I’m gonna be frank with y’all — I’m not even entirely sure that I’ll ever know what constitutes midwestern emo. Is it jangly guitars and vocalists that trip over a carefully crafted marriage of melody and metaphor? Is it the ability to create an atmosphere that’s all-encompassing that you can’t help but get lost in it? Maybe. Maybe it’s just more of a feeling than any one or two characteristics? I don’t know.
The quantifiers always seem to change. One thing that I can say for certain is that the Midwest will seemingly always be the breeding ground for the next big “waves” of indie-rock. The literal midwest has always been sort of a hotbed for whatever truly makes the genre so incredible. The mitten gave us voracious and raucous Hot Mulligan, Minnesota gave us the precisely mathematic and melodic Tiny Moving Parts, and Wisconsin has given us the sporadic and sprawling genius of Barely Civil.
Their debut album, We Can Live Here Forever, will be released on March 2nd on (the label that you should need to be paying attention to) Take This To Heart Records. The record is full of delicately woven and expertly crafted indie-rock that harks back to the mid-aughts without feeling like a nostalgia-grab– the songs are warm and effervescent, each of them breathing a seemingly new life into a genre that, in 2018, feels like its going to fizzle out more often than not. Today, I’m excited to share a new song called “Me With A Cape, You With A Baseball Bat” with y’all!
The track starts off with the most jangly and unforgiving riff — throwing you into the full of things at breakneck speed with no intention of slowing down. The song’s lyrical nature talks about constantly striving for self-improvement and builds upon the line “I tried to fix myself/I’m starting to feel brand new” and the kind of riff that works its way through your spine and makes it feel impossible to not move.
You can stream “Me With A Cape, You With A Baseball Bat” below.
We Can Live Here Forever is out March 2nd. Snag your copy here. The band heads out on tour with Bristletongue in March. Tour dates can be found below.
