“Sleazy, primitive, uncomfortable and just as good as your friends told you it’d be.” No, we’re not talking about recreational pastimes but underground rock band Carsex, who hail from Long Beach, California over in the US of A.
The punk band is back with a ferocious new track ‘Sitting Ducks’. It’s the follow-up to ‘Crooked Canvas’, and both were produced by Steve Evetts (Sepultura, Alesana, Poison The Well, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Butcher Babies).
The track is a deep dive into current human-interest stories, and the shape of the human condition in 2024. Q frenetic, all-out barrage of sound with distorted guitars with a menacing rhythm line that explodes into a supersonic metal/punk mashup. It’s been described as “a mix of Henry Rollins/Black Flag, with a bit of Danzig mixed in for good measure”. It’s an unrelenting anthem of angst.
Carsex singer Nigel Burk said “Sitting Ducks’ is a kind of “they live” type song. It covers the helplessness and monotony of a modern world and the meaninglessness that follows what’s viewed “important” by society at large, and the misalignment of priorities in today’s chaotic times.”
Available digitally, check out the video here at RAMzine.
Forged by the survivors of Long Beach music scene bands Damned Age, Black Velvet Brigade, and Red River Massacre, the five music veterans in Carsex have slugged it out in the clubs of Orange County, California for more than ten years. While performing shows in these various groups on the circuit they became friends over time.
As the bands they were in either dissolved or changed direction – they decided to form under a new banner with shared musical tastes and goals, with Carsex getting it on in 2018. Their sound has been described “as a mix of Circle Jerks/Black Flag/The Germs, with Danzig, Fu Manchu and a bit of Queens Of The Stone Age blended into a potent combination”. They play hard and loud with no hint of an apology.
Carsex has previously released 2 EPs: 2019’s CarSex and 2020’s 2020 EP, that featured the singles ‘Your Generation’ and ‘Lovesick’. A new EP is being finalised and will be released later this summer.
Previous single release Crooked Canvas’ is a diatribe about their intense disdain for blind consumerism and uninformed fealty to political parties. It starts out with a spoken word warning that’s underlined by a fierce guitar riff that builds alongside a staccato drum beat and then explodes into a supersonic blast that never lets up.
“’Crooked Canvas’ is about the metaphorical wool being pulled over people’s eyes and the blind, general consumption of what’s being put forth,” said Burk. “Whether it’s politics, religion, what shoes to buy, which pill will make your dick bigger. It’s about consumerism at its finest and my distaste for it.”.
Bassist Jeremy Schott added “The music video was shot by our pals Brad Walther and Jason Lazo at Big Walrus Productions in Long Beach. We worked with them on our last video for ‘Your Generation’. We shot the video on a church set, keeping with the theme of the song being about the public being told how to think and what to consume – and blindly doing so. Steven Burhoe of Plague Productions edited the video.“
Very much a live band – Burk, Schott, Shane Lausch –(Lead guitar), Justin Jolley (Rhythm guitar) and Max Gomez (Drums) – have opened for Stillwell (Fieldy from Korn’s Band), The Obsessed, Mondo Generator, Suicide Silence, Unsane, Dead Poet’s Society, Narcoleptic Youth, and O’Zorn!, among others.
