Today, New York band youbet have announced their new self-titled album, due out May 1st via Hardly Art. Lead single and album opener “Ground Kiss” is a late-night existential query written after the dissolution of an 11-year relationship. “The song represents an endless search for that something and the rebuilding that goes along with trial and failure,” shares principal songwriter Nick Llobet, the song uniting the spectrum between clouds of plucked Big Thief-esque glow and bursts of distorted frustration, flexing the nuanced production of longtime collaborator Katie Von Schleicher.
Originally formed as a solo project helmed by Llobet, youbet sees the project evolve into a duo, with Micah Prussack and Llobet proudly acting as both explorer and guide, sharing three-dimensional musical sculptures so confidently and esoterically their own that they couldn’t have been released under any other name but youbet.
Created in motion and shaped between long stretches of touring, the album reflects a moment of ecstatic possibility and grit. Both sharpened and expansive, youbet grows from the confines of home recording and “bedroom pop” into something sturdier, louder, and unmistakably their own. For their part, Llobet sees the resulting album as a statement of that hard work and the opening of a new chapter. “It’s the beginning of a new era for youbet,” they say. “The band started as a sort of bedroom project for myself, but it has transformed into something expansive since working with Micah. It’s like we’re running a family business.”
youbet's self-titled album is now available for preorder from Hardly Art HERE.
WATCH “GROUND KISS” OFFICIAL VIDEO
Embed “Ground Kiss” - https://youtu.be/dy_m3wxbj0A?si=wlC8URhnJlLR9gTu
“I myself am a constant student of life, of creating,” Llobet says. “I see people's creative anxieties because I have lived them. It’s very therapeutic because I can tell that I'm giving people strong advice based on all my failures.”
When Llobet relocated to New York from Denver in 2013, they had started forging connections in the local scene, but it wasn’t until meeting Prussack that they discovered a different level of musical connection. When the duo started playing together, they quickly realized their uniquely shared musical language and eagerness to learn from everything, connecting over a vast array of musical influence and their own practice of teaching.
youbet demonstrates Llobet and Prussack’s ability to weave beguiling musical and lyrical expression, pushing and pulling at the resulting mesh. Developing that kind of finely tuned fusion between complex musicality and deeply felt emotion required more than hoping inspiration would strike. Instead, the process of creating youbet involved countless hours of precise engineering, meticulous craft, and gritty dedication. “Throughout the album, there’s unique interplay and variation that you can only get from a lot of hard work together,” says Prussack.
Ahead of the album’s release, the band will tour North America alongside Remember Sports. Tickets on-sale now.
Tour Dates:
Feb 22nd - Brooklyn, NY @ Empire Stage
April 1st - Washington, DC @ Pearl Street Warehouse ^
April 2nd - Richmond, VA @ The Camel ^
April 3rd - Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle - Back Room ^
April 4th - Columbia, SC @ New Brookland Tavern ^
April 6th - Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5 ^
April 7th - Birmingham, AL @ Saturn ^
April 9th - Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves ^
April 10th - Austin, TX @ 29th Street Ballroom ^
April 13th - Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress ^
April 15th - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar ^
April 16th - Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy + Harriet's ^
April 17th - Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room ^
April 18th - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop ^
April 20th - Reno, NV @ Holland Project ^
April 23rd - Portland, OR @ High Limit Room ^
April 24th - Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall ^
April 25th - Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project ^
April 27th - Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club Basement ^
April 28th - Salt Lake City, UT @ Hypha House ^
April 29th - Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive ^
May 1st - Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge ^
^ w/ Remember Sports
Tracklist:
01 Ground Kiss
02 See Thru
03 Undefined
04 Worship
05 Receive
06 Fertile Eyes
07 Nadia
08 Embryonic
09 Bad Moon
10 Bad Choice
Echoing their strengths as educators, the ability to voraciously learn from a breadth of influences informs youbet—from the dizzying score to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to dazzling flamenco—but their ability to recognize meaning beyond signposts and find connections to emotional experience pushes everything into a topographical realism. “Having respect for the canon doesn’t mean we’re ever limited by revivalism. There’s a whole universe of musical vocabulary that we can borrow from and translate into our language,” Prussack says.
That willingness to learn from the past while building the future is something tied deeply to the band’s New York City roots, with so many visionary artists having previously built new worlds within the city’s confines. “For years, I was too intimidated to step into the scene. It’s been such a breath of fresh air to build this new craft, this new philosophy of songwriting in a scene I respect and feel in community with,” says Llobet.
Compelling art requires an unimaginable burst of new life, a shift from two-dimensional ideas to viscous, sinewy reality. As much as the hard work bolsters the music, it’s truly the resounding spirit of Llobet and Prussack’s relationship at the core of youbet. “Micah has brought a lot of order to my chaotic neurodivergence,” Llobet reflects. “I consider her my musical confidant. She can be cleverly critical and extremely encouraging. She's probably the most opinionated person I know. Together we build this musical balance.” What emerges is an album that doesn’t just break free of its former constraints, but reconfigures them into something sturdier: a collaborative language capable of holding contradiction, growth, and connection all at once.