Bad Diet Records, only a year old with a Free Weed album under its coat, are stoking the long-blazed fire of The Brainstems for the November 27 release of their debut album No Place Else. The follow-up to last year’s head-on Ty Segall brood Cold Sweatin’, No Place Else is what we’ve come to expect from the four-piece: an unbridled, fuck-it-up garage record. The debut album is (clearly) their largest, but it’s above and beyond their most cohesive, feverishly ready release. Assisted in mastering by Mikey Young (of Total Control and Eddy Current Suppression Ring), the tracks shift the sound of The Brainstems away from sharp, multi-minute jams to a concise yet equally rowdy, if not rowdier level — see “Simply Joys” or “4244.”
The track they’re premiering today deals with an issue close to home for The Brainstems. “Redline” comes in light of Ferguson and the distrust between a large portion of the community and those elected to govern or hired to protect; the song begs questions many asked themselves: why are there so many municipalities, and why were so many feeding off the poor? (Relevant article, if interested.) The Brainstems clammer between each other about how many municipalities there really are: “I read there were a hundred” is backed with a cynical “are you serious?” The Brainstems, like many home-bred bands, are ingrained and therefore rightfully concerned about their community, calling people on their shit and making noise, like any solid public dissenter.
No Place Else is available now for pre-order on Bad Diet (LP) and iTunes. It’s out November 27, and it rocks.
No Place Else tracklist:
01. Stallioning
02. Keep It Together
03. Redline (Note: First single)
04. The Fourth
05. Simple Joys
06. What It Is
07. 4244
08. The Ooze
09. Untold Heights
10. Warm Skin
11. Elevators and Escalators
12. The People’s Joy
13. Time to Ride