BUY THE “CHEMICAL COWBOY / DANCING WITH THE DEVIL” SINGLE HERE
Get ready to unleash the chaos with Data Animal‘s explosive new electro punk single, “Dancing with the Devil ”! With a relentless blend of searing synths, thrashing guitars, and raw, unapologetic vocals, this track is a sonic rebellion against the mundane. “Dancing with the Devil” captures the ferocity and spirit of the underground scene, delivering a blistering anthem that’s destined to ignite mosh pits and set the night ablaze. Out August 27th – only on Dedstrange.
Data Animal is bursting out of Berlin’s underground music scene mixing the sounds of NYC’s No Wave legends Suicide, psychedelic godfathers Spacemen 3 and the drum machine, noise driven racket of early The Jesus and Mary Chain and making it completely their own. Founded between Berlin and New Zealand and signed to Oliver Ackermann’s (Death by Audio / A Place To Bury Strangers) labelDedstrangein the midst of a global pandemic, the group is headed up by Mitchell James O’Sullivan and joined by a rotating cast of Berlin’s music scene luminaries. The band has grown in notoriety for their blistering live set including shows with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, A Place To Bury Strangers, GIFT, and YHWH Nailgun following their highly regarded debut album Future Primitive.
Keep your mind open.
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Shoegaze and psychedelic music have always been siblings, and this is readily apparent on The Spin Out by Seattle’s New Age Healers.
Opening with psych-keys, fuzzy bass, and orbital guitars on “Dying Moon,” the album is off to a great start and instant head-turning for anyone hearing it for the first time. Farkhad Saidmuratov‘s keys on the title track creating a neat effect the builds into bright rays breaking through dark clouds. The whole song builds to a stunning end.
“Spark Up” has a dangerous edge to it thanks to Jeramy Koepping and frontman Owen Murphy‘s guitar work and Adam LeVasseur‘s snap, crackle, pop, and crash drumming. “Operatic” reminds me of some of A Place to Bury Strangers‘ early tracks during the verses.
Allen Murray‘s bass on “Chemical Control” is like a lit fuse racing toward a cache of explosives that will blow open a dam holding back sound that will flatten everything in front of it. “Let’s take a trip,” Murphy sings at the beginning of “Radiate,” and the band certainly obliges that suggestion as they all click with psych-rock guitars, 60s garage beats, mod synths, and lyrics about connecting on multiple levels with someone. The album ends with “All Wrapped Up,” bringing you back down to Earth, but you immediately want to levitate off it again by putting this album on repeat.
New-York based band A Place To Bury Strangers release the new single/video, “You Got Me,” from their forthcoming seventh album, Synthesizer, out October 4th via Dedstrange. Following lead single “Disgust,” which “sounds as pleasurable and danceable as it does revolting and mangled,” (Paste), “You Got Me” continues to follow suit. The earworm is representative of a photograph from a perfect summer of love, lust, breaking out from the pack, and getting lost in the night. In the middle of the track, a field recording from one of those kinds of days on the beach can be heard as a 747 barrels through the sky overhead. Play it loud, and play it now.
Synthesizer is the title of the album, but it is also a physical entity, a synthesizer made specifically for A Place to Bury Strangers’ seventh album (a synthesizer that you too, can own (in part), if you buy the record on vinyl). In an era of making music where so little is DIY and so much is left up to AI, never setting foot in a practice room or a home studio, making something that feels deliberately chaotic, messy, and human, is entirely the point. Synthesizer is a record that celebrates sounds that are spontaneous and natural, the kind of music that can only come from collaboration and community.
The writing sessions for Synthesizer started in the band’s Queens studio, shortly after the release of 2022’s See Through You. The band re-formed with a new lineup, Ackermann still at the helm, now featuring friends John and Sandra Fedowitz. This new iteration of the band was inspiring for Ackermann, “It felt like a fresh new thing,” he says, “I wanted to write songs everyone was excited about playing.” Indeed, the sense of connectivity is everywhere on the record. Synthesizer very much feels like a record of reinvention, of taking a carefully honed aesthetic and sound and cracking it wide open, gutting it, reimagining it. And of course, to ever so slightly reinvent one’s sound, one must also build a new instrument, thus again the synth in question. The resulting record is one that is romantic, colorful, loud as hell, and one of A Place to Bury Strangers’ most live sounding records to date.
