Bouncing basslines hop up and down while icy feedback slices through a pounding programmed drum beat, there’s a catchy melody…and it’s done. The Lice have found a beautiful formula by crafting short post-punk & coldwave-inspired songs. Each track takes you to a cavernous realm, gets you hooked, then ends. It’s just wonderful.
Matthew Gray started The Lice in 2018, recording these “short weird noisy ghostly” songs, performing live with Gio Chumpitazi & Josh Lopez, and completing the first Lice full-length (‘Hoarder House UFO’) at the beginning of this year. The mini-album ‘Punk Is Bed’ is recorded entirely by Gray with drum machine loops, warbling bass parts and EBow assisted guitar feedback melodies. “There are songs about staying inside, going outside to riot, not being able to sleep, taking pills to sleep and staying in bed all day. Daymare Town is a one minute burst of anxious dread given a pop melody. Stagefright is a song about not playing shows giving a wistful melody and a rickety drum beat.” Prior to The Lice, Gray ran the tape label Juniper Tree Sounds and performed as Shivering Window, BYODeath, and a few “semi-secret projects haunting the far corners of Bandcamp”.
‘Punk Is Bed’ track list
Side A
- Lo-Res
- Near Dark
- Ferro
- Stop Motion
- Stagefright
Side B
- Aloofness
- Repulsion
- Daymare Town
- Sloth
- Blank Tape on the Radio
All proceeds from the digital and cassette release of this album will go to Inland Empire Harm Reduction, “a community-based public health organization working to improve the health and well-being of people affected by drug use in the Inland Empire region of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.” For more information, visit www.ieharmreduction.org.
Watch the video for Daymare Town via YouTube below.
