CHAINLINKS 057: Jose Palafox

With the 10th anniversary of THE CHAIN coming up in April, we've relaunched CHAINLINKS, a series we started back in 2017 to give our friends a space to share the stuff currently inspiring them — music, film, books, or anything else they wanted to recommend to the world.

To kick off the reboot of Chainlinks, we gave the mic to Jose Palafox, whose band Swing Kids will be headlining The Chain’s official 10th anniversary celebration, April 19th at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, NY (presented by Saint Vitus Bar). Get your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/swing-kids-10-years-of-the-chain-w-fatboi-sharif-trace-amount-more-tickets-1982228315251

Jose Palafox is a radical mental health provider and drummer who has lived experience in recovery from addiction. He is a former academic who now lives with his wife and three cats in Oakland, California in a house filled with 13,000 books and lots of vinyl (jazz and classical sections next to the punk, as they should be).

Radical Psychiatry: Five Recommended Books by José Palafox

Florent Gabarron-Garcia, A People’s History of Psychoanalysis (Pluto Press, 2025).

https://www.plutobooks.com/product/a-peoples-history-of-psychoanalysis/

A short paperback discussing the radical genealogies within psychology and psychiatry by examining the work of Marxist feminist psychoanalyst Marie Langer, radical German-American psychologist Erich Fromm, the Catalan psychiatrist Francesc Tosquelles, the Socialist Patient Collective (SPK), and much more! I love the short and concise quality of this book.

Judith Weisenfeld, Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake (NYU Press, 2025).

https://nyupress.org/9781479829781/black-religion-in-the-madhouse/

Why were African Americans committed to state mental institutions at increasing rates after the end of slavery? This book convincingly demonstrates how diagnostic categories not only pathologized Black religious expressions but how they also evolved to shape the rise of psychiatry as the powerful profession that it became. I like that the author makes this work accessible and insightful minus the jargon.

Regina Kunzel, In the Shadow of Diagnosis: Psychiatric Power and Queer Life (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo212129044.html

In the introduction, the author asks: How and why did American psychiatrists mid-century believe they could “cure” homosexuality and normalize gender? Why were homosexuality and gender variance so important to them? What did it mean that queer folk were understood as sick people in need of treatment at the moment when queerness was becoming consolidated as an identity and assuming its modern form? Read and find out in this important and timely book!

Sasha Warren, Storming Bedlam: Madness, Utopia, and Revolt (Common Notions, 2024).

https://www.commonnotions.org/storming-bedlam?srsltid=AfmBOooWWkjlD90EX4-Y0zMRleWVLrme_A5rI_uc3JLmgVGBrXSHrcVC

Mao often said that, wherever there is oppression, there is resistance. In this volume, Warren examines the global development of mental health services throughout the 20th century documenting its utopian and radical origins in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, France, Italy, and Algeria. According to the book, following the George Floyd uprising in 2020, the author founded the project Of Unsound Mind to trace the histories of psychiatry, social work, and public health’s connections to policing, prisons, and various disciplinary and managerial technologies. Also, I like supporting this independent publisher, Common Notions.

Frantz Fanon, Alienation and Freedom (Bloomsbury, 2018).

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/alienation-and-freedom-9781474250214/

One of my favorite statements in this book from Fanon: “The psychiatrist is the auxiliary of the police”. Why? Because historically and to the present origins, psychiatry and psychiatrist (“moral agents”) have functioned as a mechanism of social control and political power all under the guise of medicine. And yet these are the tools we work with—those of us in the trenches of radical mental health. Fanon was and is one of the most important thinkers and anti-colonial fighters. As he suggests, imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land but from our minds as well. The book is still in hardback only but at a decent price (or ask your library for it!).

Photo by Becky DiGiglio

PILGRIMS - "Liminal Travel"

PILGRIMS: South American post-punks explore immigrant experience on bilingual single "Liminal Travel"

With their new album Gemini released in February, South American post-punks PILGRIMS have released their official music video for "Liminal Travel," the album's fourth single.

Stream the video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGS3R8UCfck

Buy the new album, here: https://pilgrimsofyearning.bandcamp.com/album/gemini

Operating out of Boston, Massachusetts, PILGRIMS were initially known as Pilgrims of Yearning. The band was founded in 2018 by Chilean vocalist Juls Garat and Colombian musician Claudio Marcio, who met in Chile and emigrated together to the US.

