Description
Label Review.
2020 album. Psych/post punk. Also available on Vinyl.
Our Overview.
Flat Worms the three piece punk band from Los Angeles with Will Ivy, Tim Hellman (Thee Oh Sees, Sic Alps) and Justin Sullivan (Kevin Morby, The Babies) are launching their third album in the past four years ‘Antarctica’, which reflects a situation that’s dire but not hopeless. 2020: world in flames, deserts in permafrost, everyone in their own corners, looking down into their hands. What’s happening isn’t working, but Flat Worms’ have hardened their post-punk/psych sound, and are out there, playing to change minds at all times.
Since the release of their 2017 debut album - even since last year’s ‘Into The Iris’ mini-LP - the sound of the trio has hardened, with the polarities of psych and post-punk smelted into a brutal cobalt alloy. No doubt they’re aided by the Steve Albini-engineered sound rendered at Electric Audio, where the album was recorded and mixed (in collaboration with Steve Albini and Ty Segall) in six days.
The rest of the evolution is down to Flat Worms, whose world view and musical viewpoint pulse with a remorseless drive and a sense of collaborative unity. Will Ivy’s cortex-scorching guitar leads are in united space with the full-body rhythm of Tim Hellman’s bass and Justin Sullivan’s drums. Their social comment, bleak, yet earnest, is leavened with bone dry humour (the title track’s isolation conundrums: “My dog is smiling as I drive her to the park / we sit together in the kitchen after dark / I ask her questions / She just barks”) and caustic pronouncements; a vision of the chaotic, dysfunctional contemporary landscape that recalls the tragicomic expressions of 100 Flowers and the indefatigable recitations of The Fall.
Tracklisting: Casino Queen / Shugar Water / Dream St. / Short Black Dress / Lenexa / Odessa / Traveler’s Code of Conduct / Diamond Glue / Control