LA Rock Quartet CRIMINAL HYGIENE Announce New Album – “Run It Again”

Dangerbird Records and LA-based rock quartet Criminal Hygiene are excited to announce the band’s forthcoming studio album, Run It Again. Out on Friday, March 1, 2019, Run It Again (pre-order via Dangerbird) is a 10-song album that shines a fresh light on a raw sort of garage rock, full of melody, smart lyrics and hooks for days. Recorded at Future Shock with Alex Newport (Death Cab For Cutie, Frank Turner, Bloc Party), the album is a punchy and at times introspective showcase referencing the pizza parlor where the entire band works, drunk friends, R.E.M., hollow relationships and more.

Kicking off the album is “Hardly News,” the vibrant opener that is accompanied by a music video directed by Ryan Baxley (FIDLAR, Culture Abuse, The Front Bottoms). Centered around a band that’s been sucked into the music industry machine and spit out the other end, “Hardly News” is actually about seeing yourself from an angle that you can’t necessarily portray to other people.  Throw in a fun Matt Pinfield cameo and you have the band’s welcome return.  

Formed in 2011, Criminal Hygiene are a band comprised of founding member Michael Fiore (vocals, guitars, keys), Michael Hiller (vocals, bass, guitars) and Sean “Birdman” Erickson (drums, percussion). Over the period of a couple years, they wrote-recorded-practiced and performed themselves into the ground, releasing 5.5 singles, an EP and an album. They’ve played literally hundreds of local shows as well as 60-some national dates with the likes of Twin Peaks, Bleached, Together PANGEA and The Whigs, among others.

Criminal Hygiene’s recorded output officially began in November and December of 2012 with the release of back-to-back singles “Blak Water” and “Rearrange Me.” The first album followed in January: 17 songs with a total running time of 38:52 that led Consequence of Sound to rave, “All that academic negligence paid off … an LP that’s as reckless and carefree as it is determined and lethally efficient … balancing the evocative with the asinine … crafting a rocking LP that pays homage while blazing its own trail upward and onward.”

With the current, often bewildering, state of the music business, it’s impossible to say how an album like Run It Again will be received. Fortunately, because of the autonomy of the internet, business machinations and hurdles no longer rule the masses. The quality of Criminal Hygiene’s writing and performances is sure to be recognized by the portion of the global music community who listen carefully, however large or small that may be. After all, it’s an empirical fact that the cream always rises to the top, isn’t it? And that’s something we can all be mighty thankful for.