Garat and Marcio put Pilgrims of Yearning on the map by way of a series of releases, most notably 2022's Hadal EP and its dreamy lead single, "La Mar." With rigid beats and stark basslines interlacing with ethereal guitars and synths, the songs paid homage to the early works of Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure, yet throbbed with their own heartbeat, unique to their makers.

New album Gemini is the first release under the new band name. Marcio gives this statement about the new, concise moniker: "With the name PILGRIMS, we reflect not only our spiritual journey, but our living experience as immigrants, our pilgrimage. The new album is touched by our experience as immigrants existing in this moment and place in history. We feel a lot of people can relate to the archetype of the traveler, the wanderer."

On "Liminal Travel," the album's fourth single, arpeggiated bass and a slamming electro beat lay the foundation. Garat holds court with her sirenic vocals, sung in both Spanish and English, and ethereal guitars and synths swirl. The song's dreamlike music video follows Garat and Marcio as they sightsee across New York City.

Garat gives this statement about the song's lyrics: "As an immigrant, you exist in a limbo, you don’t really belong to anywhere. As cliché as it sounds, it’s the primal experience of migration. It’s a journey where you question your essence, your values, your relationships, societal constructs, all what makes us human. In that journey, Claudio and I have each other as our mutual anchors in the uncertainty."

Photo by Rachael Shorr

CATERWAUL x Rye Coalition

CATERWAUL: post-hardcore legends Rye Coalition join 2026 festival lineup

With this year's incarnation of Caterwaul booked for June 5-7, 2026 in Minneapolis, the festival's organizers reveal another standout of the stacked lineup: Rye Coalition.

Hailing from Jersey City, New Jersey, the shapeshifting Rye Coalition stormed the scene in the '90s as a scrappy, sassy post-hardcore outfit, in league with the likes of Drive Like Jehu and Nation of Ulysses. The new millennium saw a radical reinvention, with the band leaning heavily into its classic rock and hard rock influences. Despite the playfulness of song titles such as "ZZ Topless," "Paradise by the Marlboro Light" and "Between I-Roc and a Hard Place," the transformed Rye Coalition of the early '00s rocked with power and conviction, finding a producer and champion in Dave Grohl, and landing tours with Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, and The Mars Volta. After two decades spent mostly out of the spotlight, the band will grace Caterwaul's stage in June for its first show in several years – a one-off, exclusive appearance from a group that has always marched to its own beat. 

In addition to Rye Coalition, the Caterwaul team has announced ten other artists for the 2026 lineup so far, including:

Dazzling Killmen
Didjits
H.E.A.T.
Mike Watt + The Missingmen
Muscle
New Brutalism
Point Line Plane
Season to Risk
Stress Positions
Tongue Party

Founded in 2020, Caterwaul has established itself as an annual showcase of the noisy, iconoclastic fringes of rock. BrooklynVegan has hailed it as "a unique mix of noise rock, punk, metal, post-punk and beyond," while New Noise Magazine has named it "a gathering of some of the best underground bands existing today." In a city still reeling from tragedies connected to the federal government's heavy-handed immigration efforts, Caterwaul stands as a beacon of independent thought and countercultural action. This year's fest will take place entirely at Minneapolis venue Zhora Darling.

3-day festival passes are on sale now: https://ticketstripe.com/caterwaul2026

Stream Rye Coalition's latest release, a single consisting of covers of Shellac and Drive Like Jehu songs, here: https://ryecoalition.bandcamp.com/album/paid-in-full

Stand by for more lineup announcements, coming soon!

Photo of Rye Coalition, courtesy of the band

HEAVY HALO - US Tour

HEAVY HALO: US tour with My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult fulfills industrial-rockers' childhood dreams

NYC's industrialized alt-rockers Heavy Halo will team up with the legendary My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult on tour this month as TKK's "Delicate Terror Tour" tears across the western half of the US. Kicking off March 25th in San Francisco and concluding in Los Angeles on April 18th, the tour marks Heavy Halo's first time venturing beyond their East Coast turf and bringing what CVLT Nation has hailed as their "soaring industrial metal" to the western states.

