by Shea Roney (@uglyhug_records)
As a placeholder, “what’s the use?” is a phrase tossed around so casually, leading with blind pessimism and candor. Considering where we are headed, with a looming climate disaster, capital collapse, political obscurity and fatigue from social unrest; it can be the last use of self preservation. Titled with that same question, St. Louis indie-rockers, Shady Bug, fronted by vocalist/guitarist Hannah Rainey (Dubb Nubb, Hennen), Ripple (guitar), Chris Chartrand (bass) and Jack Mideke (drums), use their latest EP to interpret that preservation through a lens of both inner and outer anxieties. What’s the Use?, packaged within twenty minutes of bleeding hooks and dissonant indie-rock, lets Shady Bug unwrap a beautiful juxtaposition of self worth while our world comes to an end.
Brash, brazen, and littered with melodically induced extremities, What’s the Use? kicks off with “zero expectations,” stirring up Rainey’s frustration with the status quo. “Yeah we’ll have more disasters/but just drink more water, wear more sunscreen,” she says, casually echoing the blatant responses that refuse to find other viable and systemic solutions. Yet, for as much as the album focuses on exterior contentions, What’s the Use? is a chance for Rainey to recognize her own status quo, pushing through old relationships, brooding self doubt and harmful practices in need of change. “Favor,” a track enthusiastic with delicate melodies and fidgety indie-rock, entangles Rainey in a cycle of harmful people pleasing. Over lush synth work and Ripple’s sticky guitar, Rainey’s vocals echo in the distance, “always, I’ll wait/I’ll wait, always,” almost as if not wanting to be heard, therefore, making it untrue.
With choice words that are generous and charming, Rainey’s lyrics bloom through conflicting spaces and personal anecdotes. On standout track “frog baby” she sings, “pick a scab and flick it to the floor/Is it still your dust that lies in the cracks of the floorboards”. Existential? A bit, but not without poking fun at it through a perverse and simply irresistible habit first. Whether a pushy boyfriend’s popsicle stick legs, a discredited little frog, a beautiful, disheveled silk bed or “goody goody two shoes/too good for you/wearing denim and blue,” there is a pleasant appeal to Rainey’s burning words, used as casual clarifications to lighten the load.
With acute imagery and a critical need for change, the closing track “lizard” culminates Shady Bug’s strengths through satisfying structure and spirited integrity. Faced with ending a relationship to better herself, Rainey utilizes the comparison to a matured lizard shedding its skin. This shedding becomes a ghost, a shell, a scab; a peculiar development of self that was once whole, but now is consciously left behind. In a standstill, Rainey deliberates her choices, shrugging, “but what’s the use, I’d regret anything I choose and feel used”. Pushing through her lingering pain, societal anxieties, and cutting melodic “oooos”, the two guitars duet and fall out with familiarity, extending each member's integral parts and leaving us with Shady Bug’s largest sense of confidence yet.