GLARE is an alternative rock/shoegaze five-piece from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Since their inception in 2017, the band has wasted no time making a name for themselves with the release of heaps of singles and an abundance of touring and high-profile festival appearances.
Now, GLARE have teamed up with Deathwish Inc. + Sunday Drive to release a new song, “Mourning Haze.” Guitarist Toni Ordaz comments, “‘Mourning Haze’ had been with us for awhile, written around the time we were doing ‘Void in Blue’ and developing what would later become ‘Heavenly’. Immediately, we knew it sounded way different from what we did before and decided early on that it was going to be a part of what would become the album. The lyrics didn’t come much later until the recording sessions, but I think they are very much a reflection of what we were all going through at the time.” Toni continues, “‘Mourning Haze’ is about grief, and how dreams play a role in processing it.”
GLARE will release their new LP sometime in spring 2025 via Deathwish Inc. / Sunday Drive. In the meantime, catch the band on tour this fall with Turnover, Panchiko, and more on select dates. Also see GLARE at Desert Daze and Levitation Fests:
GLARE, live:
Sep 5 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger # [7inch release show] Sep 6 McAllen, TX – El Cine # [7inch release show] Sep 27 Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar ^ Sep 29 Salt Lake City, UT – Church & State ^ Sep 30 Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall $ Oct 02 Ft. Collins, CO – The Coast $ Oct 03 Colorado Springs, CO – Black Sheep $ Oct 04 Omaha, NE – Slowdown $ Oct 05 Columbia, MO – Blue Note $ Oct 06 Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue $ Oct 07 Huntington, WV – The Loud $ Oct 08 Louisville, KY – Mag Bar ^ Oct 09 Little Rock, AR – Stickyz ^ Oct 10 Oklahoma City, OK – Resonant Head ^ Oct 10-13 Lake Perris, CA – Desert Daze Oct 14 San Diego, CA – Voodoo Room ^ Oct 15 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress ^ Nov 03 Austin, TX – Levitation, Far Out Lounge % Nov 15 Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Live! ~ Nov 17 Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel ~ Nov 19 St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live ~ Nov 20 Orlando, FL @ The Beacham ~ Nov 21 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade, Heaven ~ Nov 23 Houston, TX – House of Blues ~ Nov 24 Dallas, TX – The Factory in Deep Ellum ~
Chastity is for the skids, the headbangers, the freaks. Chastity is for everyone who has suffered and survived the lethal combination of suburban overculture and mental distress. Chastity is especially for everyone who didn’t survive—the ones who didn’t get out. Brandon Williams did, luckily, and his work with Chastity has been to collect people like him, who got out by the skin of their teeth.
Chastity’s first three full-length records—2018’s Death Lust, 2019’s Home Made Satan, and 2022’s Suffer Summer—formed a trilogy that defined a 4 year arc of the band’s contribution to outsider music. Each record was informed by Williams’ life, but each was also conceptual and interpretive, refracting his experiences through a level of remove. On Chastity’s upcoming, self-titled fourth record, there is no such distance: Williams decided to write a fully non-fiction work. Incoming September 13, 2024 on Deathwish Inc. (US), Dine Alone (Canada), and Big Scary Monsters (UK/E) Chastity is a 13-track record about the things that have always run through the band’s records—struggle, death, despair, redemption, darkness, and light—but this time, the songs ascend to new depths of intensity and desperation, new heights of resolution and power. “It’s really about the first nosedive that I did as a young person,” says Williams. “It’s a record about struggle, about the missing years. It’s also a thank you to some people in my life.”
Today, Chastity album opener “Jaw Locked” premieres. Williams continues, “For a few years we’ve closed our live show with the same song, but we’ve never really had a song that opens our live show totally right. I am so excited that we’ve found that in this song ‘Jaw Locked’, and that we can open the self-titled album with this song as well.”
Chastity hurtles through melodic hardcore, shoegaze, and emo, all magnificently and enormously rendered thanks to slick work from John Paul Peters (Propagandhi, Comeback Kid), who engineered and mixed the record. Recorded at Peters’ Private Ear Recording in Winnipeg in March 2024, Chastity’s guitars have never sounded so immediate and towering, sometimes exploding into a sputtering, ripped-speaker chaos. And there are perhaps the most ferocious bass and drums sounds of the year on Chastity, splitting the difference between gnarly-as-fuck generator-show tones and vividly textured, hi-fi chest-beaters.