Founded in Chicago in the 1980s, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult began amidst the Wax Trax! Records industrial scene, alongside labelmates Ministry and KMFDM, then evolved toward its own signature sound incorporating house, funk, psych, and B-movie obsessions. Always provocative, always fun, the band has toured with the likes of Marilyn Manson and Siousxie and the Banshees and its songs have been featured in iconic films such as The Crow.

Heavy Halo's spiritual connection to TKK runs deep. The band was an early, fundamental influence on the aesthetics and life choices of both of Heavy Halo's members – vocalist/guitarist McKeever and producer Gosteffects – making the upcoming tour much more than a random pairing.

Gosteffects states: "My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult was the very first concert I went to, as a kid in Oklahoma, inspiring me to set out on a lifelong artistic journey, from throwing illegal raves in Oklahoma City to producing hundreds of artists in NYC."

McKeever states: "The film, The Crow, which featured My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult in an unforgettable performance scene, imprinted TKK's stamp on my psyche, becoming key sonic and visual influences for Heavy Halo. It is a full circle moment for us."

This leg of TKK's "Delicate Terror Tour" also features darkwave powerhouse Light Asylum (with whom Heavy Halo collaborated in 2025 on the single "Die Cast Down"), Die Sexual, and Devora.

As a prelude to the impending tour, Heavy Halo will hit the road this week to play two East Coast shows with goth-metal enchanters Cemetery Sex.

3/6 - Philadelphia, PA - Ortlieb’s !
3/7 - Washington, DC - Songbyrd !
3/25 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall $
3/27 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom $
3/28 - Tacoma, WA - Spanish Ballroom $
3/31 - Boise, ID - Shrine Social Club $
4/1 - Salt Lake City, UT - Metro Music Hall $
4/3 - Denver, CO - Oriental Theatre $
4/4 - Colorado Springs, CO - The Black Sheep $
4/6 - Kansas City, MO - Warehouse on Broadway #
4/7 - Oklahoma City, OK - Beer City Music Hall $
4/9 - Austin, TX - Mohawk $
4/10 - Dallas, TX - Echo Lounge & Music Hall $
4/11 - Houston, TX - Numbers $
4/12 - San Antonio, TX - Paper Tiger $
4/14 - El Paso, TX - Lowbrow Palace $
4/15 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress #
4/16 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar #
4/17 - San Diego, CA - Music Box $
4/18 - Los Angeles, LA - Teragram Ballroom $

$ = TKK, Light Asylum, Die Sexual, Devora
# = Light Asylum, Die Sexual, Devora
! = Cemetery Sex

• Buy tickets for TKK's "Delicate Terror Tour" here:

https://mylifewiththethrillkillkult.com/

• Stream Heavy Halo's latest single, a remix of "Godspell" by Andy Bell of Erasure, here:

https://open.spotify.com/track/0mYw3qpDR0G8QfeqMEyGrB

• Follow Heavy Halo, here: 

https://www.instagram.com/heavyhalo.nyc/

Photo by Tori McGraw

CATERWAUL 2026 lineup

CATERWAUL: Minneapolis fest announces Mike Watt, Dazzling Killmen, Stress Positions and more for 2026 lineup

Founded in 2020, Minneapolis music festival Caterwaul has established itself as an annual showcase of the noisy, iconoclastic fringes of rock, with past performers including the likes of Chat Pile, Flipper, Pissed Jeans, and Uniform. BrooklynVegan has hailed Caterwaul as "a unique mix of noise rock, punk, metal, post-punk and beyond," while New Noise Magazine has named it "a gathering of some of the best underground bands existing today." In a city still reeling from tragedies connected to the federal government's heavy-handed immigration efforts, Caterwaul stands as a beacon of independent thought and countercultural action.

With the fifth edition of Caterwaul confirmed for June 5-7, 2026 at Minneapolis venue Zhora Darling, the festival's organizers have revealed 10 of this year's artists. In alphabetical order:

Dazzling Killmen
Didjits
H.E.A.T.
Mike Watt + The Missingmen
Muscle
New Brutalism
Point Line Plane
Season to Risk
Stress Positions
Tongue Party

• Founded in St. Louis in 1990, Dazzling Killmen meld hardcore venom and prog chops into new and challenging configurations that have inspired hordes of younger bands – The Dillinger Escape Plan, notably among them.

