @ Funky Taco
19 – Seattle, Wash. @ Sunset Tavern
20 – Portland, Ore. @ Doug Fir Lounge
22 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Rickshaw Stop
23 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Echo
24 – San Diego, Calif. @ The Casbah
25 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Valley Bar
27 – Denver, Colo. @ Larimer Lounge