"Mars" - The Down & Outs

Here's a type of music I will never tire of: dark 'n' sexy rock and roll. I don't care where it comes from. I don't care what the song is about. If it sounds like it could soundtrack a gritty erotic thriller or echo through a cinematic nightclub with a lot of mysterious tunnels and caverns, I'm all in. So when The Down & Outs sent me their latest single "Mars," and I pressed play and heard some dark 'n' sexy rock and roll, well...it was a very exciting time for me.

The Down & Outs are a Noo Yawk band who have been releasing dance-punk music since 2019, and last put out new tunes in 2021. Between "Mars" and other recent single "Cntrl Group," it sounds like their new stuff is all about cranking up the tempos, embracing the 'dance' part of dance-punk a little more, densifying the fog machine, getting darker and more dramatic...

"Maybe we can go and cross that line / Maybe we can see the stars go blind / Maybe we can go to Mars sometime," singer/bassist Ray Young snarls through a mouthful of distortion, over a tense arrangement of frenetic percussion and nuclear meltdown guitar. The lyrics evoke apocalyptic preparations in the mode of Japanese Breakfast's "Savage Good Boy" — we're all gonna die...ahaha....just kidding...unless?? — but instead of faux-sweetness, it has a sinister edge, displayed with pride. I dig it!

Check out The Down & Outs' Linktree for all their wonderful links.

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