• Campy and confrontational, Illinois band Didjits bash out a hard-rocking brand of punk, immortalized on a string of Touch and Go Records releases and the ultimate early-'90s honor, a video on MTV's Beavis and Butthead.

• Not to be confused with the Swedish heavy metal band wielding the same acronym, Minneapolis' H.E.A.T. is a new entity making distortion-drenched dance punk.

• A man who needs no introduction, Mike Watt is an icon, blazing his own path since the early 1980s. With a legacy that includes his bands Minutemen and fIREHOSE, and a massive list of collabs (The Stooges, Sonic Youth, Eddie Vedder), Watt comes to Caterwaul as Mike Watt + The Missingmen, a trio with guitarist Tom Watson and drummer Raul Morales.

• Baltimore trio Muscle churns out bass-heavy noise-punk bursts, propelled by singer Madison Coan's fiery vocalizations.

• Guided by the minimalism of the movement from which they take their name, Knoxville's New Brutalism operates on a knife edge between post-hardcore and noise rock, using aluminum instruments they design and build themselves.

• Bred in the early-2000s electro-punk freak scene populated by the likes of Trans Am and Lightning Bolt, Portland duo Point Line Plane returns with what SF Weekly once named, "aggro keyboard-core of the highest and most demented order."

• Kansas City's Season to Risk enjoyed major label success in the alternative boom of the early '90s, amidst peers such as Helmet and Quicksand. Active again in recent years, the band's hard-edged anthems, marked by frontman Steve Tulipana's rough and yearning vocals, still hit a nerve.

• A ripping hardcore band from Chicago, Stress Positions lays waste via fast drumbeats, rocking guitar leads, and vocalist Stephanie Brooks' devastating yelp.

• Minneapolis favorites Tongue Party deliver burly, thrashing, noise rock that keeps adrenaline high and heads banging.

3-day festival passes are on sale now: https://ticketstripe.com/caterwaul2026

Stand by for more lineup announcements, coming soon.

Photo of Stress Positions, courtesy of the band

CATERWAUL 2026

CATERWAUL: Minneapolis festival confirms Dazzling Killmen, Point Line Plane, for 2026 lineup; 3-day passes on sale now

With news outlets reporting this week on the Trump administration's decision to end the surge of immigration agents in Minnesota, the organizers of annual Minneapolis music festival Caterwaul reveal the first details of their upcoming 2026 fest.

3-day passes are one sale now: https://ticketstripe.com/caterwaul2026

Now in its fifth year, the fest has hosted a stellar list of artists in years past, representing the noisy, countercultural fringes of rock – Brainiac, Chat Pile, Couch Slut, Flipper, Oxbow, Pissed Jeans, and Uniform, to name a handful. BrooklynVegan has hailed Caterwaul as "a unique mix of noise rock, punk, metal, post-punk and beyond," while New Noise Magazine has named it "a gathering of some of the best underground bands existing today."

Scheduled for the weekend of June 5-7, Caterwaul 2026 promises to continue its mission of championing the underground, while making some logistical adjustments to improve the experience for all. Where past years saw the fest spread across numerous Minneapolis stages, the organizers – Rainer Fronz (Learning Curve Records), Conan Neutron (Seismic Wave Entertainment), and Melanie Thomas – have chosen this year to focus the event in one location, Northeast Minneapolis venue Zhora Darling, and to streamline the lineup to a leaner, meaner list of artists.

With a full lineup announcement coming soon, Fronz, Neutron, and Thomas kick things off by revealing just two of this year's artists: both recently reunited, and both with Skin Graft Records affiliations, post-hardcore game-changers Dazzling Killmen and synth-rockers Point Line Plane will descend upon Caterwaul 2026 as part of their spring US tour.

Founded in 1990, Dazzling Killmen melded hardcore venom and prog chops into new and challenging configurations that would inspire hordes of younger bands in the decades to come – The Dillinger Escape Plan, notably among them. Bred in the early-2000s electro-punk freak scene populated by the likes of Trans Am and Lightning Bolt, Point Line Plane has been described by SF Weekly as "aggro keyboard-core of the highest and most demented order."

ICE out, Caterwaul in. Stand by for more Caterwaul 2026 announcements.

