Any band that names themselves after a Blood Brothers’ song understands the power of noisy music. USA Nails take the blend post-punk and post-hardcore that was native to early 2000’s Seattle scene and put their own spin on it, creating something that’s biting and distinct. It would easily appeal to fans of The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs or Future Of The Left or even The St Pierre Snake Invasion. So it’s impressive that this, their sixth album, feels so fresh and vital.

Opener ‘Cathartic Entertainment’ is a statement of intent; This is not going to be an easy ride. It’s a gloriously noisy swirling, hornet’s nest of guitars held in shape by a stomping bassline and thump of a drum. Even as it gradually dissolves into spacey noises and feedback there’s a defined structure, a trait it shares with the album as a whole. All the songs strain in different directions, all of them feel carefully thought out, and this applies whether the guitars sound as graceful as a snake skimming across the desert, or like a nasty accident in a machine shop. It’s an approach you could describe as organised chaos. This allows ‘I Love It When You Succeed’ to function like a jigsaw as different sounds fly from different angles with an underlying rhythm holding it in a stark pattern. Similarly, there’s a fantastic stereo effect used on ‘Beautiful Eyes!’ where the left and right channel guitar ping-pong between two riffs; neither guitarist playing the full song, nor working without its partner. It’s both creative and immersive, particularly through headphones, leaving the listener in the centre of a kind of guitar-based argument, a sound that makes their earlier work, particularly 2020‘s ‘Character Stop’, seem almost polite by comparison.

Strikingly, numerous songs experiment and create unusual soundscapes. For example the title track seems to be anchored by an intense drum part and repeating guitar line until even they can’t prevent the song from being washed away in a swirling entropy of white noise. Similarly, ‘Holiday Sea’ is built around an itchy hi-hat beat but allows itself to become a tapestry of uncomfortable sounds. In fact, you can almost split the album into three distinct styles. One aggressively noisy post-hardcore, one relatively straightforward post-punk and the third a more experimental hybrid.  All three work, two are incredibly impressive. However, it’s the way they fit together that is important, striking a delicate balance between boisterous and immersive that is both assured and to the point. Listen to the songs out of order and you realise how important the album’s structure is. And, as the whole thing clocks in at 27 minutes it gives you enough to chew on without outstaying its welcome.

Lyrically Steve Hodson and Gareth Thomas concoct a fascinating study of modern culture, approaching each song differently but with defined underlying themes, mostly obviously the fragmentation of entertainment. ‘An Audience of Love’ actively engages with the idea of discomfort of others as a form of leisure and provides the keystone for understanding the album as a whole. Indeed, it’s fascinating how the lyrical tone varies depending on the context, and how their spoken or yelled words are woven through the rising and falling music. Indeed, the image of cluttered, old-fashioned launderette used on the album cover, finds colours in mundanity and nicely illustrates the record’s themes.

Ironically the album is at its weakest when it’s at its most accessible. With its jaunty riffs and straightforward post-punk stylings ‘The Sun In The Sands’ is a little underwhelming and the more obvious and restrained songs ‘Networking Opportunity and ‘On Computer Screen’ feel a little lightweight. However, they’re carefully slotted into the runtime in a way that enhances both their strengths and the album’s esoteric genius.

USA Nails have made an uncomfortable and human work of art. The beautiful tension in the title ‘Feel Worse’ is the record in miniature. Simply, it demands your attention.

IAN KENWORTHY

It will be released along with the b-side ‘The Engine’ on casette on the 9th February via Holy Roar Records. It will provide a taste for their upcoming yet to be titled debut album due for release this summer. Until then you can check out the video for ‘Protrusion’ from their split with Brunch from last year on Sonic Anhedonic.

The band will also be playing the following shows.

FEBRUARY
20 LONDON Brixton Windmill w/ Giver, Up River + Group of Man
MARCH
15 BETHNAL GREEN Sebright Arms*
16 BRIGHTON Green Door Store*
17 BRISTOL Hy-Brasil* w/ USA Nails + Bo Gritz

* w/ Pet Crow

This year the Manchester festival will be an all-dayer featuring band playing at The Castle, Aatma and Gullivers on Saturday 21st October. The bands set to play are as follows: Screen Wives, Human Leather, Kiran Leonard, Wenonoah, USA Nails, Ganglions, Peaks, Hazel Iris, Bearfoot Beware, The Jungfraus, South Island Son, Famous Hell, mi mye, Caitlin Gilligan, Captives On the Carousel, Piles of Clothes, Tekla, Chrissy Barnacle, The Last Dinosaur, Meursault, Living Body, Brunch, Winter Sports, King Hannah, Hora Douse, Hot Shorts, Paloma Cafe, Ten Sticks, Grotbags, Veí, Mayshe Mayshe, KITS, Cynthia’s Periscope, Hunzu Moonshine, and Byfyn.

Tickets are available for two options: a cheap cost at £10 and the standard option at £13. They can be purchased here.

Entitled ‘The Bees Knees’, not only does feature previously released tracks, it also features exclusives from Jamie Lenman, BRITNEY, Chiyoda Ku, Falls, RoBoTaLiEn, AlgernonCornelius, Tiger Moth, Atotaso, Down I Go, Body Hound, Trojan Horse, Lomea, Claw The Thin Ice, Panta Rhei, Human Pyramids, Pommes, Delta Sleep, False Advertising, Salt the Snail Kevin Devine, Mutiny On The Bounty, Bear Makes Ninja, Piles of Clothes and Astral Bodies.