The new record arrives on the heels of a whirlwind six years for Chastity. Williams founded the project in Whitby Ontario and from the start, it’s been a project of absolution via community connection. There weren’t any venues for independent punk music in the suburban town, so Williams and his friends started throwing punk shows in a barn on Whitby’s rural outskirts. People took notice: Before long, Ontario punk stalwarts like PUP and Metz were making the pilgrimage to the barn to headline gigs, and profits from the shows went to a regional youth mental health services. Chastity spent the next years touring North America including shows with Sunny Day Real Estate, Alexisonfire, and Deafheaven, culminating in their spring 2024 headline run, with a set that synced to an original feature film projected behind the stage.
Now, Chastity will tour alongside Fucked Up in support of Chastity and will close out the year with a highly anticipated set at The Fest in Gainesville, FL. Pre-order / pre-save Chastityhere ahead of its September 13 release date and look for more news soon.
Chastity, on tour: September 12 Oshawa, ON @ The Biltmore Theatre ^ September 13 Montreal, QC @ Foufounes Electriques ^ September 14 Ottawa, ON @ The 27 Club ^ September 17 Winnipeg, MB @ The Park Theatre ^ September 18 Saskatoon, SK @ Capitol Music Club ^ September 19 Edmonton, AB @ The Buckingham ^ September 20 Calgary, AB @ Modern Love ^ September 21 Kelowna, BC @ Reverly ^ September 23 Victoria, BC @ Capital Ballroom ^ September 24 Nanaimo, BC @ The Queen’s ^ September 25 Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl ^ October 25 Gainesville, FL @ The Fest [Heartwood Soundstage]
Slowdive announce a fall North American tour in support of everything is alive, their “hypnotically gorgeous” (Vulture) album released last year via Dead Oceans. Following an appearance at Austin’s Levitation Festival, they’ll return to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, plus visit cities throughout the Southeast where the band hasn’t played in many years. On their last US runs, Slowdive routinely sold out shows, filling rooms with longtime listeners and younger fans alike. As the Chicago Tribune praised, “experimental and shimmery, [everything is alive] packs a lush and enigmatic punch. Don’t take their latest releases and live shows for granted.” Tickets for all shows will be on sale this Friday at 10am local time and a full list of dates can be found below.
Slowdive Tour Dates (New Dates in Bold) Sat. Nov. 2 – Mexico City, MX @ Hipnosis Festival Sun. Nov. 3 – Austin, TX @ The Far Out Lounge (Levitation Festival) Wed. Nov. 6 – Queretaro, MX @ Cerveceria Hercules Fri. Nov. 8 – Guadalajara, MX @ C4 Concert House Sun. Nov. 10 – St. Augustine, FL @ St Augustine Amphitheatre Mon. Nov. 11 – Charleston, SC @ The Refinery Tue. Nov. 12 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz Thu. Nov. 14 – Richmond, VA @ The National Fri. Nov. 15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall Sun. Nov. 17 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem Mon. Nov. 18 -Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount Thu. Nov 21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE Fri. Nov. 22 – Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live! Indoor Stage Sat. Nov. 23 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
Dummy — the Los Angeles band comprised of Alex Ewell, Emma Maatman, Nathan O’Dell, and Joe Trainor — announces its new album,Free Energy, out September 6th on Trouble In Mind Records, and shares the lead single/video, “Nullspace.” Pop has always been a big part of Dummy’s sound, but it manifests differently on Free Energy. Sometimes it’s quite literal (and funny), such as the bubbly synth sequence made with a Korg EM1 popping all over lead single “Nullspace,” which features a melody written by O’Dell and is the song the band calls the record’s “sonic mission statement and really influenced by Mark Van Hoen, especially the cut-up dreamy dance-pop he was making on the Locust record Morning Light.”
Dummy’s debut full-length Mandatory Enjoyment arrived in late 2021 and quickly became one of the year’s sleeper hits. Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily, Stereogum, Aquarium Drunkard, and other publications praised Dummy’s mix of ambient and twinkly guitar pop, their deep musical references, and the intentionality with which they patchworked it all together. Fans bought copies of Mandatory so quickly that Trouble in Mind couldn’t keep it in stock. Sub Pop Records also invited the band to contribute to their legendary Singles Club series. Bands loved Dummy, too, and the group were asked to open for Horsegirl,Botch, Black Country, New Road, Luna, Spirit of the Beehive, Dehd, Snooper, Sweeping Promises, Snail Mail, and more.
