Brooklyn-based indie outfit Razor Braids — Hollye Bynum (lead vocals, bass), Janie Peacock (lead guitar), Jilly Karande (vocal, rhythm guitar) — had a breakthrough 2023: Their full-length debut, I Could Cry Right Now If You Wanted To was released to critical praise from the likes of BrooklynVegan, Paper, Vanyaland, Creem Magazine and others. Adding to a big year, the band opened for The National, Foo Fighters, and Worriers, and they made the rounds of the festival circuit, playing sets at that year’s SXSW and Boston Calling.
The band’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Big Wave is slated for a June 2024 release. The album reportedly sees the band furthering their dedication to tightly layered vocals and emotionally reflective lyrics. Big Wave‘s third and latest single “Berate Me” features a dreamy and contemplative introduction, quickly followed by a prototypical grunge song structure held together by the crunch power chords and the big hooks that bring back memories of 120 Minutes MTV-era alt rock, like Live Though This-era Hole, Veruca Salt and others. The song conveys the woozy unease of starting a new relationship — with the all the prerequisite fears and uncertainties that we all have throughout our lives: Will this end like the other times? Will this be better? Will it be worse? What if it was always me? What if I just choose wrong? And so on in that sickening and all too familiar cycle of doubt. But it also captures a narrator, who has done some work on themselves and acknowledges they deserve and need better than what they’ve had in the past.
“’Berate Me’ is about entering a new romantic relationship with someone and the anxiety and baggage you bring along with you,” Razor Braids’ Bynum explains. “The healing done from past experiences has led you to the realization that you should be treated better than you’ve been. You recognize the patterns not only with past partners, but also within yourself. What is my role in this? What unhealthy behaviors am I exhibiting? It sometimes sucks to be self-aware. There’s this sense of playing it cool and really badass in a new relationship when in fact you’re like shitting your pants. You don’t want to show all your skeletons in the closet.”
Directed, produced, choreographed and edited by Hollye Bynum, the accompanying video for “Berate Me” shows the band’s members dressed in red and in a front of a red background struggling against themselves and forces that would deny them the hard-earned wisdom and peace they’ve fought for.