hypersongs

Cults

The New York indie pop duo of Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion, whose 2011 debut includes "Go Outside".

Go outside

Cults are Madeline Follin on vocals and Brian Oblivion on guitar, keyboards, percussion and production, both from San Diego, where they met, and based in New York since 2010. Oblivion studied documentary cinema at NYU and Follin attended The New School; Follin had earlier recorded with the punk band Youth Gone Mad. The name is said to be inspired by the Heaven's Gate cult, also from San Diego. The Cults 7-inch on Forrest Family Records, with "Go Outside", came out in April 2010, and the debut album Cults was released on June 7, 2011 by In the Name Of and Columbia, recorded from 2010 to early 2011 at Treefort Studios in Brooklyn and produced by the duo and Shane Stoneback, who has produced every record. It reached 52 in the US; Pitchfork gave it 8.5 and ranked it 46th on its 2011 top 50, Metacritic scores it 73 and the Guardian gave 4 stars.

Static followed on October 15, 2013 (Pitchfork 6.8, Paste 7.8), with Ben H. Allen III producing and mixing, then Offering (October 6, 2017, Sinderlyn), Host (September 18, 2020, mixed by John Congleton) and To the Ghosts (July 26, 2024, Imperial, mixed by Congleton and mastered by Heba Kadry). Follin has said she had been too shy to bring her own songs to the first three records until Stoneback encouraged her. "Always Forever" and "Gilded Lily" both caught on about five years after release without being pushed as singles, and "Gilded Lily" went viral on TikTok in 2022; the RIAA certified "Always Forever" Gold on August 17, 2021 and Platinum on July 18, 2022, and "Gilded Lily" Platinum. They appear on J. Cole's "She Knows" (2013, Hot 100 90), toured with the Pixies and Vampire Weekend in 2014 and opened for Vampire Weekend at Lollapalooza on August 4, 2024.

They played All Tomorrow's Parties I'll Be Your Mirror in Asbury Park in September 2011 and the Nightmare Before Christmas in Minehead in December 2011. Atwood Magazine's 2024 interview names horror films as a major influence, and notes a remix collaboration on a Taylor Swift song. Setlist.fm lists 425 setlists.

Albums

Songs

  • Go Outside Cults · 2010

    The single that introduced the band, with a video made from Jonestown footage.

Sources

  1. Cults (band), Wikipedia
  2. Static (Cults album), Wikipedia
  3. Cults to the Ghosts, GRAMMY.com (2024)
  4. Cults on To the Ghosts, Atwood Magazine (2024)