Where Mandatory Enjoyment was cerebral and lo-fi, the product of a lot of time inside, Free Energy is all movement, presence, and physicality. A creatively restless band, Dummy felt like they had done the best version of motorik pop that they could do, and wanted to get harder, dancier, a little more psychedelic. Ewell and Trainor began experimenting with home recording, using DAW as kind of an instrument for composition rather than simply a tool. O’Dell dug deeper into instrumental/sample composition, in addition to contributing more guitar leads. Maatman also steps into the spotlight in a big way, her vocals noticeably foregrounded and confident, adding to the live performance feel that forms the foundation of Free Energy. The result is a record that celebrates music’s ability to move the body, whether that be through a teeth-rattling wall of MBV-esque noise, a sticky pop chorus, or a joyous drum machine—or, if you’re Dummy, maybe all of them in the same song.
Additionally, Free Energy features guest appearances by friends Dummy has played with on tour, including Oakland-based saxophonist and electroacoustic artist Cole Pulice and Jen Powers of Powers / Rolin Duo, along with a series of field recordings the band made while on tour: the rushing of water, the rumbling of the van, indistinct voices, chirping birds; the sounds of mundanity rising to cacophony before petering out, treated no differently than the ecstatic rhythms, explosive hooks, and blissful ambient stretches that came before. If there is any key to understanding what makes Dummy such a compelling band, perhaps it is this: it’s all music to them.
Free Energy Tracklist: 1. Intro-UB 2. Soonish 3. Unshaped Road 4. Opaline Bubbletear 5. Blue Dada 6. Nullspace 7. Minus World 8. Dip In The Lake 9. Sudden Flutes 10. Psychic Battery 11. Nine Clean Nails 12. Godspin
Dummy Tour Dates: Sat. Sept. 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room Wed. Sept. 11 – San Francisco, CA @ Kilowatt Fri. Sept. 13 – Portland, OR @ Lose Yr Mind Fest Sat. Sept. 14 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl Sun. Sept. 15 – Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s Wed. Sept. 18 – Reno, NV @ Holland Project Fri. Sept. 20 – Sacramento, CA @ Cafe Colonial Sat. Sept. 21 – Oxnard, CA @ Mrs. Olson’s Thu. Oct. 31 – Breda, NL @ Mezz Fri. Nov. 1 – Utrecht, NL @ ACU Sat. Nov. 2 – Groningen, NL @ Vera Sun. Nov. 3 – Nijmegen, NL @ Merleyn Tue. Nov. 5 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen Wed. Nov. 6 – Stockholm, SE @ Hus 7 Thu. Nov. 7 – Oslo, NO @ Blå Fri. Nov. 8 – Malmo, SE @ Plan B Sat. Nov. 9 – Berlin, DE @ Synästhesie Festival Sun. Nov. 10 – Warsaw, PL @ Chmury Mon. Nov. 11 – Vienna, AT @ Arena Tue. Nov. 12 – Salzburg, AT @ Rockhouse Wed. Nov. 13 – Zurich, CH @ Bogen F Thu. Nov. 14 – Annecy, FR @ La Brise Glace Festival Fri. Nov. 15 – Dijon, FR @ Le Consortium Sat. Nov. 16 – Rennes, FR @ Kool Thing Festival Sun. Nov. 17 – Clermont Ferrand, FR @ La Coopérative de Mai Tue. Nov. 19 – Marseille, FR @ L’Intermédiare Wed. Nov. 20 – Lyon, FR @ Sonic Thu. Nov. 21 – Bordeaux, FR @ Iboat Fri. Nov. 22 – Angers, FR @ Joker’s Pub Sun. Nov. 24 – Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire Tue. Nov. 26 – London, UK @ Moth Club Wed. Nov. 27 – Bristol, UK @ The Lanes Thu. Nov. 28 – Coventry, UK @ Just Dropped In Fri. Nov. 29 – Newcastle, UK @ The Lubber Fiend Sun. Dec. 1 – Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast Mon. Dec. 2 – Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete’s Tue. Dec. 3 – Leeds, UK @ Headrow House Wed. Dec. 4 – Manchester, UK @ Yes Thu. Dec. 5 – Brighton, UK @ Dust
Chicago band Friko — vocalist/guitarist Niko Kapetan and drummer Bailey Minzenberger — shares a cover of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” and announces performances at Lollapalooza, Newport Folk Festival, and Fuji Rock, a North American tour supporting Royel Otis, and the band’s first European headline run. The band just wrapped their first North American tour in support of Where we’ve been, Where we go from here (out now on ATO Records), playing shows with Water From Your Eyes, WILLIS and Mind’s Eye. Their cover of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” has become an exciting surprise during recent live dates. They performed it at their sold-out, headlining record release show at the 1000-capacity Metro in Chicago, and will continue to captivate larger and larger audiences throughout the rest of 2024.
