by Mark Wadley (@markplasma)
Now that absurd lead times for vinyl manufacturing have driven a new nail into the 7-inch single’s coffin, the move to maxi-single cassette makes all the sense in the world—especially considering Tropical Fuck Storm’s tendency toward longer songs. While “Moonburn” and the B-side “Aspirin - Slight Return” would make for a stellar 7-inch, two additional cover songs really make this cassette an essential listen. Clocking in around fifteen minutes, Moonburn still captures the expansive vibes of TFS albums like Braindrops and Deep States—records for a long drive down a lysergic highway, windows down and stars out, hurtling toward that dark place between youth and middle age—yearning and weary but unwilling to go down without a fight.
Side A begins with “Moonburn,” a ballad right out of the Braindrops playbook—vibratoed guitars phasing in and out with the sprechgesang vocal melody, slowly building into bursts of layered chaos. Frontman Gareth Liddiard’s lyrics evoke the feeling of being the warm home for someone who can’t bear to stay in—“out late dying to be everything”—of knowing you need to return their keys and get out, but maybe can’t. It’s a raw-edged ode to growing up and away from the people you loved but can’t leave, and a surprisingly apt pairing with the next track: a cover of the Stooges’ “Ann,” an early slab of proto-sludge about getting completely lost in someone who might not have your best interests at heart. While the original song feels uncharacteristically plodding for the Stooges, it fits TFS like a glove. This version turns up the tempo and groove, its minimalist drums and bass grounding woozy guitar lines and Fiona Kitschin’s beautiful vocals. Rather than attempting to replicate Ron Asheton’s guitar solo over the pounding coda, TFS draws on the expanded sonic palette of Deep States to assemble a turbulent collage of feedback, sirens, and electronic noise. It’s a stellar take on the song, and one of the best Stooges covers, period.
If side A is the slow build into a bad trip, side B is the melancholic comedown. With “Aspirin - Slight Return”—a reworking of a standout Braindrops track—TFS foreground writerly lyrics about ever-present grief over a lush bed of acoustic guitars, pedal steel, reverbed-out vocals, and field recordings. “Aspirin” is a fan favorite for a reason, and this new version recontextualizes it into something more plaintive, resigned, and highly affecting. While TFS previously released the following cover of the Talking Heads classic, “Heaven”—as a B-side to their 2020 single “Legal Ghost”—it works beautifully here, full of echoing drums, washes of guitar, and keening pedal steel. Stripped of David Byrne’s archness, all three of TFS’s vocalists deliver a powerful, ragged account of the mundanity of perfection that dissolves into sorrowful ambience.
On Moonburn, Tropical Fuck Storm drag punk across the desert and leave it there to ruminate and blossom. TFS’s harsh exterior doesn’t hide a tender heart, but embraces it. Broken in such a considered way, with as much thought toward chaotic skronk as lyrical craft—this is sad music for wild people.