PILGRIMS Use Joy as Rebellion on Latest Track, “Blissing Hour”

South American post-punks PILGRIMS have released “Blissing Hour,” the third single from their upcoming new 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 U.S.

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 traveller, the wanderer.”

On the 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 doomscrolling 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, hope, joy, art and fun. And sometimes that’s the rebellion we need.”

Gemini will be released on February 13th.