An essential new addition to Chicago’s long lineage of forward-thinking indie rock, Friko transforms every song into a moment of collective catharsis. Known for their high-energy live show, Friko aims to deliver a live experience that’s fantastically disorienting in its emotional arc. Mastered by Heba Kadry (Björk, Big Thief) and engineered by Jack Henry and Scott Tallarida, Where we’ve been, Where we go from here embodies a sonic complexity befitting of a band that names Romantic-era classical music and the more primal edges of art-rock among their inspirations. Friko hopes that their music’s emotional potency might have a galvanizing impact on audiences.
Friko Tour Dates: Fri. June 14 – Chicago, IL @ Q101 PIQNIQ (Taste of Randolph) Tue. July 9 – Evanston, IL @ SPACE Thu. July 18 – Indianapolis, IN @ Rock The Ruins ^ Fri. July 26 – Niigata, JP @ Fuji Rock Festival Sun. July 28 – Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival Sat. Aug. 3 – Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza Sun. Aug. 4 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall (Lollapalooza Aftershow) Thu. Aug. 8 – Nashville, TN @ Bobby Nashville (WNXP Event) Wed. Aug. 28 – Louisville, KY @ WFPK Waterfront Wednesday Mon. Sept. 9 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall % Wed. Sept. 11 – Rochester, NY @ Essex Music Hall % Thu. Sept. 12 – Toronto, ON @ History % Fri. Sept. 13 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre % Sat. Sept. 14 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee % Sun. Sept. 15 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue % Thu. Sept. 19 – Champaign, IL @ Canopy Club (Pygmalion Fest) Tue. Sept. 24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer % Wed. Sept. 25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel % Thu. Sept. 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel % Fri. Sept. 27 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club % Sat. Sept. 28 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues % Mon. Sept. 30 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern % Tue. Oct. 1 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl % Tue. Oct. 8 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre % Wed. Oct. 9 – Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theater % Mon. Oct. 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether % Tue. Oct. 15 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether % Wed. Oct. 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Palladium % Fri. Oct. 18 – Oakland, CA @ The Fox % Sun. Oct. 20 – Portland, OR @ McMenamins Crystal Ballroom % Mon. Oct. 21 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre % Tue. Oct. 22 – Vancouver, BC @ PNE Forum % Sat. Nov. 2 – Amsterdam, NL @ Bitterzoet Sun. Nov. 3 – Brussels, BE @ Les Nuits Weekender Tue. Nov. 5 – Rennes, FR @ L’Antipode Thu. Nov. 7 – Paris, FR @ Pitchfork Avant Garde Sat. Nov. 9 – London, UK @ Pitchfork Festival London Sun. Nov. 10 – Bristol, UK @ Louisiana Tue. Nov. 12 – Manchester, UK @ YES Wed. Nov. 13 – Glasgow, UK @ King Tuts Thu. Nov. 14 – Dublin, IR @ Workman’s Club
Every now and then, you hear a new band described as arriving “fully formed” on the scene. It’s actually true in Punchlove‘s case, as they sound like they’ve been making shoegaze since at least 2010. You hear their debut album, Channels, and think, “This can’t be their first record.”
Yet, it is, and opening track “Breeze” hits you as heavy as any track Hum would’ve put out in their heyday with roaring guitars and crushing drums. The album was created not only post-pandemic, but also post-move from one continent to another. Jillian Olesen and Ethan Williams landed back in NYC after being forced out of Prague by the COVID-19 lockdowns. They met up with other NYU music technology students and Punchlove was born.