The release was compiled by Dan’s fellow GUG bandmate Ben Forrester who explains:

“Dan Wild-Beesley is an extremely talented and well loved musician who you may know as one half of turbo-prog heroes Cleft and more recently of a third of noise rock nutters GUG.

Dan is currently battling two brain tumors. We need to raise £50,000 so he can seek treatment that isn’t available on the NHS and has an 80% success rate of getting cancer patients into remission. This album has been created to help reach his target.

This compilation features a bunch of bands and artists that been
inspired by Dan’s musical talents. It has some previously unreleased stuff, some super exclusive stuff, some pretty rare stuff as well a few bangers from current releases.”

The compilation is digitally available for £10 via bandcamp. The tracklisting for the release is as follows:

1.Axes – Pack Your Bags, Grab Your Balls and Get Ready for the Hurricane
2.Cleft – Gulch (Bear Make Ninja’s Midi Mix Up)
3.BRITNEY – MAGGOT MUSUME
4.Falls – Tongue
5.Real Terms – Lake Trasimene
6.Chiyoda Ku – Distracted From Distraction By Distraction
7.Death and the Penguin – No Blood, No Sport
8.AlgernonCornelius – Brothers
9.Vennart – Operate
10.RoBoTaLiEn – Questioning
11.USA Nails – University Home
12.Tiger Moth – Carl Sagan Megadrive
13.Atotaso – Double Deaf (Live)
14.Employed To Serve – I Spend My Days (Wishing Them Away)
15.Down I Go – Ganymede (Demo)
16.Vasa – Open
17.Trojan Horse – The Spaghetti Leg Man
18.Cleft – Hostage (Lomea remix)
19.Panta Rhei – Oxygen Therapy
20.Claw The Thin Ice – Ribcage
21.Human Pyramids – Big Data
22.Piles Of Clothes – Piles Of Clothes (Live @ Small Pond)
23.Verse Metrics – This Is Your Captain Speaking
24.Pommes – Tiny Hands
25.Jamie Lenman – Money Changes Everything
26.False Advertising – Has It Got Old Yet
27.The Hyena Kill – Crosses
28.Salt The Snail – Deadenders
29.Bad Grammar – Sandra
30.Alpha Male Tea Party – Carpet Diem
31 Wot Gorilla – Watch Out For The Tentacles!
32.Mums – In A Museum
33.Crashtactics – FDP
34.She The Throne – Sometimes My Arms Bend Back
35.Astral Bodies – Equinox Jesus Christ 2000
36.DROUGHTS – Welcome Back
37.Cassels – Coup
38.Bearfoot Beware – Thick Black Warpaint
39.Cowtown – Not Sure
40.Tricot – Melon Soda
41.Delta Sleep – Maconiklaus Culkinski
42.Kevin Devine – Me and My Friends
43.Playacting – At Some Point
44.Sweet Deals On Surgery – Desk From The Waist Down
45.Bearded Youth Quest – Sports Bread
46.Mutiny On The Bounty – Bleak Future
47.Space Blood – Techno Shamanism
48.&U&I – The Wooden Box
49.Classically Handsome Brutes – Baron Von Sharon
50. Body Hound – Rice Crispian Bale (Demo)
51. Pijn – Blush Unseen
52. Peaks – Dear George, Dear William (Bonus Track)

The London noise/post metallers will be releasing a split EP with Slabdragger, entitled ‘Mothers of the Beef and the Magic of Invention’, on the 27th October via Holy Roar Records, with pre-orders available here. The release sees the band cover Captain Beefheart’s ‘Electricity’, whilst Slabdragger take on Frank Zappa’s ‘Muffin Man’. It follows their debut album ‘Auburn Rule’, which was released in July.

Meanwhile, New York noise rockers Unsane will be releasing their eighth album, ‘Sterilize’, on the 29th September via Southern Lord Records. As for USA Nails will be releasing a split EP with Tongue Party later this month via Learning Curve Records. It follows their latest album ‘Shame Spiral’, which was released in June on Hominid Sounds (UK) and Bigoût Records (FR).

It is taken from their forthcoming eighth album, ‘Sterilize’, which will be released on the 29th September via Southern Lord Records.

The band will also be playing an exclusive UK show at The Dome in London with USA Nails on the 16th October. The date is a part of a wider European tour in October and early November.

photo: Dan Joewright

This will be released on the 11th September via Learning Curve Records. This will follow USA Nails’ latest album ‘Shame Spiral’, which was released last month on Hominid Sounds (UK) and Bigoût Records (FR) and their Minnesota compadres 2016 EP, ‘Drugs, Probably’, on Forbidden World Records.

USA Nails also have one upcoming show at The Black Heart in London on the 28th July with Blacklisters and Slags.

The noise punks will be releasing the album on the 16th June via Hominid Sounds (UK) and Bigoût Records (FR).

They will also be playing a headline show on the day of the records release at the Moth Club in London with Slags and Snob.

photo: Eddie Halliday

The video pays an old school homage of sorts to DVDs, whilst the song itself deals with procrastinative issues whilst studying higher education. It is featured on their upcoming new album, ‘Shame Spiral, which will be released on the 16th June via Hominid Sounds (UK) and Bigoût Records (FR).

As well as this, the band will also be releasing a six track 7″ EP this spring on Iguana Records and will be playing the following UK shows.

APRIL
22 LIVERPOOL Wrong Festival
29 SOUTHSEA Porstmouth Psych Fest, Wedgerooms
JUNE
16 LONDON Moth Club

photo: James Perou

Hosted by Moosefest, the show will feature USA Nails, Thee MVPs, Dead Arms, and Grief Tourist. It will take place on February 24th at The Black Heart in Camden.

Tickets for the show are just £5 and are available now.