Out now via Relapse Records, ‘Bad Stuff’ is shaping up to be one of the more genuinely interesting debut records of the year, and Nepenthe does nothing to dampen that excitement. The clip was directed by Drab Majesty‘s Andrew Clinco and edited by Alex Nicolaou, shot over two days in Bad Stuff’s hometown of Dallas using a trio of vintage broadcasting cameras — a Hitachi, a Panasonic, and a Sony — all pulled from Clinco’s personal collection. Everything was done live to tape, in-camera effects and all. The result is exactly as wonderfully unhinged as you’d hope.
Guitar player Dan Phillips breaks down the process: “Each of the cameras have their own unique, and somewhat nasty look to them, which is exactly what we wanted for this video. We also used every in-camera effect we could so that everything was happening live to tape. Andrew had such a command of his cameras and creative ways to use and manipulate them. Alex then chopped everything up and put it all back together into a perfectly chaotic yet somehow naturally flowing string of clips that fit the song exactly right.”
Sonically, Nepenthe kicks off with a propulsive synth and guitar melody that nods to early Siouxsie and the Banshees and Gary Numan before those bendy clean guitar leads — very much out of the Jesus and Mary Chain playbook — take the wheel. It’s a tight little encapsulation of what Bad Stuff seems to be all about: familiar reference points, executed with their own warped personality.
Two Bands, One Pandemic, One Very Good Record
Bad Stuff’s origin story is genuinely cool. The band grew from two separate projects: Latent Print, an instrumental outfit built around Phillips and drummer Nicole Estill (also of True Widow), and Concord Kill, a synth and drum machine project helmed by Phillips’s partner Jackie Dunn Smith. A pre-pandemic residency at a Dallas lounge sparked Latent Print, but COVID shut it down before the songs ever got their real moment. During lockdown, Dunn Smith surfaced her four-track Concord Kill recordings, Phillips added guitar, and the two started stitching everything together.
“So these songs from our two bands are sitting there, one set that I wrote for Latent Print and another set that Jackie wrote on a four-track recorder, and one day we decided that maybe we’d try to put it all together and see if it worked,” Phillips recalls. “And it did. When we were doing the sequence for the record, that ‘switching the dial’ thing became apparent — there’s not just one sound or one style. It really makes the pacing of the record work and sort of showcases each of the songs.”
The full lineup: Dan Phillips (Guitar), Jackie Dunn Smith (Vocals, Synth), Nicole Estill (Vocals, Drums), Gabriel Spatz (Vocals, Maracas), and Laura Hartman Pearl (Bass).
‘Bad Stuff’ track listing
- Sullen
- Gruesome
- Summer Girls
- Invisible Man
- Creator
- Hush 1
- Nepenthe
- Hush 2
- Human Crush
- Work of Art
‘Bad Stuff’ arrives June 5 via Relapse Records on vinyl, CD, and digitally. Order and listen here.
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