So were songs like “Screwdriver,” which sounds like The Cure meeting Failure in a battle of the bands. The ethereal fuzz of “Pigeon” is wondrous to behold. “Dead Lands” might be about Jillian Olesen’s feelings about returning to the U.S. to find it shut down and essentially empty thanks to the pandemic. It’s a lovely track.
“Apartment” is warped and weird. Every guitar and vocal in it sounds like it was partially melted in a studio fire that almost got out of control. “Birdsong” flies back and forth between bursting guitars and subtle chords. “Guilt” takes those bursting guitars and somehow pushed them further until it feels like you’re racing downhill with the band in a tour van without brakes.
I don’t know which is louder on “Elapse,” the driving guitar riffs or the drums hit and cymbal crashes that sound like Godzilla kicking over a power line tower. The album closes with “Corridor,” which could be thematically interpreted as a song beginnings or endings depending on where the corridor leads. It’s the softest song on the record and probably the most haunting as well.
This is all fine shoegaze stuff from Punchlove, who are already far ahead of other current bands in the genre. A lot of people are scrambling to catch up while Punchlove is making it look easy.
Keep your mind open.
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Failure‘s debut album, Comfort, does something right away that the band loves doing – making you uncomfortable. This is often done through cryptic lyrics that challenge one’s thoughts on reality and fantasy, technology and humanity, or love and despair…all with crushing shoegaze riffs and masterful production. Comfort gets you unsettled right out of the gate with the album’s cover. Who is that girl? Is that a shadow of a cow behind her? Or a minotaur? Is it supposed to be her shadow? I don’t know, and the album’s songs don’t give a hint either…which is part of the fun, really.
“Submission” might be about sex, but I think it’s more about how easy it is to get trapped in the rat race (“They work hard and they sell things. We like that, ’cause there’s no choice.”). Failure waste no time in pummeling you with thick bass (courtesy of Greg Edwards) on the track, and then Robert Gauss pummels you further on “Macaque” – which is literally about a monkey lead singer Ken Andrews saw in a Los Angeles zoo that provided him with a Zen-like moment of enlightenment. Andrews’ guitar on “Something” swells and builds like river water casually drifting along one moment and then turning into a racing current below the surface the next.
“Screen Man” has a sense of menace throughout it, which is appropriate since it’s about a man on Andrews’ TV screen who freaks the hell out of him (“This man’s eyes are serious. He’s the man in my screen. I cannot let him frighten me.”). Andrews’ guitar is like lightning you see on the horizon (And the solo? Holy crap.), whereas Edwards’ bass is distant thunder, and Gauss’ drums are the wind that keeps building as the clouds get closer.
On “Swallow,” producer Steve Albini hung a microphone from the ceiling and swung it like a pendulum to record Andrews’ vocals during the first verse, causing a weird panning effect and being a neat example of the kind of stuff Failure love experimenting with in a studio setting. “Muffled Snaps” continues some of this experimentation with Gauss’ drums taking on odd sounds and Andrews’ guitar nearly sounding broken until the song bursts forth like dragster. The lyrics reference physical violence, and it seems to be a song about boxing…or at least fighting. It certainly hits like a boxing match.
Gauss’ drums on “Kindred” are sharp, hitting hard in all the right places. “Pro-Catastrophe” is a whopper, with Andrews flat-out telling people he’s looking forward to an apocalypse and watching chaos unfold around him. Little did he know, that in 2020…Edwards goes nuts on a fretless bass throughout it, often making your head spin with the licks he puts down on it.
“Princess” is sort of a love song, as Andrews sings praises to his lady pal (“I’m always pleased that you don’t say no.”). It’s a burner that’s over before you catch your breath. The album ends with “Salt Wound,” a song about one of Failure’s favorite subjects – relationships going awry. The trio unleash a sound that reflect Andrews’ confusion about why his girl is leaving him and the nervousness that comes with a future alone. Edwards’ bass pounds in your brain, Andrews’ guitar dissolves into a jumbled rage, and Gauss’ drums are a pounding heartbeat ready to burst.
Comfort heralded great things to come for Failure. It’s a great place to start if you’re new to them. Hearing how they evolved from this is a neat journey, and the remaster of the album done by the band in 2023 is sharp.
Keep your mind open.
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