Caterwaul logo, by Whitney Does

Photo of Dazzling Killmen, by Adam Bubolz

Photo of Point Line Plane, by Lucy Fur

Out today: PILGRIMS - Gemini

Gemini, the new album by South American post-punks PILGRIMS, is out today. PILGRIMS' sound mixes the cold and stark with the ethereal and wistful, bringing to mind elements of early Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure, or newer artists such as Kælan Mikla. Chilean vocalist Juls Garat and Colombian multi-instrumentalist Claudio Marcio, based now in Boston, Massachusetts, explore their immigrant experience through passionate, bilingual songs.

Stream the album, here: https://pilgrimsbandofficial.bandcamp.com/album/gemini

Stream the "Blissing Hour" music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UVKmFEW55I

Stream the "Alien" music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocyq2W4JC5Q

Stream the "Glow" music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TWqD46F44Q

"An ode to old school death rock... that hearkens to gothic roots and post punk present. It’s eerily romantic, but in a heartbreaking and remorseful way."
–CVLT Nation

"Cold urgency and emotional weight collide as the band sharpens its sound into something intimate and confrontational, shaped by survival, and the tension of existing between worlds."
–Destroy//Exist

"Comprised of South American immigrants (hence their nom de plume), Pilgrims have only leaned farther into their identity on the simmering, moving Gemini. Bi-lingual, bi-continental, and clearly bi-genre-curious, their synthpop/post-punk/shoegaze feels effervescent in its desire to inspire."
–New Noise

"Gemini... tempers post-punk severity with a swell of euphoria, letting tension breathe as the rhythm nudges bodies out of paralysis and into movement."
–Post-Punk

"A fog-drenched landscape of sound... All too often, darkwave-leaning bands like this don’t quite feel organic enough, but this group has a perfect balance of electronic elements and instruments plugged into amps."
– Treble

Photo by Rachael Shorr

PILGRIMS - "Blissing Hour"

PILGRIMS: South American post-punks use joy as rebellion on new single "Blissing Hour"

South American post-punks PILGRIMS have released "Blissing Hour," the third single from upcoming new album Gemini.

Stream the video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UVKmFEW55I

Pre-order the new album, here: https://pilgrimsofyearning.bandcamp.com/album/gemini

Operating out of Boston, Massachusetts, PILGRIMS were initially known as Pilgrims of Yearning. The band was founded in 2018 by Chilean vocalist Juls Garat and Colombian musician Claudio Marcio, who met in Chile and emigrated together to the US.

Garat and Marcio put Pilgrims of Yearning on the map by way of a series of releases, most notably 2022's Hadal EP and its dreamy lead single, "La Mar." With rigid beats and stark basslines interlacing with ethereal guitars and synths, the songs paid homage to the early works of Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure, yet throbbed with their own heartbeat, unique to their makers.

Returning now with their first new music since Hadal, Garat, Marcio, and bassist Sean Woodbury have rechristened themselves, simply, PILGRIMS. Upcoming new album Gemini is the first release under the new name. Marcio gives this statement about the new, concise moniker: "With the name PILGRIMS, we reflect not only our spiritual journey, but our living experience as immigrants, our pilgrimage. The new album is touched by our experience as immigrants existing in this moment and place in history. We feel a lot of people can relate to the archetype of the traveler, the wanderer."

On new single "Blissing Hour," icy post-punk sounds are softened by euphoric overtones. Vocalist Juls Garat states: "Joy can be a form of resistance. This is true for everyone, but especially for marginalized groups. If we’re not hustling, we’re supposed to be doom scrolling and getting depressed and enraged by watching the news and fighting with strangers on social media. But we can always choose stepping into the real world. We can choose community and hope and joy and art and fun. And sometimes that’s the rebellion we need."

Gemini will be released February 13th.

Photo by Rachael Shorr

CHAIN X

THE CHAIN: Swing Kids, Fatboi Sharif to play "CHAIN X" 10th anniversary show in NYC

With the 10th anniversary of PR collective The Chain coming up in April 2026, co-founders Curran Reynolds, Justin Pearson, and Brandon Gallagher will celebrate the milestone with an official 10th anniversary party.

Scheduled for April 19th at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, New York, and co-presented by Saint Vitus Bar, "CHAIN X" will feature live sets by Reynolds's, Pearson's, and Gallagher's own musical projects, along with other Chain-affiliated artists, adding up to an eclectic and electric lineup that serves as a small display of what The Chain represents.

