Carsex flatten you like roadkill with their new EP Human Interest — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Fuelled by a high-octane cocktail of metal, indie-rock and first-wave California punk, the Long Beach quintet gun it coming off the line and don’t look back on this fierce and ferocious seven-track offering. But if their name makes you think you’re in for a cheap, sleazy affair, think again: In keeping with the EP’s title, these songs tackle weighty, timely topics from school shootings and addiction to the perils of consumerism and our misinformation age. Of course, sometimes the only response to all that is a hearty, high-volume “fuck this” — and Human Interest delivers that too.
Focus track Landmine is a heavy, chugging anthem that’s forges ahead like a sonic M1 Abrams Tank. Frontman Nigel Burk says “Landmine is a followup to our song Your Lesson, which delved into succumbing to various forms of temptation and how we’re taught to fear divine retribution if we fall prey to these desires. Landmine takes it a step further — it’s akin to a bad acid trip where everything is distorted… You come to the realization that there is no absolution and you’re going to burn anyway. It’s like walking through a field of landmines — you’re going to blow up, no matter what you do.”
Meanshile, the opening cut Sitting Ducks offers a masterclass in malevolence, momentum and mayhem, as the explosive and punishing new salvo blends furious guitar abuse, shape-shifting rhythms and lung-blistering vocals. The resulting concoction is an apocalyptic metal-punk Molotov cocktail of equal parts Black Flag and Danzig. Says Burke: “Sitting Ducks is a kind of They Live-type song. The song speaks to the helplessness and monotony of a modern world, and the meaninglessness that comes from what’s viewed as important by society.”
On the EP’s first single Crooked Canvas, Carsex paint a blood-red portrait of a sick society, swinging like a jacked-up heavyweight and slamming you right between the eyes with a supercharged, stiletto-pointed diatribe against blind consumerism and uninformed fealty to political parties and religion. It starts out with a spoken-word warning, underlined by a clanging guitar riff that builds alongside a rolling snare — before exploding into a supersonic blast that propels Burk’s uncompromising, full-throated takedown of a world built upon lies and greed. And whatever is being sold to the rest of the sheeple, he isn’t buying it. “This song is mostly about the metaphorical wool being pulled over people’s eyes and the blind, general consumption of it,” he says. “Whether it’s politics, religion, what shoes to buy, which pill will make your dick bigger. It’s about consumerism at its finest and my distaste for it.”
Along with Burk, Carsex includes guitarists Shane Lausch and Justin Jolley, bassist Jerey Schott and drummer Adam Jackson. Human Interest was produced by Steve Evetts (Sepultura, Dillinger Escape Plan, Butcher Babies) at Maple Studios in Santa Ana, and mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music in New Windsor, N.Y.
Forged by the survivors of Orange County bands like Damned Age, Black Velvet Brigade and Red River Massacre, Carsex formed in 2018. Their sound combines the vintage L.A. punk attack of Circle Jerks, Black Flag and Germs with echoes of Fu Manchu and Queens Of The Stone Age, resulting in a potent, destructive concoction. They play hard and loud with no hint of an apology.
They have released two EPs: 2019’s CarSex and 2020’s 2020 EP, which featured the singles Your Generation and Lovesick. But at heart, Carsex are very much a live band. They’ve opened for Stillwell, The Obsessed, Mondo Generator, Suicide Silence, Unsane, Dead Poet’s Society, Narcoleptic Youth and O’Zorn!, among others.
Check out Human Interest below, watch the video for Crooked Canvas above, and ride along with Carsex on their website, Facebook and Instagram.
