It seems like for most people, our twenties are spent possessed by this idea that as things continue to derail from the futures we foresaw for ourselves out of high school or college, at least the reset button is always available—assuming we have the funds for a one-way ticket to somewhere far removed from where we’re currently bumbling through life. Yet Witch Coast, seasoned vets of the punk underground (and life in general) know that no matter where you go, in the immortal words of Buckaroo Banzai, there you are.
“I think with this idea, a lot of people (myself included) fantasize that moving to a new place and starting over will fix a lot of their problems—something perfect and exciting that’s right around the corner if you can just pack it up and hit the damn road,” shares the band’s vocalist Jon Weiss, introducing the lo-fi trio’s first new track released since their 2017 EP Devil Vision. “With ‘Tucson,’ we learn this idea is a fallacy. Nothing is simple. But hey, fuck it, maybe we’ll all just move to Tucson and find out the truth.”
Appropriately, the prolonged absence the band saw was the direct result of the three-piece refusing to pack up and relocate to a new aesthetic informed by cleaner recording equipment after their tape machine went MIA. “With the return of the TASCAM 388 to its proper home, my basement, we were finally able to record again with some of the songs we’ve been kicking around since 2019,” Weiss adds. “We’ve tried recording since, but recording Witch Coast on a computer just never felt or sounded right. The recordings needed to feel alive and delicate and warm, and recording on an analog machine really captures that. We’re happy with how raw and real ‘Tucson’ turned out.”
Check out the endearingly scuzzy track below, which feels perfectly in line with Witch Coast’s prior discography.
