Ekko Astral have announced their new album, the beltway is burning, out April 22 via Topshelf Records. It arrives in tandem with the second edition of the D.C. punks’ Liberation Weekend in support of Gender Liberation Movement and No More Dysphoria, going down April 24-26.
the beltway is burning is previewed by lead single “lil xan goes to washington,” a song that examines how people confuse visibility with power while questioning if what we see in culture is real. “lil xan goes to washington” follows last year’s “horseglue,” another track that picks apart the disillusionment felt after lead singer Jael Holzman covered Congress ahead of the 2024 election and had a firsthand experience at what happens in the newsroom.
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The video was directed by Alec Pugliese and features Rune Larson with words like “lover” and “soldier” scribbled on their face while wearing an oversized suit and dancing. “In times when Nicki Minaj is tight with the president, it feels right that Lil Xan becomes a lobbyist,” guitarist Liam Hughes says. “This song was pulled out of thin air in the studio while most of the album was written and ready to record beforehand. We only had the lyrics finished for this one. But once we started messing around, the music wrote itself in minutes, and we all knew we had something special.”
“We always intended for the songs on this album to tell a fictional story based on real events,” vocalist Jael Holzman continues. “Some of this material dates back a decade to when Liam and I first met in college. But by the time we hit the studio, we had a feeling it would be more like a historical document.”
Watch the video for “lil xan goes to washington,” see the tracklist for the beltway is burning, and their upcoming 2026 tour dates below.
Ekko Astral – the beltway is burning tracklist
- “body generation”
- “”lil xan goes to washington”
- “horseglue”
- “beltway” (feat. pop music fever dream)
- “wmata”
- “this is not a call to action but a lamentation on the situation at hand (or capital riot)”
- “elegy for a system” (feat. big girl)
- “lovesick american romance”
- “dude with guitars”
- “sandler ’36”
- “blood mountain”
- “comet ping pong”
Ekko Astral 2026 tour dates
02/14 – New York, NY @ Baby’s All Right
03/26 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
03/27 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Fest
03/28 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
03/30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
03/31 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater
04/25 – Washington, D.C. @ Liberation Weekend / Black Cat
05/29 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
05/30 – Burlington, VT @ The Monkey House
05/31 – Portland, ME @ SPACE
06/02 – Providence, RI @ Machines With Magnets
06/03 – Boston, MA @ The Rockwell
06/05 – New York, NY @ Night Club 101
06/06 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA