The Boxer Rebellion - Union
The Boxer Rebellion are proud to announce that their second album Union will be released physically for the first time on 14 September 2009, via a groundbreaking collaboration with HMV.
In the first deal of its kind, HMV will advance the album's costs and give it promotional support, in exchange for a share of revenues. Union will be accompanied by the release on 7 September of a 10" vinyl picture disk single, limited to 500 copies, of the double A-side ‘Semi-Automatic/Flashing Red Light Means Go’.
Since being signed on the back of an explosive Glastonbury performance in 2003, The Boxer Rebellion have infamously suffered a stop-start career at the hands of a volatile music industry. The aptly-titled and self-produced Union is the triumphant result of what can be achieved when ability, commitment and relentless drive converge towards a shared, immovable goal. From the opening assault of 'Flashing Red Light Means Go' through the insistent 'Spitting Fire' to the redemptive closer 'Silent Movie', the overriding effect of Union is of going through an emotional storm and arriving replenished on the other side.
The Boxer Rebellion’s Union follows their 2005 debut LP EXITS on Alan McGee’s Poptones/Mercury imprint. NME proclaimed at the time: 'This band can alter your life.' Kerrang! wrote, 'If you’re crying out for substance in music, The Boxer Rebellion are here to soothe your soul,' and both The Fly and MusicOMH dubbed the album 'flawless'.
As their label imploded, and singer Nathan Nicholson found himself critically-ill on a life-support machine, EXITS took on a life of its own, passed quietly from person to person until it had amassed an army of feverishly devoted fans. Following Nicholson’s difficult but eventual recovery the band continued to perform live, and it was at these decisive shows - always underpinned by new songs well before they could ever be recorded - that the spirit of a new album came into being.
Ultimately taking matters into their own hands, The Boxer Rebellion self-released Union through iTunes on 13 January 2009, with lead track 'Evacuate' becoming the first ever global iTunes Single of the Week and amassing an astonishing 560,000 downloads in seven days.
Union went Top 5 on both iTunes US and UK Albums Charts within 48 hours, resulting in The Boxer Rebellion becoming the first unsigned band to break into the Billboard Top 100 Albums Chart on a digital-only release. Union also knocked My Morning Jacket off the iTunes US Alternative Albums No.1 that week, and at one point was outselling the likes of Coldplay and Kings of Leon.
The band will also tour the UK from 22 September, and will also be playing thelondonpaper’s Headliners Festival on 17 September.