PREMIERE: Kal Marks Announce New EP with “Heads Been Ringing”

Their “love song to tinnitus” introduces the Boston grunge outfit’s latest release, “Let the Shit House Burn Down.”
PREMIERE: Kal Marks Announce New EP with “Heads Been Ringing”

Their “love song to tinnitus” introduces the Boston grunge outfit’s latest release, “Let the Shit House Burn Down.”

Words: Mike LeSuer

photo by Omari Spears

August 07, 2019

Kal Marks are probably what Pixies would have sounded like in their heyday, had they missed their shot at commercial success and instead slogged through the anxieties and poverty of reducing their passion to a mere moonlighting gig. Infused with a little more than a passing interest in pivoting to metal, the Boston trio have been honing their craft over the course of a decade, with last year’s Universal Care perfecting the balance between the specific vein of post-hardcore modeled by their Exploding in Sound labelmates and all-out apocalyptic noise rock.

Let the Shit House Burn Down is the name of the band’s forthcoming EP, which appears to take this dualistic approach even further. Out-Piling Pile themselves, first single “Heads Been Ringing” is among the most bipolar cuts the band’s released to date, pivoting from doomy guitars and an uncharacteristically clean vocal performance from Carl Shane to doomsday instrumental swells battling Shane’s familiar yawp.

“‘Heads Been Ringing’ is a love song to tinnitus and all the repercussions of my own choices,” Shane admits, clarifying the oscillating nature of much of the band’s catalog. “It sounds super cliché, but being a musician is both a blessing and a curse. Music has gifted me with a sense of purpose, but it’s not always pretty. There’s a lot of aches and pains involved. Heartbreak, loneliness, back pains, headaches, poverty… it’s all there. I don’t want to sound ungrateful—in a lot of ways I’m quite lucky. It would be nice to not be so dirt poor, but that’s on me.”

Let the Shit House Burn Down is out September 27 on Exploding in Sound. You can pre-order it here.