Liverpool gothic alt-pop trio THE DSM IV are pleased to release their new EP, NEGATIVE UTOPIA, which is out now via local independent label heroes 9×9 Records, available on vinyl and all good digital service providers, with new single ‘PINK LADY’ also out now.Following recent shows alongside HUMANIST, Baba Ali and ARXX, the band recently announced a new run of 2025 UK headline tour dates, with tickets on sale now.Commenting on the track, front man Guy McKnight says: “PINK LADY is a tribute to the life of Rae Pinx. Tragically she died suddenly in an accident. She was the long term partner of my ex-band mate in The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster, Marc Norris. She was a multidisciplinary artist, including being a great and much published live music photographer, and also a full time tattoo artist. She was passionate about many kinds of alternative music and was also a Bruce Springsteen aficionado. It’s one of the first songs we three wrote together as THE DSM IV.”Formed in Liverpool in 2018 by former Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster frontman Guy McKnight, THE DSM IV crystallise the ultra real and the otherworldly, bringing a focused hyperrealism to the party. Their convention-defying live performances toy with audience expectations and stimulate questions of the narratives being sold to us as news—or entertainment—all to the beat of the drum machinist.As if pontificating from a lectern, McKnight sings and gesticulates like his life depends on it, his lyrics enticing or lacerating depending on the mood. In an age of perversion of reality, THE DSM IV poetically reflect on our world’s hypocrisies and dilemmas, with danceability, intelligence, indignation, grace & style—refreshing purity for these polluted times.
With special guests Black Bordello.
Black Bordello is a 5-piece art-rock project from Peckham, London. They are fronted by Sienna Bordello, whose emotive soprano and macabre lyricism have been compared to the likes of Bjork, Kate Bush, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Since emerging out of the pandemic, Black Bordello have become one of the most promising burgeoning groups in the UK. Spearheaded by Sienna Bordello’s operatic vocals and vivid, fragmented lyricism, their metamorphic brand of alternative rock is enchanted with elements of vaudevillian chamber pop, post-punk, jazz, psychedelia, gothic rock and progressive pop.
