Content Advisory: The following text includes detailed discussions of eating disorders, including bulimia.
Uniform’s latest album, American Standard, is a sonic journey that peels back layers of raw emotion and personal struggle, revealing the story within each track. This album stands as their most intimate work to date, delving deep into themes of self-destruction, with a particular focus on vocalist Michael Berdan’s lifelong battle with bulimia nervosa. Berdan’s lyrics penetrate the core of the innermost self, depicting the small human being crushed under the weight of sickness. His bandmates join him in this exploration, creating majestic drones that feel both mechanical and omniscient. As the relentless rhythms grind on, Uniform surrenders to the uncaring gears of the universe.
The thematic content of American Standard is neatly divided into two distinct sections. The A-side of the record portrays an individual trapped in a purgatorial state of physical and psychic crisis. In contrast, the B-side addresses the impact of a lifetime of dealing with an eating disorder on those around him.
The album kicks off with a jolt. A voice, a room, a face in the mirror. The reflection stares back, each line mirrored and refracted in the unsympathetic glass. Forget for a moment that Berdan has been shredding his throat in Uniform for over a decade. Forget his highly stylized delivery on the band’s acclaimed collaborations with experimental doom titans The Body and Japanese heavy rock powerhouse Boris. Forget the entire tradition of abrasive vocals in aggressive music. Instead, look beneath the songs, the form, and the style.
To help unravel this narrative of eating disorders, self-hatred, delusion, mania, and ultimate discovery, Berdan enlisted the help of two towering outsider literary figures. Alongside B.R. Yeager, author of the modern cult-classic Negative Space, and Maggie Siebert, the mind behind the contemporary body horror masterpiece Bonding, the trio dissects the personal material to present a vivid portrait of mental and physical illness. The result is an acute articulation of a state beyond simple agony, capturing the thrilling transcendence and deliverance that sickness can bring.
American Standard is undoubtedly Uniform’s most thematically accomplished and musically self-assured album to date. Sections spiral and explode, motifs drift into obscurity before reasserting themselves with new power, and genres collide and burst open, forming something idiosyncratic and new. The album’s grandeur is partly due to the addition of Interpol bassist Brad Truax, alongside the percussive push and pull of returning drummer Michael Sharp and longtime touring drummer Michael Blume, who makes his recorded debut with Uniform here. However, the true magnificence lies in the scale and power of guitarist and founder Ben Greenberg’s arrangements, which elegantly match the intense lyrical subject matter.
At its core, what remains is trust. A record of this range and depth, a piece of art so far out on a ledge, can only be attempted with an extreme and almost foolish amount of understanding between collaborators. American Standard stands firmly on the bedrock that Uniform’s two original members, Michael Berdan and Ben Greenberg, have been building on for over a decade.
In Greenberg’s words, “When we started this record, Berdan told me: ‘I trust you to come up with a solid foundation for this, however you envision this thing. I want you to realize it completely, because I believe in you.’ So I wanted to write something overwhelming and all-encompassing for Berdan to lead his narrative through… because I trust and believe in him.” For an album to transcend simple genre exercises and become a work of art, the musicians behind it must push themselves far beyond the frayed ends of their established comfort zones. Without a shred of doubt, American Standard is a work of art, agonizing in its honesty and relentless in its pursuit of sonic transcendence. It is hideous. It is beautiful. It is necessary.
Press Photo By Joshua Zucker-Pluda & Sean Stout | Hi Res Version Here Pictured L-R: Founding Members Michael Berdan (Vocals), Ben Greenberg (Guitar) Not Pictured: Mike Sharp (Drums), Brad Truax (Bass), Michael Blume (Drums)
Uniform Live Dates:
Aug 30: New York City, NY - Bowery Ballroom (Record Release Show) !
Sep 03: Landers, CA - Giant Rock
Sep 04: Los Angeles, CA - Zebulon #
Sep 05: San Francisco, CA - Thee Parkside #
Sep 06: Eugene, OR - John Henry’s #
Sep 07: Seattle, WA - Black Lodge #
Sep 08: Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios #
Sep 09: Vancouver, BC - The Pearl #
Sep 10: Tacoma, WA - Elks Temple #
Oct 01: Manchester, UK - The White Hotel %
Oct 02: Newcastle, UK - The Lubber Fiend %
Oct 03: London, UK - Rich Mix %
Oct 04: Brussels, BE - Botanique %
Oct 05: Haarlem, NL - Patronaat %
Oct 06: Utrecht, NL - De Helling %
Oct 08: Hamburg, DE - Hefenklang %
Oct 09: Berlin, DE - Zukunft %
Oct 10: Warsaw, PL - Hybrydy $
Oct 11: Poznam, PL - 2Progi $
Oct 12: Prague, CZ - Underdogs %
Oct 13: Wien, AT - Chelsea %
Oct 15: Zagreb, HR - Mocvara %
Oct 16: Manchester, UK - TPO ^
Oct 17: Milano, IT - ARCI Bellezza ^
Oct 18: Fribourg, CH - Cafe XXe %
Oct 19: Paris, FR - La Java %
Dec 03: Washington, DC - DC9 ~
Dec 04: Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's ~
Dec 05: Boston, MA - The Armory ~
Dec 06: Montréal, QC - Cabaret Foufounes ~
Dec 07: Toronto, ON - Monarch Tavern ~
Dec 08: Detroit, MI - Small's ~
Dec 10: Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle ~
Dec 11: Columbus, OH - Ace of Cups ~
Dec 13: Richmond, VA - The Warehouse ~
Dec 14: Bethlehem, PA - National Sokols ~
% w/ Bad Breeding$ - w/ Bad Breeding and A Place To Bury Strangers
^ - w/ Bad Breeding and The Body & Dis Fig
! w/ Poison Ruin and LEYA
# w/ World Peace
~ w/ Pharmakon and True Body
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