The Orchard Circle Breaker [VINYL]

The Taxpayers are a long-running experimental, genre-bending DIY punk band that started in Portland, Oregon in 2007. Their critically acclaimed 2012 concept album God, Forgive These Bastards is about the rise and fall of a fictional baseball player, featuring the hit song, "I Love You Like an Alcoholic". It was released alongside a book of the same name written by Rob Taxpayer. The story was turned into a musical stage production by the Hum'n'bards Theater Troupe in 2018. After a several year hiatus, The Taxpayers have been selling out shows across the United States, headlining festivals in Australia, and are now set to release their first full-length album in 8 years, titled "Circle Breaker", in conjunction with the boundary-defying Ernest Jenning Record Company. "Think of how much the world has changed since we released our last album (2016's Big Delusion Factory)," says Rob Taxpayer. "It seemed appropriate to do something completely different." "Circle Breaker" moves from the quasi-religious vocal harmonies of "Circle Protector" to the electro-funk of the furious "Evil Everywhere". There's chaotic punk ("I Am One Thousand", "Nightmarish Population"), stripped back heartbreak ("Nobody is a Lost Cause", "Empty Shed"), and songs that defy description ("At War With the Dogcatchers", "Everything Will Be Different"). Perhaps most surprising of all, at least for a punk band, are the songs of love and hope ("Naked Trees", "Future Island", "Outline of Your Blood"). "These are songs about circles, and they are the most personal songs we have ever shared," says Rob. "The amount of death and birth we experienced prior to and during the making of this album - the violent deaths of friends and family members, the births of our children...it has been a journey for us." That journey is illustrated by the simple, provocative album art: a tree stump with new growth, created by band bassist and vocalist Nasrene Taxpayer. "Just as we began working on this album, our guitar player Andrew had a family member gunned down and murdered at a park near his home," says Rob. "The next day, the city came and cut down the cherry tree in front of his house. About a week or two later, Andrew texted me a picture: the gnarled stump of the cherry tree had sprouted new growth. A new tree being born from the old." When taken as a whole, the results of "Circle Breaker" are staggering; at once furious, heartbreaking, contemplative, joyous, and moving. The Taxpayers have announced a series of midwest shows in support of "Circle Breaker" this spring in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Detroit, along with summer shows on the east and west coast. Details for the shows can be found at www.thetaxpayersband.com Since their hiatus in 2017, The Taxpayers have continued to grow in popularity, with a million monthly listeners on Spotify. Their song "Medicines" is used as the theme song for the podcast Sawbones, and their song "We are the Hellhounds" is used as the theme song fo