For nearly a decade, D.C. art punk veterans BRNDA have dominated the capital city’s storied rock and roll underground. Their latest single, “Perfect World,” is a throbbing, slice of motorik post-punk that simultaneously evokes artists like Crack Cloud, Palberta, and B Boys. As a dancey drum groove lays the framework for fuzzed-out basses and simplistic, hypnotizing guitar parts, subdued vocals shift between lackadaisical droning and soaring melodicism. Saxophones dart in and out of the background as BRNDA manage to marry quirk and danceability. While “Perfect World” would tear down the walls at a sweaty DIY show, it also wouldn’t sound out of place if dropped in a sophisticated DJ set.
Explaining the track, the band says, “The song started from frustration over a band member temporarily leaving the band to pursue a job, but I’m obsessed with TV so it came out as a game show where you bid on an imagined potential future. If BRNDA weren’t wedded to maintaining a two-minute-ten-second song length average, then I’d want this song to be ten verses long, so I could describe all the various personas I’ve seen people choose to don.”
“Perfect World” hits streaming services tomorrow, but you can stream the track a day early at the link below, and pre-order the band’s upcoming album, Do You Like Salt? (out August 20 on Crafted Sounds), here. For those in the DC area, catch BRNDA’s release show with Tosser and Church Girls at Comet Ping Pong on September 11.
