Kurt Vile Brings It All Back Home on “Chance to Bleed”

Kurt Vile has never really left Philadelphia. Even as his career took him around the world — across festival stages, through recording sessions in Memphis and Athens and LA — he kept coming back to his Mt. Airy basement studio, the one he calls OKV Central, surrounded by analogue organs, old tape consoles, and records. Philadelphia’s been good to me, his new album due May 29 on Verve Records, is the sound of a man finally making that love explicit.

“Chance to Bleed” is the lead single and a barnburner of the first order — what Vile calls “hillbilly techno,” an ode to old-time lo-fi DIY rock and roll nights. He cut it with the Violators in Athens, GA, then brought in Memphis legend Greg Cartwright of Reigning Sound to share lead guitar duties (Vile panned left, Cartwright panned right), with guest vocals from Natalie Hoffman and Ethan Buckler of Slint. The video, shot at Fishtown’s Kung Fu Necktie, is packed with collaborators and cameos — including comedian Jim E Brown and the one and only Schoolly D in his signature fur coat.

Largely self-produced with assists from Adam Langellotti, Matthew Jugenheimer, Kyle Spence, Jesse Trbovrich, and longtime Violators boardsman Rob Schnapf, the album was built across a stretch from late 2023 to early 2026 — capturing melodies to a Zoom recorder between tours, then fleshing them out back home. Vile even plays lead throughout on a hollow-body Gretsch Tennessean once owned by Travis Good of the Sadies. You can hear it in every note.

Twelve tracks. A world tour. A hometown headline show at The Dell alongside Pavement. Pre-order it below.

Pre-order Philadelphia’s been good to me ↗

1“Zoom 97”

2“99 BPM”

3“Rock ’o Stone”

4“You Don’t Know Cuz It’s My Life”

5“Chance to Bleed”

6“Philly’s Been Good to Me”

7“99th Song”

8“Red Room Dub”

9“Holiday OKV”

10“Every Time I Look at You”

11“Piano for Sarah”

12“Avalanches of Snow”