For some reason it took us over two decades to realize that the proper avenue for advancing rock music following a couple of particularly exciting alt-rock developments in the ’90s was to simply combine the prominent subgenres grunge and shoegaze. The 2020s have already seen a massive influx of artists exploring this specific terrain, with Brooklyn’s MX Lonely entering the chat last September with their more ’gaze-leaning LP Cadonia. Next February will see their proper follow-up with the Spit EP set to be released via Candlepin Records, its early singles hinting at a more pronounced balance of grunge riffs and shoegaze atmosphere.
The second track from the release arrives today in the form of the nightmare-anthemic “Papercuts,” whose Cloakroom-esque dirge-y guitar riffs fill out an instrumental that more closely resembles the sludgy noise rock of Chat Pile. “‘Papercuts’ is a pretty literal song,” the band shares. “[Vocalist Rae Haas] had a horrible dream that someone close to them had this papercut and it just wouldn’t stop bleeding and there was nothing they could do but kill them to take away the pain. The song structure reflects the structure of the dream. One moment you’re seeing ‘your body from the outside in,’ stabbing your friend to death, and the next you’re speeding out of control down your hometown highways.”
The Nara Avakian–directed visual for the track combines footage of a live session of the track being performed with some of the brutal dream imagery invoked in its lyrics, all of it filmed with a Blair Witch–type camcorder quality. Check it out below.