Headlining the show is the legendary Swing Kids, making its first-ever NYC appearance. Founded in San Diego in the mid-1990s by The Chain's Justin Pearson, the short-lived Swing Kids made a huge impact within a few years, lacing urgent hardcore punk anthems with influences taken from jazz, post-punk, and more. Fitting in loosely amongst other envelope-pushing bands of the '90s, such as Unbroken, Drive Like Jehu, and The Nation of Ulysses, Swing Kids can be understood, in hindsight, as a precursor to Pearson's projects that followed, including The Locust and Deaf Club. Recently reunited, with original members Pearson, John Brady, Jose Palafox, and Jimmy LaValle, as well as additional guitarist Nathan Joyner, Swing Kids' sound feels as fresh and crucial as ever, and the band will venture to the East Coast for the first time in its career, to play "CHAIN X."

Completing the "CHAIN X" bill on April 19th are: avant-rapper Fatboi Sharif; industrial-noise juggernaut Trace Amount (featuring The Chain's Brandon Gallagher) accompanied by live drummer Ignabu; noise punks Venus Twins; and hard rockers Body Stuff (featuring The Chain's Curran Reynolds).

Following the show at Elsewhere, the festivities will continue at the official afterparty at Selva, with DJ Nikki Sneakers selecting the tunes.

Buy tickets, here: https://swing-kids.eventbrite.com/

Launched in April 2016 by Reynolds, Pearson, and Gallagher – friends and music industry veterans whose roles within the industry have included musician, publicist, label owner, live music promoter, graphic designer, and more – The Chain has established itself over the past decade as a frontrunner in music PR, handling publicity for a curated roster of artists spanning metal, hardcore, punk, post-punk, industrial, and beyond. With offices in NYC and San Diego, The Chain has recently represented such artists as Car Bomb, Cloud Rat, HIRS Collective, Kælan Mikla, KEN mode, King Yosef, Kontravoid, N8NOFACE, and SpiritWorld.

https://thechainworld.com/

PILGRIMS - "Alien"

PILGRIMS: South American post-punks navigate immigrant experience on new single "Alien"; music video streaming now

Post-punk trio PILGRIMS have released "Alien," the second single from upcoming new album, Gemini.

Stream the official "Alien" music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocyq2W4JC5Q

Pre-order the new album, here: https://pilgrimsofyearning.bandcamp.com/album/gemini

Operating out of Boston, Massachusetts, PILGRIMS were initially known as Pilgrims of Yearning. The band was founded in 2018 by Chilean vocalist Juls Garat and Colombian musician Claudio Marcio, who met in Chile and emigrated together to the US.

Garat and Marcio put Pilgrims of Yearning on the map by way of a series of releases, most notably 2022's Hadal EP and its dreamy lead single, "La Mar." With rigid beats and stark basslines interlacing with ethereal guitars and synths, the songs paid homage to the early works of Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure, yet throbbed with their own heartbeat, unique to their makers.

Returning now with their first new music since Hadal, Garat, Marcio, and bassist Sean Woodbury have rechristened themselves, simply, PILGRIMS. Upcoming new album Gemini is the first release under the new name. Marcio gives this statement about the new, concise moniker: "With the name PILGRIMS, we reflect not only our spiritual journey, but our living experience as immigrants, our pilgrimage. The new album is touched by our experience as immigrants existing in this moment and place in history. We feel a lot of people can relate to the archetype of the traveler, the wanderer."

Gemini's second single, "Alien," sees Garat deliver her commanding vocals in both Spanish and English. She states: “'Alien' is the legal term used in this country to refer to non-citizens. The song talks about our experience after 10 years in the US and it only made sense to write a good portion of it in Spanish. It’s probably one of our most political songs."

The song's official music video consists of footage shot live at The Middle East in the band's hometown of Boston in 2025 on a bill with Turkish post-punks She Past Away.

In an age of division, PILGRIMS' music transcends nations and borders. Part of a global network of like-minded artists, from Turkey's She Past Away to Iceland's Kælan Mikla, PILGRIMS' impassioned sound taps into the humanity connecting all people. 

Photo by Rachael Shorr