Acclaimed Los Angeles-based psych punk outfit and JOVM mainstays Frankie and the Witch Fingers — currently founding duo Dylan Sizemore (vocals, guitar) and Josh Menashe (lead guitar, synth), along with Death Valley Girls‘ Nikki “Pickle” Smith (bass) and Mike Watt’s Nick Aguilar (drums) — have spent the past decade restlessly mutating their sound into bold, electrifying new forms with every new release.
Slated for a June 6, 2025 release through Greenway Records and The Reverberation Appreciation Society, the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstay’s eighth album, the Maryam Qudus-produced Trash Classic reportedly sees the band plunging into a sewer-slick fusion of proto punk venom, fractured New Wave and industrial grime. Sonically brimming with wiry synths, angular melodies and squirming and biting grooves, the material is delivered with a sly, playful balance between smirk and sneer. The band layers playful unease while exploring themes of escapism, decay and overindulgence.
The songs were born in the grime of Vernon, Los Angeles — a wasteland littered with gutted RVs and rusting machinery, where the air tastes like asphalt and dog food. But the alchemy happed during recording sessions at Oakland‘s Tiny Telephone Studio, where producer Maryam Qudus helped transmute the tracks into the final forms with unhinged tones, unconventional recording experiments and wild sonic detours.
Each day of the recording sessions began with cartoons blaring at full volume — a Looney Tunes ritual that turned the madness of the recording process into something childlike. Late night, sugar-fueled candy binges kept the energy spiking, pushing the sessions into a fever dream of jittery, spastic playfulness. The end result is a raw, twisted monument to rot and excess — and to toxic glamour and nihilistic salvation.
So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles:
- “Economy,” which offered a glimpse of what to expect from the album: grimy synth pulse right at the front, alongside angular guitar fuzz and muscular yet mathematically precise drumming paired with punchily delivered vocals and mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses. Sonically, the result is a scuzzier and grimier take on Freedom of Choice-era DEVO — with a similar, tongue-in-cheek sensibility.
- “Total Reset,” a sweaty ripper that sees the band pairing angular guitar fuzz with squiggling synth pulse, mathematically precise drumming and Sizemore’s punchy delivery with the band’s penchant for mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses. Sonically, “Total Reset” strikes me as a being a synthesis of King Gizzard and Devo — but with a mischievous sense of menace and unease.
Trash Classic‘s third and latest single “Dead Silence” continues a run of grimy and mischievous DEVO-meets-garage rock rippers, anchored around the band’s unerring knack for rousing, mosh pit friendly hooks paired with Sizemore’s punchy delivery singing lyrics about existential dread and death. Oh, how fitting for our fucked up, dire time!
“This one’s got a nice little origin story,” the band explains. ““We played a festival in Boise with Spacemoth, Maryam Qudus’ brainchild, and met her for the first time there. Cut to a year later, and she’s deep in the guts of this record – producing, engineering, twisting knobs, and arranging sounds with us.
“On the flight home from that Boise show, Josh threw on the Spacemoth album for the first time and got his brain microwaved. He also recorded the plane taking off, just on a whim. That roar ended up in the bridge of ‘Dead Silence’. It’s a nice crusty texture, but it also weirdly bookmarks the start of it all.
Maryam’s all over this record. She sings, plays, distorts, haunts – leaving smudges on everything in the best way. She rules, and we were happy to accidentally mark the occasion sonically with a little jet-engine weirdness.”
The accompanying video is a mischievous and menacing psilocybin trip featuring cartoonishly bright, analog fuzz and crude, hand-drawn animation, and graffiti that pulses and undulates with the song.
Over the course of their decade history, the JOVM mainstays have developed a reputation for being relentless road warriors. The tour’s European leg begins in mid-May and ends in early June. Along the way, the band will play a series of intimate record release shows, including a June 5, 2025 stop at Berlin Under A. The band will then return to town a few months later with a September 19, 2025 stop at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Their live show is a sweaty mosh pit inducing riot — and if they’re playing a club near you, you need to go.
FRANKIE AND THE WITCH FINGERS ON TOUR 2025
5/16 – Nijmegen, NL – Sonic Whip Festival
5/17 – Diksmuide, BE – 4AD
5/20 – Lyon, FR – Épicerie Moderne
5/21 – Biarritz, FR – Atabal
5/22 – Rouen, FR – Le 106
5/23 – London, UK – Wide Awake Festival
5/25 – Berlin, DE – Desertfest
5/27 – Cherbourg, FR – Le Circuit
5/28 – Brighton, UK – Daltons
5/30 – London, UK – Shacklewell Arms ^
5/31 – Bristol, UK – Strange Brew
6/01 – Birmingham, UK – Hare & Hounds
6/05 – Berlin – New York, NY ^
6/07 – Permanent Records Roadhouse – Los Angeles, CA ^
7/15 – Felton Music Hall – Felton, CA °
7/16 – The Chapel – San Francisco, CA °
7/19 – The Den – Portland, OR °
7/20 – The Pearl – Vancouver, BC °
7/23 – Shrine Social Club – Boise, ID °
7/24 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT °
7/25 – Mesa Theater – Grand Junction, CO °
7/26 – Underground Music Showcase – Denver, CO
7/27 – Sister Bar – Albuquerque, NM °
7/29 – Hotel Congress – Tucson, AZ °
7/30 – Rebel Lounge – Phoenix, AZ °
7/31 – Swan Diver – Las Vegas, NV °
8/01 – Belly Up – Solana Beach, CA °
8/02 – Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles, CA °
8/31 – Bumbershoot Music Festival – Seattle, WA
9/19 – Music Hall of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY *
9/20 – First Unitarian Church – Philadelphia, PA *
9/21 – Songbyrd – Washington, DC *
9/23 – Grey Eagle – Asheville, NC *
9/24 – Terminal West – Atlanta, GA *
9/26 – Chelsea’s Live – Baton Rouge, LA *
9/27 – Dan Electros – Houston, TX *
9/28 – To Be Announced – Austin, TX
9/29 – Tulips – Fort Worth, TX *
10/1 – Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL *
10/2 – Turf Club – Minneapolis, MN *
10/3 – X-Ray Arcade – Cudahy, WI *
10/4 – Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH *
10/5 – Third Man Records – Detroit, MI *
10/7 – Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON *
10/8 – Foufounes Électriques – Montréal, QC *
10/9 – Oxbow Brewing – Portland, ME *
10/10 – Brighton Music Hall – Boston, MA *
10/11 – Lark Hall – Albany, NY *
^ – intimate album release show
° with Iguana Death Cult
* with Population II
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