Be here on Saturday, October 17th at 4:30 to catch Total Wife in the record shop! They’ll be performing a short set and signing copies of come back down, their 2025 full-length that has just been released on LP and CD! Following a very successful cassette & digital release via Julia’s War Recordings, we’re happy to see this great album available on vinyl & compact disc. You can order a copy on our site here or pick one up at our event on the 17th. Total Wife’s performance at Grimey’s hits at our weekly BEER:30 hang, so (if you’re of age) please enjoy a cold Tennessee Brew Works beer when you’re here! (Must be 21+ w/ valid ID to partake in alcoholic beverages. Read more about BEER:30 below.)
come back down, the new album by Nashville experimental-pop duo Total Wife, was born from the edge of sleep. When composer and producer Luna Kupper would begin to fall asleep during late-night mixing sessions, the songs would follow her into the halfway place between dream and lucidity. And like a spiral from waking life into dream, the songs on come back down are endlessly self-referential, building whole universes from a single point. Kupper sold all of her synths to make rent before she started working on the album, and so every inorganic sound is instead built from samples of the band’s own work. A guitar on one song may be reprocessed and used as a synth on the next, while everywhere on the album vocal samples are taken from a single unreleased cover of Elliott Smith’s “Between the Bars.” In tribute to this process, the album was almost named The Julia Set after the mathematical equation which feeds into itself again and again, creating beautiful fractal images. The intention was to create something complex but accessible; experimental, yet precise and without abstraction. Main vocalist and co-composer Ash Richter drew on her experience of pandemic isolation to write about connection and disconnection, using her lyrics as a tool for the communication that was missing in everyday life.
Richter and Kupper, friends from high school, formed Total Wife in 2016, relocating from Boston to Nashville in 2020. Both are visual artists as well as musicians, which they incorporate into their work with Total Wife via layered and purposeful visuals. A DIY streak underpins everything that they do — from handling their own artwork and music videos to recording their own music, releasing tapes through their label Ivy Eat Home, and hosting house shows in the basement they’ve christened Ryman 2. In Nashville they’ve settled into a weirdo scene living under the record industry’s floorboards, a hive of collaborative and creative energy that has made them excited to call the city home. They also assembled a live band for the first time shortly after moving to Nashville, consisting of Ryan Bigelow, Sean Booz and Billy Campbell — injecting their creative process with a jolt of spontaneity and aliveness that has fed back into come back down.
Originally released digitally and on cassette in 2025 via Julia’s War Recordings, come back down is available on vinyl & CD. You can order your copy on our site now or pick one up in the shop. Join us on Saturday, October 17th at 4:30 to catch a free & all ages performance by the band. It’s gonna be a fun time, so don’t miss out!
(Julia’s War Recordings is a community-based record label out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but serving the greater world as a whole. Founded by Douglas Dulgarian of They Are Gutting A Body of Water in 2021, they aim to provide physical media for bands that rock, for people pushing the boundaries of music and creation in the modern day.)
A note on BEER:30 events—Total Wife’s performance & recored release celebration coincides with our weekly BEER:30 hang, so we’ll be offering free Tennessee Brew Works beers to those 21+ (with valid IDs). Beer is complimentary but we are collecting cash tips to be donated to support the good works of the folks at DRKMTTR, Nashville's enduring all-ages space, that thrives as a hub for connectivity and creative collaboration. Beyond being a music venue, DRKMTTR stands as a nexus of resilience, cultivating a dynamic community where the DIY ethos transforms into collective action. Through cross-pollination initiatives, DRKMTTR links artists, organizes communities & the under-21 crowd, and as a 501-C3 non-profit, they seek the backing necessary to perpetuate their pivotal role and create a lasting influence.
