They may seem like an odd pairing on paper, but Spiral Heads is comprised of MGMT touring bassist/Modest Mouse touring guitarist Simon Doom (also formerly of Brooklyn freak-folks Amazing Baby—shout out Amazing Baby), Jim Carroll of recently revived cult hardcore-punk outfit American Nightmare, and Q of sludge metal greats Doomriders (I guess there’s at least a mutual interest in doom there). The unlikely collaborative project, of course, sounds like none of those bands. Instead, their new LP ’Til I’m Dead finds them teetering between Marked Men–esque melodic punk and breezy power pop—with early single “NY Sorrow” even leaning into the same heartland-rock openness that seems to be in vogue at the moment.
“‘NY Sorrow’ is based on two of my favorite songs: ‘SF Sorrow’ by the Pretty Things (in name alone) and ‘New Age’ by Blitz,” Doom shares. “But instead of being about whatever those songs are about, it’s about watching the New York transplants quickly and steadily disappear from my neighborhood during the first few months of the pandemic. Those who were left, in many cases, had no other option but to stay—nowhere to escape to. I was in that category. That sucked.”
While the track’s been out for a while, the band is celebrating the album’s release today with a video for the single which exaggerates (if only a bit) NYC’s housing market, with Doom immediately being greeted in the city by a dot-Musk rental site domain name, crunchy realtors demanding an unreasonable number of checks up front, and a $700 Uber ride to what turns out to be a decrepit barn outside the city limits. Yeah, not far off from the reality of apartment hunting.
Check out the video below, and stream the full album here.
