When EMA asks the question 'what's it like to be small-town and gay?' in her unhinged-angst anthem 'California', Caleb Nichols has an answer: It was brutal, it was beautiful, and it is well worth singing about.

Nichols, along with San Francisco/Oakland music scene vets Pat Spurgeon and Dominic East, explores the heartache and wonder of small-town teenage alienation in his new Bay-Area based outfit, CHURCHES. Formed in 2011 with members of Rogue Wave, WATERS, and Port O'Brien, CHURCHES is salvation through distortion for the disaffected small-town weirdo in everyone – a sonic cathedral of cymbals and guitars for the modern outcast.– a sonic cathedral of cymbals and guitars for the modern outcast.

The band's live debut was at Noise Pop 2012, opening for Disappears and Fresh and Onlys at Bottom of the Hill and the band has since recorded a Daytrotter session and supported Bob Mould to an extremely responsive, sold-out crowd at the Fillmore.

With a self-titled EP released last spring, CHURCHES return on December 11th with a new 7"! The A-side, LOVELIFE, was written by Nichols alone in his car when the melody popped into his head and he immediately recorded it on his phone to remember it. The lyrics came wrote later- the inspiration coming from wanting to write a song that carried his frustration at having his personal life and the personal live of all LGBT people constantly subject to public debate.

CHURCHES will celebrate the release of LOVELIFE in San Francisco on December 22nd at Bottom of the Hill (along with so-cal friends Tijuana Panthers) -  look for them on tour in 2013.