Sarah Tudzin’s tenderpunk project illuminati hotties is back with their first new music since their acclaimed 2020 release FREE I.H.: This Is Not the One You’ve Been Waiting For, and the music-industry rigmarole that has dogged the band in the past is now behind them. In addition to sharing the video for their first single of 2021, “MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA” (pronounced “Moo!,” they say), Tudzin has announced her own new label, Snack Shack Tracks, in partnership with L.A.-based indie label Hopeless Records, so when the one you have been waiting for comes out (a release window has yet to be revealed), you’ll have her to thank for it.
“I’m incredibly stoked to be partnering with Hopeless Records on my own imprint, Snack Shack Tracks!,” says Tudzin in a statement. “With everything that has brought me to where I am, I knew that the next time around I needed to seek support from folks who trusted me—who believed not only in illuminati hotties, but also in myself, and my curative vision as a creator at large. Hopeless is the perfect collaborator for IH and beyond. I am thrilled, grateful, and looking forward to an expansive future for the music that we’re all total nerds about!”
Looking back on the bumpy road to the band’s much-anticipated follow-up to their 2018 debut Kiss Yr Frenemies, which led to a dead-end contract with a crumbling label in Tiny Engines, and left the album in limbo, Tudzin recalls, “It felt like any momentum came to a screeching halt. It felt painful to pick up a guitar, to write, to record any loose ends that needed to happen to wrap up the album,” She pushed through that pain to create FREE I.H., one of our favorite releases of last year, and left that creative and contractual roadblock in her rearview.
“Somebody told me my music is too ‘CUTE’ to take seriously” Tudzin says of the band’s new single. “So I wrote them a love letter. I hope they’re laughing their patoots off.” She adds of the track’s visual component, “The springboard for the ‘MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA’ video pays tribute to the iconic music video for D’angelo’s ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’ while demanding space for the subversion of male sexuality and flipping the dynamic of power throughout its three slimy minutes.”
Watch the “MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA” video and revisit Tudzin’s 2019 Paste session below. More details on the one you’ve been waiting for to come.
