Currently comprised of Julia Kugel (vocals and guitar), Meredith Franco (bass), and Stephanie Luke (drums), the Atlanta, GA-based trio and JOVM mainstay The Coathangers have released five full-length albums in their decade plus time together, with each album finding the band refining their sound and songwriting approach, frequently balancing a brash, raw and seemingly spontaneous simplicity and urgency with razor sharp wit and biting irony. Interestingly, with the band’s last two full-length efforts 2014’s Suck My Shirt and last year’s Nosebleed Weekend, the trio’s material was arguably at its most direct and forceful of their entire catalog, which helped to retain the feral and rowdy urgency that they’ve become so known for; but they managed to pair that energy with rousingly anthemic hooks and a pop-leaning sensibility — or in other words, the material may have been some of the more radio friendly songs they’ve released to date.
Parasite, the band’s latest EP is slated for a June 30, 2017 release through Suicide Squeeze Records and the album’s material has the Atlanta-based trio balancing the unbridled and furious expressionism of their debut and the increasingly nuanced, pop-leaning sensibility of their last two albums. As the band’s Julia Kugel explains in press notes “During the making of our last album, I didn’t want to scream anymore, I just wanted to sing and focus on melody. When we came to this recording, I just wanted to scream and curse.” And in some way, it shouldn’t be surprising that the EP’s material is partially inspired by events within the bandmembers’ personal lives, the current political climate, rife with kleptocracy, hypocrisy, blatant sexism, racism and gratuitous cruelty and the band’s own existence and development as artists and songwriters.
“Captain’s Dead,” the first single off the EP manages to sound as though it could have been a B-side to the singles off Nosebleed Weekend while drawing from 90s grunge rock as the song structurally consists of alternating quiet and loud, anthemic hooks, and a surfer rock-inspired bridge, a propulsive rhythm section and a sneering punk rock air. And much like the band’s previously released material, the new single possesses an underlying mischievous feel underneath the scuzzy, give no fucks swagger.
Directed by Matt Odorn, the recently released video for “Captain’s Dead” features zombies, pirates, a merman, cheerleaders, a shit-ton of beer guzzling, some raucous performing within a milieu that’s mischievous, murderous and campy as hell.