Ekko Astral Announce New Live Album Fuck This Band: Live at the Chapel

When Ekko Astral were dropped by their label Topshelf Records in February, they were about to release a new album, The Beltway Is Burning, and embark on a run of West Coast tour dates supporting Mclusky. During their show at The Chapel in San Francisco, the Washington, D.C. punk band recorded a live album. Fuck This Band: Live at the Chapel will be available for purchase exclusively on Bandcamp next Wednesday, April 22—Beltway’s original release date—with all proceeds being split evenly between Gender Liberation Movement and No More Dysphoria. Below, hear a live version of the Beltway single “Lil Xan Goes to Washington.”

“[Our] sets on the mclusky run had that special electricity that saw our band at full tilt, loud as ever, in a moment of internal crisis,” bandleader Jae Holzman wrote on Instagram. Fuck This Band’s tracklist comprises material from Beltway—including two previously unheard tracks from the album, “Sandler ’36” and “Beltway”—and Ekko Astral’s 2024 full-length debut, Pink Balloons, as well as a song called called “Stuffing My Fingers Into a Meat Grinder” the band wrote for their tour with Mclusky.

Topshelf dropped Ekko Astral in the wake of a Washington City Paper report that detailed the fallout between Holzman and former drummer Miri Tyler, who left the band in January. On February 6, Holzman filed a peace order in Montgomery County District Court, alleging that Tyler had been threatening her on social media—a claim Tyler has since denied. In a statement to Pitchfork at the time, Ekko Astral disavowed the City Paper story, which they said misrepresented the circumstances of Tyler’s departure.

The Beltway Is Burning currently has no release date, though Holzman has confirmed that Ekko Astral will be putting it out independently. Liberation Weekend, the D.C. festival that the band co-founded with Gender Liberation Movement in 2025, returns later this month. Ekko Astral were set to headline alongside Laura Jane Grace and Illuminati Hotties, but are no longer performing.