by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
RONG are your mutant freak punk dreams come true. The Boston band have been kicking around for a year or so now, having released a fantastic split with Landowner last summer via Midnight Werewolf, and now the band are ready to unleash (and i do mean “unleash”) their triumphantly rampant full length debut, Wormhat, on July 2nd. Whether the world decided to acknowledge it or not, this one is the true gem of the summer. The first time I heard the record, it pretty much knocked my damn socks off, and brought a giant grin to my face, part in disbelief, part in unbridled joy. Their sound is a mix of art-punk, noise rock, post-hardcore, whatever… it’s music that wrestles between brilliance and mangled sonic freedom. They often sound off the rails and writhing their way into full on collapse, toeing the line between reckless and complete control, and it’s gotdamn amazing.
While the band are already sharing “Shrugging at the Death of Discourse” and “༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽” on their Bandcamp page, we’re excited to premiere the awesome new video for “Milton Friedman’s Big Dumb Dream,” a caustic song that opens frazzled and wonky and only tilts further from its axis from there. Originally featured on the band’s split, the song has been re-recorded for their record, but retains the same sense of obliterating mayhem. The guitars skitter one way as the bass line jaggedly pushes in the other direction together with a frantic drum pattern that moves from tight intricate rhythms into massive pounding fills. It’s all kinda mind blowing, and it’s knowingly relentless as the fury never ceases, just winding further into madness as it goes, the intensity and tension winding ever tighter, more claustrophobic with every contusion and tangled progression. Olivia’s vocals are both melodic and agitated, ranging from an emphatic shout to something more rapid and insistent, starting off at a relative calm (or as close to it as they get) and spiraling into a frenzy of yelps, trills, and fast paced explosions of chaotic shouts.
The video, directed by Renee Coppola, is an incredible mix of animation, stop-motion film work, and collage textures, a vibrant and reach visual to coincide with the song’s wild and jagged nature. It’s both weird and stunning, which is to say it’s perfect for RONG.