Stream The Casket Lottery’s “Bell Penny” off upcoming LP ‘Feel The Teeth’

Kansas City punk/post-hardcore vets The Casket Lottery are gearing up to release their sixth album, Feel the Teeth–the followup to 2020’s Short Songs For End Times–on August 26 via Iodine Recordings (pre-order). It was engineered and mixed by Jeremy Wurst, and longtime collaborator Ed Rose contributed synth to “Echolalia” and “Bell Penny” and toms to “Snake Dreams.”

Here’s some background on the album, via Bandcamp:

Lyrically, Feel The Teeth reflects the weight of an era that has shifted in unexpected ways—personally, politically, and socially—capturing the complexities of trying to find clarity in a world that often feels out of control.

[…] If Short Songs for End Times was a roaring statement of survival, Feel The Teeth is the moment after—a quieter, more introspective reckoning with what it means to still be here, still searching for meaning, still hoping for something better even when we’re not sure what it looks like anymore.

The Casket Lottery recently released lead single/opening track “Nightsong,” a tonally and lyrically dark post-hardcore song that singer/guitarist Nathan Ellis says was inspired by the “moments between being awake and my hypnogogic hallucinations” that come with having trouble sleeping, and we’re now premiering second single “Bell Penny.” This one veers into soaring, anthemic, mid-tempo alternative rock territory, and it deals with the balance between maintaining your own mental health and worrying about the world around you.

“‘Bell Penny’ is a song about internal conflict,” Nathan says. “It’s self preservation versus the need to stay informed. How do we stay sane in a crazy world? What are our responsibilities to ourselves and our mental health but also how do we maintain empathy over apathy?” Listen below.

The Casket Lottery are also gearing up for an amazingly-billed tour with The Sound of Animals Fighting and This Will Destroy You. That kicks off in September with additional support from Hard Chiller (members of TSOAF, From Indian Lakes, etc) on the West Coast dates and Soft Blue Shimmer on the East Coast and Texas dates. There’s a NYC show on October 5 at Webster Hall. All dates are listed below.

The Casket Lottery are also playing The Fest, and a record release show with The Appleseed Cast and Flooding.

Feel The Teeth by The Casket Lottery

Tracklist
01. Nightsong
02. Echolalia
03. Bell Penny
04. Diamonds
05. From Now to Now
06. Nothing Certain
07. Shelley
08. On the Wing
09. Snake Dreams

The Sound of Animals Fighting / This Will Destroy You / The Casket Lottery — 2025 Tour Dates
SEP 25 SEATTLE, WA NEPTUNE*
SEP 26 PORTLAND, OR ROSELAND THEATER*
SEP 27 SACRAMENTO, CA ACE OF SPADES*
SEP 28 ANAHEIM, CA HOUSE OF BLUES*
OCT 2 WORCESTER, MA PALLADIUM^
OCT 3 SILVER SPRING, MD THE FILLMORE^
OCT 4 PHILADELPHIA, PA UNION TRANSFER^
OCT 5 NYC, NY WEBSTER HALL^
OCT 10 SAN ANTONIO, TX PAPER TIGER^
OCT 11 DALLAS, TX STUDIO AT THE FACTORY^
OCT 12 HOUSTON, TX HOUSE OF BLUES^

* w Hard Chiller
^ w Soft Blue Shimmer

Other Casket Lottery Dates
8/30 recordBar Kansas City, MO w/ The Appleseed Cast, Flooding
10/24-26 The Fest, Gainesville, FL